ST JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH

Mt. Olivet Cemetery Update:
Many of you likely saw a recent local news article about Mt. Olivet, our parish cemetery, reporting on the City of Howell’s recent vote to discontinue their service of opening and closing graves for burials. Like any news article, it could not fully capture the full state of affairs and regrettably, St. Joseph was not given the opportunity to provide any information for the article. I want to help allay any fears that the article inadvertently raised about our cemetery.  Providentially, the timing of this article presented a good opportunity for me to share our future vision for Mt. Olivet and how we can continue serving our community for years to come.
Above all, I want to reassure our parish and community that your loved ones buried at Mt. Olivet are being well cared for.
It is the case that we have a limited number of full body burial plots available to purchase at this time, but that is due to our cemetery getting close to capacity, not being overcrowded. While the number of full casket burial plots available for purchase are limited, we still have many spaces that can accommodate burials for cremains.  
Mt. Olivet is a very old cemetery, and you can find graves going back to the early 1900's. Praise God! We have been actively updating and collating data from over 100 years of burials, which involves digitizing many years of handwritten records. We have made great strides in the last year on this work and will continue working with the City of Howell to ensure they share with us all of their records of burials since their partnership with the parish began. When we have their information in hand, we will have much more complete records going forward.
The City of Howell will be discontinuing their burial services in 30 days but they thankfully gave us advance warning so we could already begin lining up a new burial company.  Many people are unaware that as a parish we collect no money for burial services.  Burial services (opening and closing of the graves, foundation work, etc.) have always been contracted directly between the plot owner and the city at the time of burial.  This will continue with the new company.    We are already in contact with several companies that service cemeteries at the parishes of our local Deanery.  I appreciate the City of Howell's service over the past decades and want to reassure you that burials will still be happening, albeit with a different company.
What are our plans for the future? First, to notify you that we do only have a limited amount of plots to accommodate full body burials. After that capacity is met, we would invite parishioners seeking full casket burial to utilize the cemeteries at the neighboring parishes of St. Agnes, St. John, and St. Patrick, all of which have much space available. Secondly, we are looking to install columbaria to accommodate many more cremation burials into the future.  There will be more information on this to come.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions. Know of my prayers and may our loved ones rest in peace at Mt. Olivet.
God bless,
Fr. Gary