A Cornerstone of Macon Community
November 19, 2025
St. Joseph Catholic Church is a well-known Catholic Parish in Macon and has been a part of the city’s Christian landscape for a long time. Its long and rich history, architecture, and visibility in downtown Macon make it a recognizable congregation for many community members. The architecture of this church is remarkable; it is known for its twin spires, marble interior, and stained glass imported straight from Europe. Through its deeply traditional services and worship, sacramental life, and community engagement, St. Joseph’s shows how important it is to maintain tradition—especially in a Modern Southern City that has a lot of evangelical and mainline Protestant influences. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church represents a living expression of Catholicism within Middle Georgia. The community strives to preserve a liturgical form of worship, Catholic theology, and moral teaching, while also adapting to the social changes of the wider world and needs of the Macon community.
The history of St. Joseph’s dates to 1841, when immigrants from Ireland established a small Catholic congregation in Macon. According to Ryan Burge in The American Religious Landscape, Catholicism was a minority faith rising within Georgia but also in the country more broadly during this time. “Recall that just 2% of all religious adherents were Catholics in 1776, but by 1850, that had jumped to just over 12% and continued to rise from that point forward.” (Burge 11). The current church, which was completed in 1903, is an example of French Gothic Revival architecture, with twin spires in the front of the Church and German-imported stained glass throughout the sanctuary. Each member of our group noticed how remarkable and how well-kept the sanctuary was, regardless of the building’s age. The sanctuary also includes marble floors and a beautiful pipe organ that is positioned right above the main entrance. More than merely symbolizing devotion to tradition on their own, these physical elements express the parish’s connection to long-standing Catholic Liturgical traditions.
St. Joseph’s is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah. Because of this it holds a special place within Macon’s religious landscape. This parish has been the community for generations of families, educated countless children in the ways of Catholicism, and engaged in community outreach within the city of Macon and beyond. The congregation today includes members from all different backgrounds and communities, including a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. The congregation also welcomes several students from Mercer University every Sunday.
St. Joseph’s reflects the core beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, with an emphasis on the sacraments, liturgical order, and continuity with the global Catholic Church. During our visits, we noticed that St. Joseph’s Sunday morning Mass is primarily structured around the Scripture, Liturgy, Nicene Creed, and communion through the breaking of bread and wine. St. Joseph’s follows traditional Catholic teachings that affirms the view that salvation is not only based on faith in God, but also on works.
Ethically, the priests of St. Joseph’s prioritize humility, compassion, and moral responsibility toward others. In an interview with Father Robert Phillips, he explained that the weekly sermons and homilies are based on real-life lessons and should be used to keep scripture in everyday life. Most homilies (a religious discourse) are often focused on themes such as patience in suffering, generosity toward the poor, and recognition of basic human needs. These messages follow the values and teachings that the Roman Catholic Church and St. Joseph’s stand for, emphasizing justice, service, and stewardship, while also remaining true to the traditional doctrine. St. Joseph’s is unique as they are passionate about being very traditional in the Catholic Faith and that is very evident in the masses. These roots in traditionalism could be what has continued to promote their very large congregation and their deep roots within the Macon Community. St. Joseph’s places a heavy emphasis on the importance of consistent participation in Mass, sacramental rituals, and parish life. This focus on regular involvement promotes connection within the Parish and helps parishioners feel connected to a longstanding community and to the broader traditions of the Catholic Church.
The physical space of St. Joseph Catholic church is captivating, and it serves as part of the congregation’s outreach to the community. Surrounding the church, there are several small parking lots with multiple access points to the large marble staircase that ascends to the sanctuary doors and contrasts with the red brick exterior of the church. From the stairs, one can see the true height of the building and its two towering steeples affixed with crosses at the top. However, the church is not the only one in the neighborhood. It sits across the street from two Baptist congregations as well as its own collection of buildings, with significant use to St. Joseph’s. This collection of buildings consists of an additional red brick building, a bookstore, and an office for church needs you may ever have. The physical environment also has statues of Mary and beautiful landscapes.
Upon entering the Sanctuary, the marble decor continues from the staircase down the aisles of the church. The sanctuary contains one hundred and forty pews with several marble columns that hold the church up. Murals of stonework line the walls with stories from Jesus as seen below. The pews are wooden with hardwood floors beneath them. The pews have pockets for the hymnals on the backs and little clips for flyers. The pews also have kneeling benches that can flip up and down as needed during the service for prayer. When approaching the front of the church, one can see statues and beautiful scenes and candles. Looking back at the entrance of the church, one can see the large organ on an upper level of the church. It is visually one of the most striking parts of the church. St. Joseph’s has a notable presence in downtown Macon, and its visibility and notability act as a form of outreach by inviting people to enter, attend services, and participate in parish events. Just the architecture alone draws visitors, passersby, and newcomers who are curious about the Catholic community and parish.
St. Joseph’s, however, is not merely a building; it is also a multigenerational community. The church is very diverse with many members of different racial and ethnic identities attending every week. The congregation does not have a very large elderly population; much of the congregation is made up of young adults and young families. There are a lot of children, especially at the eleven o’clock service. This may be connected to the fact that the eleven o’clock service offers children’s lessons and more family-centered participation, which makes it more appealing for young families. The sense of multigenerational life in the church was clear during our visit. Specifically, at the eleven o’clock service, all of our observations from attending services noticed there were a lot of young families sitting together. Many children were participating in the Sunday School that occurs between the first and second service and returned to their parents, before the start of the service. A lot of older adults were seen participating in roles such as ushers or choir members. We also observed teenagers and college aged young adults participating as altar servers. These interactions across different age groups show how the parish brings different generations together in shared worship and community life.
