Josephites (Maryland)

The Society of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart () abbreviated SSJ, also known as the Josephites is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men (priests and brothers) headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. They work specifically among African Americans.

They were formed in 1893 by a group of Mill Hill priests working with newly-freed Black people emancipated during the American Civil War. The founders included Fr John R. Slattery, who led the group and would become the first Josephite superior general, and one of the nation's first black priests, Fr. Charles Uncles. With permission from the Mill Hill leaders as well as Archbishop of Baltimore Cardinal Gibbons, the group established the Josephites as a mission society independent from Mill Hill, based in America, and dedicated totally to the African-American cause.

Since then, they have served in Black parishes, schools, and other ministries around the country, and played a major role in the Black Catholic Movement of the late 1960s through 1990s, in which Black Catholicism became a more obvious part of the Black church, liturgically and otherwise. The Josephites were instrumental in the restoration of the permanent diaconate in the United States following the Second Vatican Council, and the Josephite bishop John Ricard helped found the National Black Catholic Congress in 1987.

In 2011, the society elected its first African-American superior general, Fr William "Bill" Norvel, SSJ, who established a vocations hub for the society in Nigeria. The next two superiors since have also been African Americans, but as of September 2021, the society's leadership and new seminarians and priests are almost all Nigerians. Provided by Wikipedia