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PARISH PROFILE
 St. Joseph’s, Martinsville: ‘Reachout’ a ‘shining star of who we are’
By Jean Denton
Special to The Catholic Virginian
It was the Feast of the Epiphany and the pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Martinsville reminded the faithful at the 9 a.m. Mass of the significance of the celebration.
“Christ came not just to the people of Israel, but to all people for all times,” Father Joseph Torretto explained. And, as though to illustrate the point, he repeated the message at 11:30 Mass — in Spanish.
“God comes to us to seek us out,” Father Torretto continued in his homily, which must have resonated with the capacity crowd of Hispanic worshipers, because not too many years ago they were without a faith community until St. Joseph’s welcomed them with a Spanish-language Mass.
Now, unofficially, fully a third of St. Joseph’s households are Hispanic, and integrating those families with the Anglo and smaller Vietnamese membership has become a primary aim of the Martinsville Catholic community.
“We’re working at it,” parish leaders say, explaining that integrating the diverse cultures that make up St. Joseph’s is “a work in progress.”
Christian formation classes are offered in both English and Spanish according to the needs and preferences of families, and parish Hispanic minister Eduardo Guerrero has been encouraging Hispanic adults to participate in diocesan ministry and leadership training.
 Periodically the parish has bilingual Masses although so far they have been sparsely attended. But they will continue to be offered and encouraged, Mr. Guerrero emphasized.
“We want it — it’s very important,” he said.
Currently the parish has about 230 households registered, Father Torretto estimated. However, with the unregistered Hispanic “membership” the actual number is closer to 350.
“I baptize about 50 a year,” he added.
St. Joseph’s Parish began serving Martinsville and Henry County in Southside Virginia long before Hispanic immigrants began settling there. The first Mass in Martinsville was celebrated by a priest from Danville in 1938.
For several years Catholics gathered for Mass in private homes and later in a hall above a bakery on Bridge Street, parish secretary Terry Ward recalled.
St. Joseph Church was established by Bishop Peter L. Ireton in 1949, and Father Robert O’Kane was appointed the first pastor serving about 125 Catholics at the time, according to the parish history. In 1953 a former Baptist church building was purchased on Church Street and became the parish home until the current church was completed in 2001.
F ormer Pastoral Council chairman Jimmy McGarry said that the parish reputation and role in the wider Southside Virginia community has long been identified with its social outreach ministry called “Reachout.”
“Reachout has been a beacon to the entire community and a shining star of who we are,” he explained.
In fact, Reachout has been one of the primary organizations that offers food and financial assistance to struggling families in the area. Jim Reaghard, who with his wife Susan, has served as Reachout coordinator for 11 years, explained that for a long time St. Joseph’s was the only church in the area that provided help to the wider community, while other churches assisted their own needy members.
However, he noted, a “handful” of other mainline local churches supported Reachout through financial contributions and members who volunteered in its programs.
In the last several years, Martinsville and Henry County have been hard hit by an economic downturn as textile and furniture manufacturing companies left the area, and the need for family assistance has grown.
Last spring a number of other local churches combined to form Grace Network to address the growing need. St. Joseph’s Reachout served as the model for the program, Mr. Reaghard noted, and has decided to join the network in hopes that combining resources among many faith communities will allow them to provide greater, more effective and efficient assistance.
 Gene Ayers, current Pastoral Council chairman, said the change concerned a few parishioners at first.
“Reachout has been the parish’s way to respond to Christ’s teaching to care for the least among us, but we are trying to help them understand that we aren’t abandoning that commitment but continuing it through Grace Network,” he said.
By combining resources with about 40 other local churches, Mr. Reaghard pointed out, assistance can be provided five days a week, rather than only two which was as much as Reachout could support before.
Mr. McGarry, a longtime parish leader whom Ayers fondly calls a “do-everything guy,” including shepherding the construction of the current church, is quick to point out that while Reachout has been St. Joseph’s fundamental way of serving all people of the region, “the most important ministry we offer the Catholic community in the area is liturgy.”
 He explained that the parish serves a wide geographic area including the growing Hispanic population which depends on it for weekly Eucharistic celebration.
“For instance, in 1990 we had about the same number of Catholics, but the Hispanics weren’t going to Mass because it wasn’t offered in Spanish,” Mr. McGarry said. He credits the late Father Marty Lavin — then St. Joseph’s pastor — with recognizing that need and beginning to offer Mass in Spanish about ten years ago.
With the help of Carlos Lerma, a diocesan seminarian from Colombia who Ward said “recruited at Walmart,” Spanish Mass at St. Joseph was filled to capacity within six months.
Father Torretto has continued to encourage the parish along its chosen path since coming to St. Joseph in 2003. He urged joining parish outreach ministry to Grace Network, and, although he’d only recently begun studying the language, he gamely presides in Spanish, including his homily, at the Sunday Spanish liturgy.
A native of New York City, Father Joe, as he is known by parishioners, was ordained for the Richmond Diocese in 1975, having become familiar with Virginia while serving in the Army at Fort Myer in Arlington.
He describes himself as “a child of the Church” because he grew up in a Catholic orphanage before joining a foster family at age 13. Prior to coming to Martinsville he served as pastor of St. George Church in Scottsville along with Holy Comforter in Charlottesville.
Besides paying down the church construction debt, which is happening through long-term parishioner commitments as well as a monthly second collection, Father Torretto said, “I think the faith formation of our youth is our biggest challenge and extremely important.
“A child must be instructed not only in knowledge of the world, but above all in knowledge of the maker of the world,” the pastor said.
“We teach and encourage our children to live by the Spirit of the Gospel through one’s family and faith community. As a result, students are inspired by the love of God as a lifelong process of personal development and learning.”
 The parish has added two paid religious education coordinators to its staff, Gina Foley and Jack Rhinesmith, dividing duties by lower and upper grades.
“We consider ourselves blessed by the time and service of both staff and volunteer ministers,” Father Joe said. “Budget constraints are no longer an excuse for not doing what needs doing.”
Classes are taught in English, and an all-level RCIA for Children program in Spanish is taught by catechist Lucy Valencia, a Chilean transplant. Additionally, Ms. Foley noted, a sacramental preparation class in Spanish is held monthly for parents and children.
“Although we are a diverse parish, still 75 per cent of the families in our program are Hispanic,” she said. “We are trying to educate the whole family, and they have been very good — the fathers particularly — about being involved.”
Father Torretto also “takes the lead” in visiting homebound parishioners, said Barbara Kurtz, who along with Lori Tucker, coordinates the longtime parish ministry that combines outreach and liturgy. Their visits often include the pastor providing the sacrament of anointing the sick and ministers bringing Eucharist.
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Copyright © 2006 The Catholic Virginian Press. Articles from Catholic News Services, including Fr. Ditzen’s column, may not be reproduced here due to copyright considerations.
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