Rev. Edward Stafford

Born April 19, 1954, Fr. Stafford is a native of Youngstown where he attended Sacred Heart School, Ursuline High School, and Youngstown State University. His mother was a teacher at Sacred Heart School for 20 years and his father worked in advertising at The Catholic Exponent for over 25 years. The youngest of four children, he had a brother Billy who had Down Syndrome and lived at home for many years and in 1989 moved to the Youngstown Developmental Center (he died in 2011). Brother Joe and his wife, Jan, have three children and live in Boardman, and sister, Mary, who along with her husband, Charlie, have two children and reside in Girard.
In 1975, he entered the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from St. Francis University in Loretto, PA. He left the order in 1980 after temporary vows. Moving back to the Warren area, he attended Kent State University earning a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling. From 1982 to 1994 he worked for the State of Ohio’s Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation as a counselor and case manager and for the rehabilitation division of the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation.
Then in 1994 he re-entered the Franciscan Order and earned his Master of Divinity at Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C. (Roman Catholic School of Theology and Ministry). Fr. Stafford was ordained November 20, 1999 as a Franciscan priest serving in a variety of assignments in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. From 1999 to 2003 he worked as a coordinator with student volunteers in the campus ministry of the Dorothy Day Outreach Center at St. Francis University, Loretto, PA. Chaplain and guidance counselor was his next assignment at Serra Catholic High School in McKeesport, PA in 2003-2004. After that he was the full time chaplain at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA from 2003 to 2009. Fr. Ed then served as pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Moundsville, WV and St. Jude Church in Glendale, WV from 2009 to 2012.
In 2012, Fr. Stafford left the Franciscan Order and sought incardination to the Diocese of Youngstown (process by which clergy from one ecclesiastical jurisdiction are brought under the authority of another jurisdiction). Since his return to the Diocese of Youngstown, he has served as Parochial Vicar of Christ the Servant Parish in Canton (July 1, 2012-August 15, 2014) and of St. Rose Parish in Girard and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in McDonald with Rev. Msgr. John Zuraw (August 16, 2014-August 31, 2015). Effective September 1, 2015, Fr. Ed became pastor of St. Joseph, Mantua. He also serves on the Ursuline High School Board, is a committee member of the Human Rights Council of Youngstown Developmental Center, and is involved with Prison Ministry at the Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg, OH.
Fr. Ed is enjoying the new experience of living in the country and looks forward to staying in one place and getting to know and serving the people of St. Joseph Parish. In his free time he likes to read and visiting with family and friends.