Saint Joseph Cathedral

We came across this church on Easter Holiday Weekend while visiting San Diego. The cathedral was packed but was able to find plenty of seats left because we came 15 minutes early. The patrons at this church are very diverse, which is great. People were dressed appropriately for church and some even wore suits. What really made my visit quite nice was due to the great sermon by their parish priest. I don’t remember his name but he was great. His delivery was great and entertaining but not too preachy. I would probably go again if I’m around the area.

Attended 5:15pm mass on Saturday. I was a visitor. The sermon was right on, Knowledgeable pastor with a beautiful living message. I will come back to this parish next time I’m in San Diego. There was good energy in this church.

Beautiful place! Love the Easter Sunday Mass Service. We will visit the Cathedral again, when we are in San Diego. Not far from The Westin SD.

I started attending mass here because the people in my old church are really rude and inconsiderate. The cathedral is huge with plenty of pews, mass always starts on time and there are usually guest priests from all over. This is in downtown so once in a while you have a few characters making a scene, but the staff is more than prepared for them. On Sundays there’s free parking at the lot right next to the church. If you’re looking for a quiet place to worship, come by!

I absolutely adore coming to Mass here. I live right down the street from it and it is very convenient. Whenever I got to Mass I hope that Father Peter is giving the Mass. I must admit that listening to his homilies made me want to attend more frequently. One thing that I absolutely love about this parish is that on weekdays, they offer Mass everyday at 12:07, which gives people who work downtown (like me) a few minutes to walk over there. The Mass is about 25 – 30 minutes long.
I also love the interior of it. I would hope to get married here one day.

My husband and I regularly attend mass, got married, and baptized our baby at St Joseph’s. We love this Parrish because of the leadership and worship Fr Peter provides. There is a youth group and multiple gatherings to dive deeper into your faith. The music at mass is lead by a wonderful tenor vocalist. The church is stunningly beautiful with vaulted ceilings, statues, and stained glass windows. Plenty of parking is another plus!

My favorite church. Its bigger than the church I used to attend. Never crowded (except on Easter Subday) always a place to sit. Very diverse, the priest is funny and gives good advice. Its the only church where I sing along knowing that I can’t sing but its so big no1 can hear me haha. Amen!

Fr. Peter Escalante is excellent. My mass experience is enhanced because of his leadership. But if you’re new to the downtown area specifically where St. Josephs is, you might notice the amount of homelessness in the area. Subsequently, homeless people are often in and around the parish grounds as well. While there is nothing wrong with that, it is important to note that fact.
As for the church, I love its wooden interior and sense of history (it’s been around for a while/​dedicated in 1941). Beautiful stained glass windows are there for you to enjoy.

Just participated in a wedding a couple of days ago with Father Peter Escalante, who was very nice and totally helpful (reading in front of people… not always easy). His homily was pleasant and all, but my lack of one star is that this place is like 90% gorgeous. The ceilings were off putting — I know that’s the style but the little European inside me wanted something more ornate! Yay St. Joseph’s!

This is a great church… Father Peter is amazing and you will be truly inspired by his sermons.

When I first attended a Sunday mass in this church, the Pastor was Father Peter Escalante who gave a very good homily. Also, my husband & I were approached to serve wine and bread for the offertory; we were asked to serve on two different occasions. Wow, it felt good to be able to do this; I came out of church fresh and felt reborn. I found a Catholic Church that I love.

I moved into town this month & started my first visit at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Little Italy. I wanted to crawl out of there so fast but felt so bad for Father Grancini. My eyes opened widely as I noticed a walker in front of the dude. How do you dis a Father in a walker still serving God? The Deacon did the homily. Though he’s probably passionate about the faith, speaking isn’t his forte. I was just uncomfortable there. It was small and tight. Its the kinda place where people know your business.
I had to look for a new place and up the street was St. Joseph’s. This place reminded me somewhat of my other church, Our Lady of Angels (in downtown LA). The families of dedicated Filipinos representing the faith. Awkwardly, that made me a little more at ease. The building wasn’t as colorful as Lady of the Rosary, but a bit bigger so that I could blend in to the crowd. They don’t sing the Our Father prayer, which I’m totally cool with.
I’m a «struggling to know» Catholicism person. So, I think I found a Church to go to regularly.

Another Sunday in search of a church…
The good: free parking in the public lot across the street, lots of mass times to choose from, beautiful and stunning right when you enter the doors, mixed congregation, good singer and organ
The bad: parishioners didn’t participate enthusiastically in the service, homily wasn’t prepared and had too many ideas, no choir, no ac/​fans, 2 collections during mass
Verdict: Probably won’t be coming back.

