St. Joseph's Cathedral has large congregations from Rawalpindi, Islamabad and surrounding areas for Good Friday, Easter and Christmas services each year.[2][3]
The Cathedral parish is also home to St. Catherine's Convent. The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary host the St. Catherine's Sewing Center, training poor women in sewing, crochet and embroidery; the women produce hand-made objects for sale.[4]
History
On 21 September 2009, Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan, presided at the ordination in St. Joseph's Cathedral, of the new coadjutor bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Bishop Rufin Anthony. More than 1,500 people attended the event.[5]
In January 2012 a youth group from the Cathedral Parish launched a website "for realising the potential of youth and expressing their concerns in a Christian way", with the hope that it would help counter fundamentalism and fanaticism. Sister Athens Angeles of the Daughters of St. Paul was the main organizer of the group.[6]
Bishop Anthony Theodore Lobo, the former Bishop of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad diocese, died after prolonged illness on 18 February 2013. His funeral was held at Saint Joseph's Cathedral on 20 February. He was buried in the cathedral compound.[7]
