Saturday vigil mass in Waipahu, Oahu, Hawaii... I didn't have time to go to church on Sunday, so I looked for a Catholic Church nearby and attended the 6pm Saturday service. I heard that St. Joseph Church is really popular, so I arrived at 5:30pm - half an hour before mass. I got a great parking space (because we can park on school grounds, too) and entered the quiet, old-shool, air-conditioned church. Sitting in the back row, I appreciated the cushioned fabric on the wooden pews. I liked the high ceiling, wooden beams, and stained glass. The congregation was praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy instead of the Rosary. When mass began, I admired the many altar servers. It's a good idea to get young people involved! The choir included a flute, guitar, and bass. The female leader was competent. I didn't know all of the songs, but I was happy to sing America The Beautiful at the closing - in preparation for the upcoming 4th of July holiday! It was interesting that there was a Eucharistic Minister at the back of the church. There were two priests in the front... it sure helped the flow of people receiving the Eucharist! Overall, it was a great experience! I will keep this mass option in mind if I'm in the area again. Maybe next time, I'll stand up as a "visitor" and receive a shell lei from the greeter! read more

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Came here for Friday evening Stations of the Cross during Lent and stayed for Mass afterwards. We loved the vibrant Samoan congregation and cute keiki who reverently and adoringly led the Stations prayers, and made up most of the enthusiastically resounding choir! Church was packed which really made us feel happy. The Mass afterwards was attended with the same amount of parishioners who attended Stations. Father Manny gave an excellent homily. Church was originally built in 1860 but the current structure dates to 1941 when US Army Corps of Engineers Architect, Jozef van Oort redesigned it in Romanesque style and added the Bayerischen bell tower for reasons I couldn't discover through my research. The interior was remodeled in the modernist style in 2006. Enjoyed worshiping here with these lovely devout locals and highly recommend this parish if you are looking for a place to worship. Only negative thing is the parking situation which could be called atrocious and even moderately unsafe with the proximity of high velocity heavy traffic flow from adjacent Farrington. I guess it's a true test of Christian humility, patience, and charity to extract or ingress the parking area so actually it's a good thing.... Solid 5 stars. Mahalo for reading my review. Pax vobiscum. read more

St Joseph Church - Church entrance showing European bell tower designed by Jozef van Oort in 1941 - Churches Near Me - Waipahu, Hawaii

Beautiful church! I've lived in this island my entire life, but yesterday was my first visit inside the St Joesph Church. When I entered the church, it was very beautiful. During the memorial service, they rang the bells and that was an awesome experience for me. See I've been driving past this church for most of my life and to finally see all of its history and beauty was a breathtaking experience! Then there was the "Hat Police". There was an elderly gentleman who had no compassion and no tact! Yes, it may be a rule of the church to remove your hat, but it was a memorial service and this rule should be enforced in another way. This guy was walking up to individuals who were grieving to ask them to remove their hats. He did this throughout the entire memorial service. Maybe signs outside the doors and having the church spokesperson announce that all hat's should be removed when entering the church. Just felt that this person was insensitive and the approach unwarranted. Unfortunately it's not like back in the day, lots of people don't attend church services like before. St Joesph Church is a beautiful church! * I was raised in a Christian church, and thus the reason I never visited St Joesph. read more

St Joseph Church - Churches Near Me - Waipahu, Hawaii

Beautiful and so welcoming I enjoyed the service immensely. I will make this my church that I attend

The only church in Oahu where I was able to find an adoration chapel I wish more churches would have one or else to be open so you can go in and pray read more

