Founded in 1650 in Le Puy, France, the Congregation of St. Joseph is a group of 14,000 Roman Catholic religious sisters. In modern times the Congregation has focused on opposing the death penalty, promoting environmentalism, and criticizing immigration law in the U.S. It is comprised of three international congregations which each span several countries, and four national federations whose congregations are contained within France, Italy, the United States, and Canada.

History

Originally organized to operate as a typical Roman Catholic congregation of religious and lay sisters, most of its work involved instituting grade schools, caring for the sick and orphaned, and teaching the Catholic catechism. The congregation was disbanded in 1793 during the French Revolution and reorganized in 1807 in Lyon by Cardinal Fesch and Saint John Fontbonne. ^[1]

Six sisters first arrived in the United States in 1836 in St. Louis, Missouri under the auspices of evangelization, especially working with deaf children. Once it was under the direction of the local bishop, it officially operated separately from the mother-house based in Lyon, France, to which it remained related in name only. Once separated, the sisters applied for official papal sanction, which was granted May 16, 1877.

The Congregation quickly spread to the various cities in which it now operates across the country, comprising the American Federation of the Sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph. The official distinction was not enforced until the establishment of the St. Augustine congregation in 1866, in which the local bishop wrote to the mother-house in Le Puy to explicitly declare the sisters in St. Augustine under his jurisdiction. Such separation continued to be enforced through the late 1800s, while notable sisters in the U.S. began to defy ecclesiastical law. The sisters had many conflicts with bishops and major superiors of congregations related to authority and congregational structure. Left-wing advocacy by both individuals and the group as a whole began to take clear focus by the 20^th century. ^[2]

Congregation Structure

The Sisters of Saint Joseph comprises four international congregations (at Lyons, Chambery, Argentina, and Annecy) and four national federations (French, Italian, American, and Canadian), representing over 14,000 sisters in total. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

US Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph

Formed in 1966, The U.S. Federation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph is comprised of 16 local congregations with 6,500 members across the country. It operates in Missouri, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Massachusets, Maine, California, Georgia, Kansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Michigan, Indiana and West Virginia. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada

Six congregations were established in Canada that grew from the various congregations developing in the United States. Those six congregations formed the Canadian Federation on September 20, 1966. It is comprised of the Congregations of Toronto, Hamilton, London, Peterborough, Pembroke, and Sault Ste. Marie. ^[11]

The Hamilton, London, Peterborough, and Pembroke congregations formed The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada in 2012. ^[12]

Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Italy

The Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Italy operates in Aosta, Cuneo, Pinerolo, and The Institute Sisters of Saint Joseph is comprised of congregations in Novara, Susa, and Turin, and was founded in 2006. ^[13]

Issue Advocacy

Death Penalty

The Congregation strongly advocates against the death penalty. While contemporary Catholic authorities have condemned capital punishment as applied in the United States,^[14] historical popes, saints, and Doctors of the Church have held that it can be justified. ^{[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]}

Helen Prejean, a sister in the Congregation, runs Ministry Against the Death Penalty, a separate nonprofit also focusing on abolishing capital punishment. She also wrote the book Dead Man Walking, depicting her advocacy for convicted murderer Patrick Sonnier. ^[21]

Pat Murphy, a sister in the Congregation, was elected board member of Ministry Against the Death Penalty, and subsequently opposed the death penalty for convicted murderer Alfonso Rodriguez. Murphy wrote to the federal Department of Justice and the judge who sentenced Rodriguez, asking for reconsideration. ^[22]

Environmentalism

In 2018, the Congregation built an environmentally-focused assisted living facility in La Grange Park, Illinois. The Congregation’s views on environmentalism were cited during the attempted destruction of its own motherhouse in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which the city opposed. ^{[23] [24]}

The Congregation made a public statement denouncing the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. It cited a quote from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a theologically and politically liberal coalition of American nuns,^[25] claiming its view is supported by the teaching of the Catholic Church. ^[26]

In 2019, it advocated for the use of carbon offset credits, which consists of donating to various environmentalist organizations, citing the protection of “Mother Earth” and combatting “climate injustice.” ^[27]

On August 28, 2018, the U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph announced its opposition to the Affordable Clean Energy rule, a Trump administration proposal to ease anti-coal-use regulations promulgated by the Obama administration. ^[28]

Immigration

The Congregation’s Peace and Justice Committee signed a letter on March 23, 2017 to Congressional leadership asking to deny funding for border protection programs. Specifically, it requested a halt to any funding for the immigration detention system, a refusal to fund any U.S.-Mexico border wall, and to prevent increased funding to prosecute immigration-related crimes. The Congregation also asked Congress to stop negotiations on enforcing current immigration law with the Trump administration. ^[29]

On November 3, 2017, the Congregation signed onto a letter asking Congress to pass H.R. 3440, to naturalize the foreign-born children of illegal immigrants. ^[30]

In September 2018, it announced opposition to a regulation change by the Department of Homeland Security relating to qualifications for immigration visa eligibility. ^[31] The rule change was made to decrease the financial burden of social services likely to be dispensed by social welfare programs. ^{[32] [33]}

It publicly supported and physically joined the migrant “caravan” that traversed Central and North America toward the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018 by which many Central American migrants attempted an illegal border crossing. ^[34]

The U.S. Federation also advocated for passage of H.R. 6 in 2019, which would cancel proceedings to remove illegal immigrants and instead ensure their placement as permanent residents in the United States. ^{[35] [36]}

Firearms

August 2019, the Congregation called for legislation to ban so-called “assault weapons.” ^[37]

Controversy

In 2018, two sisters from the Congregation in the diocese of Los Angeles were prosecuted for embezzlement. Both Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, had misappropriated nearly $500,000 from St. James School where they worked. They allegedly moved the funds into personal accounts reportedly used for gambling trips to Las Vegas. After placing canonical restrictions on the sisters, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles initially reported the matter would be handled internally, but later announced without explanation that it would file a criminal complaint. ^[38]

Prominent Congregation member Sr. Elizabeth A. Johnson has been criticized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for creating “misrepresentations, ambiguities, and errors” about Catholic teaching. The Bishops alleged seven categories of theological errors in Johnson’s book Quest for the Living God. ^[39] The Congregation of St. Joseph works closely with the USCCB on advocacy against the death penalty. ^{[40] [41]}

Funding

The Connelly Foundation donated $350,000 to a retirement home run by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. ^[42]

St. Louis Community Foundation donated $250,000 to the Congregation in 2016. ^[43]

Related Organizations

Catholic Mobilizing Network is a non-profit founded by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph to specifically advocate against the death penalty and to reduce or stop punishments for crimes. ^[44]