However, because of the very large congregation at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, the multigenerational nature of the congregation can be easily overlooked, unless you are paying close attention. During crowded services, families, young adults, and older members are often spread through the sanctuary, so the mix of age groups only becomes fully visible when watching how different people participate in different parts of the service. Some people may mingle, but it is very hard to truly encapsulate very tight bonds and relations due to the large size of the congregation. However, this also allows for many subgroups, as there is still some intergenerational quality. This is one of the most important parts of the parish because the mix of age groups influences how the parish receives new members. As there are newcomers that attend the Mass or participate in parish activities, they are entering a community where families, young adults, and older parishioners participate alongside one another. These interactions within subgroups help create a shared sense of belonging within the larger community,
Because the parish serves people with many different schedules and responsibilities, St. Joseph’s provides a variety of options for Mass times so that the needs of the community will be met. In addition, hundreds of individuals live completely different or similar lives. This is why having multiple masses is very important as it ensures that these hundreds of individuals can still attend a mass if they want. As time goes on, many Sundays are not as prioritized in the work environment as few individuals are religious. This was mentioned in the interview with the office employee as she had conflict with a lot of the masses time due to daily life. She stated that many families work and have other work responsibilities. These responsibilities could even be to the congregation themselves as many of the people work all week and like to sleep a little later on Sunday. St. Joseph’s works very hard to ensure that individuals can make a mass.
St. Joseph’s has daily masses that occur at eight in the morning on Monday through Friday then another at nine in the morning on Saturday. There is also Saturday Vigil Mass at 4:30 in the afternoon. In addition to masses every Sunday at 8:30, and 11:00 in the morning then another mass at 5:00 in the afternoon. There are also several prayer groups available to the congregation. The Seven-Sister Apostolate, Salt and Light Prayer Group, Miraculous Medal Novena and a Rosary prayer group. They additionally have faith and fellowship which is weekly Wednesdays. St. Joseph truly is involved with their community as they try to make multiple prayer groups available for all the needs of the individuals within the congregation.
The Catholic church has a unique leadership structure unlike any other branch of Protestant Christianity. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church is the Pope; the current Pope is Pope Leo the XIV he is the first American Pope. More specifically St. Joseph’s is part of the “Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah” their bishop is named Stephen Parks. The head of St. Joseph’s church is Father John Johnson he has been a priest since 2012 and joined St. Joseph’s in 2022. Father Johnson seems to be very popular at the church, and he seemed to be a good leader, and people seem to like him. We heard great stories from our interviews about him. The priest is usually in charge of leading mass and doing ceremonial things like baptisms. St. Joseph’s also has Parochial Vicars which are just assistant priests; they sometimes lead the service like their main priest; they are also in charge of more administrative things that the head priest does not have time for. St. Joseph has two of these: Christopher Awiliba and Robert Phillips. Under the priest are deacons, deacons help assist the priest during the service, they help with communion and with the community St. Joseph’s deacon is named Don Coates.
Community outreach is an integral St. Joseph’s does this in multiple ways. They are very involved in multiple food pantries such as the saint de Paul food bank, they do multiple canned food drives to get food and money for the community along with this they accept donations for clothes as well as furniture and mattresses, involvement in this type of thing helps everyone not just in the church but all of Macon make it a better and safer place. Apart from their charitable ventures, they also do things to help build the community. They put on events like trunk or treat where kids come and trick or treat out of trunks in the parking lot. There are many opportunities for education within the church; they have educational opportunities for adults. Each Sunday and Wednesday a small group of adults meet with leadership and discuss their lives as well as certain parts of the bible. Education opportunities like this can help make a congregation grow closer together and strengthen the community.
St. Joseph’s has a strong online presence. They stream all of their services on Facebook and YouTube. St. Josephs biggest social media platform by far is Facebook where St. Josephs has over 3.5 thousand followers. Streaming helps members who are homebound really be a part of the community and be fulfilled in this section of their lives. Apart from live streaming, they post updates on their Facebook such as events, when their coffee and donuts take place as well as when the next pancake breakfast is. but more importantly they regularly post things like food bank locations which need donating too. They also regularly post about SJS, the Catholic elementary school that they run.
St. Joseph’s is a historical traditional church that is integral to Macon’s community. The space itself is captivating and the people inside are all ages and come from all different walks of life. The leadership is strong and there is a real sense of community where people of all ages and races meet. You can really feel the tradition and history that happened between the walls of the church. They have modernized and help make their services more accessible through live streaming, and they help the entire Macon community with the drives that bring food, money, and furniture to people in need. The church also help youth with their elementary school and events like trunk-or-treating. St. Joseph’s is a cornerstone of Macon community and helps bring people together strengthening Macon as a whole.
Natalie Edwards is a junior majoring in Public Health.
Jerald Prince Jacob is a sophomore majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Joseph Summers is a junior on the pre nursing track.
The Macon Religious Communities Project 