I’ve had the privileged of attending St. Joseph’s for the past 5 ½ years.
I had originally been a parishioner at San Diego De Alcala and since I lived downtown this was my neighborhood parish. When I first started attending mass at St. Joe’s it was at 515pm Sundays. This church at that time had the most available masses. Can you believe one as late as 630pm on Sunday. Back then the head pastor was Father Balio (god rest his soul). His sermons were good and at times very uplifting. What I noticed about this Church was the lack of participation from the parishioners. It was just too quite and even when we were to respond the response was barley audible, basically it seemed as if the audience was mute. Attendance seemed low most likely because of the total number of available masses. Still you left feeling good to have heard the word of god.
Father Balio passed away after an illness and Father Rex. from Africa became the temporary head pastor. It was then that the audience became alive. Father Rex brought with him the enthusiasm of the charismatic movement with inspirational and thought provoking sermons. Not only that, but he brought music back to the church
in the form of guitarist and singers. The church came alive and the audience began to participate not only in song but most importantly in the responses and profession of faith. It was at this point that my wife and I decided to make St. Josephs our main parish. After about 1 yr Father Rex was reassigned by the church to serve at another location.
In came the new head pastor Father Peter Escalante. From the moment we heard Fr. Peter give a sermon. we knew we would always leave the church after mass feeling total rejoiced and blessed. Music stayed and Fr. Peter and his associates layed down the foundation to make sure that St. Josephs became a strong community church. Parishioner participation is evident and with zeal.
All the pastors who give mass provide the audience with uplifting sermons. As a catholic I’ve always felt that one should leave the mass feeling closer to god each time and that is how we feel now.
We now attend the 1030a Sunday mass and afterwards we go to the basement where they serve coffee and donuts. We have made many friends and truly feel that we have a strong church community.
Finally and probably the least important is that… inside the cathedral it is a very much looking church inside. On both walls are wonderful stained glass images of Saints etc. The acoustics is wonderful with an awesome pipe organ on the second level. It is very spacious with very high ceiling typically found in Cathedrals. The parking can be a pain at times but we have never had any problems.
In all St. Joseph’s serves the community well. It is an alive church with alot of opportunities to serve. Visually appealing but most importantly spiritually uplifting.

My family and I go here just about every Sunday.
I enjoy coming here because now that Father Peter is the Head Pastor… things flow much better.
However, I must say that had I written this review just (2 ½) months ago… I would have given it a 5 Star. Here’s why…
There used to be a tenor by the name of Josh that blew my mind. Every time he sang, goosebumps took over me. His hearty, melodic, and angelic voice carried through the church. Sadly, he left to pursue his singing career. Quite bittersweet… but all good things must come to an end, I guess. I certainly wish him all the best.
Vaya con Dios! :O)

This Cathedral is more of a quicky place to go if you need to get to mass in a hurry such as if you have a 13 hour flight the next morning and you doubt you will be able to get to mass the next morning. I like how the mass is 5:15PM for those of us who end up missing morning Mass. With the 90 something Roman Catholic churches in San Diego, St. Josephs makes sure that no one has the chance to miss mass. True that there is not Christ blood during communion, but on the waffer, his body, but all us Catholics know that Christ is present under both species of either bread or wine. Another great aspect is that there is the before mass confessions in the chapel. Many Catholics go to communion forgetting to confess, or they do not have the opertunity to do so because their church either does not offer before mass confessions, or that the person is just to lazy to go to confession… The music isnt there other than some of the masses. But we know that mass is all about receiving Christ, and not about the music… God Bless!

I sometimes go to the Sunday 5:15 p.m. Mass here and have mixed feelings about this parish. On one hand it is awesome because it reminds me of the Church universal. meaning it isn’t all white anglo saxon surburbanites. Here you may see an Indian, Phillipino or African family along with young couples, urban dwellers, homeless people, tourist, old, young, or deranged… you pretty much get it all. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to have a strong church community here. Father Peter is there now, and at his previous parishes he was good at building strong community, so it may change over a period of time.

I recently moved to San Diego, and my girlfriend were hoping to find a good church close by. Well, it doesn’t get any closer, we only live a few blocks away.
But… good? Well, we went to the noon Mass. I believe it was the rector of the cathedral (Bishop Chavez) who did the service.
Where do I begin? Well, the entire mass was under 40 minutes long. That’s because they skipped over all of the stuff that makes going to Church a spiritual experience. Well, for one, there was ZERO singing. None. Whatsoever. There was an organist who played a bit, but even in one song the Bishop started right back into the prayers before the organist realized it. He played on for a bit while the Bishop kept going, and then finally stopped very abruptly.
There was zero community contact. By that, I mean, the Bishop entered from the Sacristy. Generally, to me, when they process up through the people, it’s as if they’re coming up from the people. When they come out the side of the altar, it’s as if they’re out of touch.
All the prayers were recited (including the responsial psalm, which ironically went something to the effect of «I will sing to the Lord…». My girlfriend jabbed me when I started loudly saying «I will recite to the the Lord…»
I opted not to do communion (which, archaically enough, was the Bread only), because I had experienced nothing spiritual thus far.
I left angry. I left disappointed. I left embarrassed to be Catholic. I felt that if somebody who wasn’t Catholic came to that Mass, I would be ashamed if they walked out thinking that was what we were about.