This post is in reference to how mishandled I felt my uncle's funeral service was. First and foremost, I inquired at St. Joseph parish office to reserve a priest for my uncle's funeral because they're the only church I know who has a Filipino priest, my fiancés family are parishioners here, and I trust them with things (such as my child's catholic education). From the very beginning, I felt as though I wasn't being listened to or heard by the parish office woman whom I had been in contact with throughout the entire process. The original Priests were not available for my uncle's funeral service due to being off island, however, the parish office woman (whose name I'll so kindly leave off of here even though I felt my family was blatantly disrespected) was persistent in stating she knows of several Filipino priests she "may be able to" reserve. And from the start, I trusted her to assist me through the process of reserving a priest from the parish as funeral planning is very new to me and being a Catholic Church in which I've heard services many funerals/baptisms/weddings/etc. I assumed that they would listen and know what and how to do things. From the very start/very moment I had made my initial inquiry, I had made sure that I knew the time frame of the funeral service. Because I didn't want to inquire without knowing the details. I had informed the parish office woman of the time frame of our service at the funeral venue MULTIPLE TIMES. I had given her a specific time that we needed the priest there to begin the service. However, she was not listening to the time I was providing her. Instead, she undermined the time I had given her multiple times leading up to the day of the event. Even the EARLY morning of, she contacted me and I read her the time frame from my uncle's funeral program (as laid out on his funeral program provided by the funeral venue). The parish office woman undermined my time frame and went to search the obituary which stated that the time of burial (which was at the tail end of our service where we would need to be finished and out of the venue). Even after calling back and forth multiple times to confirm the time, she went based off of what was stated on the ONLINE obituary and not what was planned, written out, and explained multiple times leading up to the day, up to the very morning of. I was told by the parish office lady that "because the time of burial says 1:00 pm she will have the priest there by 12:15 pm to do the service -- because they do not want the priests waiting around for 2 hours until the burial." When I specifically told her that we begin the funeral service at 11:00 am and burial was set for 11:30 am. When time got near, I had asked her for an estimated time the priest would arrive. She had informed me that the priests had left several minutes ago and should be arriving shortly. As the time it takes to get to the site should not have been long. I was waiting outside the chapel and had saw the priests car arrive from the top of the burial site (meaning that the priest and driver had been at the site for a while WAITING until THEIR time frame). What a shame. That we started the funeral service a whole hour late where family and friends had already began to leave. And lunch had to be served outside at my uncles grave instead of at the initial site due to time running out. I felt that my family's funeral service was very unprofessional and very mishandled. The "substituting" priest was from the Big Island and was blatantly rude during the service calling out the time he was told to be here by during his homily. The homily wasn't the most thoughtful and meaningful homily presented. It made zero sense and did not connect with those that are grieving and looking for insight and guidance. Instead it felt like an attack on the grieving family. Which is such a shame coming from a Catholic priest. Mind you we had given our generous "donation" the week leading prior to my uncles funeral. While I don't want to go on another tangent and rant about my thoughts on donations and money. I felt that the entire thing was Poorly mishandled. I felt shame and anger throughout the entire day on behalf of myself for trusting this parish to assist me through a grieving time. I will no longer reference this parish to any families seeking services or looking for a parish to visit/attend. Very upsetting. read more

Its a place of worship. Im not going to review a church. But a little advice, please be careful walking across the parking lot to the church, sometimes people try to speed out of there and cars are really close to each other. read more

St Joseph Church - Inside the church - Churches Near Me - Waipahu, Hawaii

This is my Parish. I went to school at St. Joseph frm 1st - 8th grade. I would like to think I would have started at K if we weren't in the middle of moving (I attended August Ahrens for K).... lol. So yes this is my Parish. I received my Holy Communion here, got Confirmed here, met my husband here, got married here, and baptized our son here. read more

Nice enough church and the seating is nice, with cushions and AC. Video screens are cool. However, whatever good feelings you get from attending church you lose with the parking and traffic problem! I've never seen such chaos and confusion is my life; you have people trying to pull in for the next service while people from the previous service are trying to leave! People who can't find a space simply park in the lane, and when church is over, no one can move until those people get back to their cars! Seriously, I would come here more often, but last Sunday I was stuck in the back corner of the parking lot for 25 minutes waiting for all the cars to move so I could leave my space. The church really needs to hire someone to prevent people from parking in the driving lanes, and then lock the entire parking lot once the service starts, and only let cars leave. Once the service is over and all the cars have left, open the lot to incoming cars. Also, another reason cars can't get out is all the people exiting the church walk in front of the exit gate, and the cars lined up can't get out! I won't be going back simply because of the parking problem. It's so bad, the priest even mentions is after mass, telling people to be patient and not get into fights. Like I said, all they need to do is hire some people or have volunteers get some control of the situation. read more

It's kinda weird to review a church but I just wanted to share how this place has helped me grow as a person. I've been coming here since I was little and I've been involve with their youth and young adult ministry for other 14 years now. This church, like all churches, isn't perfect. But they do their best to engage people to grow in their faith and put into action. Their youth and young adult ministry is awesome. The largest ministry in the catholic dioceses of Honolulu. Very proud to be part of this ministry. read more

Been going here for a majority of my entire life. Baptised here, CCD classes taken here, First communion here, but don't think I want to get confirmed or married here :( kinda hard to understand the priests unless your use to the thick Filipino accent. If you enjoy the whole feel of being in a Filipino family this church is for you but not so much me. read more

I've never been to this church before and I've never really even noticed it even when my buddy points it out for me. We came about 10 minutes late and the mass was starting already... boy is parking crazy if you're late! and it was uber hard to get out afterwards. I guess the masses come in two hour gaps starting at 6 and ending at 11a from what my buddy told me, and also a mass at 5pm which is supposed to have a live band so if we go back here again, we should check it out. I haven't been to a catholic church in so long, and it was kinda nostalgic. The priest seemed kind, and had a good message. I wonder why they do two offerings though; in case people forgot to give the first one? Didn't really bother me, but just don't remember that from back when I was in 1st grade or whatever. Good thing I actually had cash, because we kinda rushed over there and I could've easily forgotten to bring some. It also looks as if there's a school to the side, and I think that's the lot we parked in because it was towards the back. The church had a good sound and visual system too, so I guess it accommodates the huge crowd it gets. Faith: I'm not catholic anymore, but its a good church to appreciate your faith. My buddy and I had a long chat 'bout why I'm not anymore, but that's unnecessary here. I would come here just for her though. read more