Unlike most Catholic priests, Fr. Joshua is married with children. He and his wife Alli live in North Dallas with their five children. He’s currently serving as Pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas.
A former Episcopal priest, Fr. Joshua trained for ministry in England at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, England. After serving in the Episcopal Church for several years, he and Alli converted to Catholicism in 2009. He served St. Rita Catholic Community as it’s director of faith formation until he was ordained a Catholic priest through the Pastoral Provision of Pope Saint John Paul II in 2012. Since then he has served at St. Rita as parochial vicar and now pastor.
Originally from Glen Rose, Texas—the son of a football coach—he’s an alum of Texas Tech, the University of Leeds, and Duke University. He is the author of Pilgrim Holiness: Martyrdom as Descriptive Witness (Cascade, 2009), The Crisis of Bad Preaching: Redeeming the Heart and Way of the Catholic Preacher (Ave Maria Press, 2019) and Eucharist, Bread of Life (Liturgical Press, 2020). Fr. Joshua also writes regularly for Our Sunday Visitor, America Magazine, and Church Life Journal of Notre Dame. He is also a regular contributor to the Dallas Morning News, his columns appearing in newspapers all over the world.
Recent Publications
Church Life Journal
“Medjugorje and the Desire for a Wilder Catholicism” (2024)
“Wes Anderson’s Chafings Against the Immanent Frame: An Addendum” (2023)
“The Spiritual Place and Moment of Listening” (2023)
“What should the Eucharistic Revival look like?” (2023)
“Shedding tears for Royal Tenenbaum: a liturgical approach” (2021)
“Longfellow’s Christmas Bells and a better America” (2020)
“A priest for James Carroll” (2019)
“The spiritual desert isn’t optional” (2019)
Plough Quarterly
“Jacques Ellul, Prophet of the Tech Age” (2024)
Our Sunday Visitor
“Episcopal infighting is nothing new, but danger lurks” (2023)
“To come to God, one must first listen to him” (2022)
“Can denying Communion be an act of charity? Absolutely” (2022)
“Will Smith, Chris Rock and a Lenten lesson” (2022)
“Abortion is war; are we fighting it well?” (2021)
For even more, visit Our Sunday Visitor
America Magazine
“Soccer vs. Sunday Mass: How youth sports are undermining religion–and hurting our kids” (2025)
“What the Eucharistic revival means to me as a Catholic convert” (2022)
“A married Catholic priest’s lessons from two kinds of fatherhood” (2022)
“Not many Catholics care about the Synod. But I’m not ready to give up on it yet” (2022)
“What can Catholic preachers learn from Bishop Michael Curry’s royal wedding sermon?” (2018)
The Dallas Morning News
Visit The Dallas Morning News for more articles by Fr. Joshua Whitfield.