He became a Jesuit priest and served, inter alia, as dean of the liberal arts college at Marquette University for eleven years and as Vicar Apostolic for the Catholic mission in British Honduras (Belize), Central America, being ordained bishop on March 19, 1924.

He lost his mother at a young age and his father moved the family of three boys and seven girls to Chicago, where Joseph attended St. Ignatius College Prep and then entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) at St. Stanislaus Novitiate in Florissant, Missouri.

He then served at Detroit College as Prefect of Studies (1895–1905) and on the mission in British Honduras from 1905 until 1910 when he suffered a severe attack of tropical fever.

He refused to stand for the British National Anthem at public ceremonies, or to receive the Anglican bishop for a visit.

He made a regal entry into Keckchi villages, carried on a chair on the shoulders of the Maya with palm leaves and banners waving around him.