Father Steffes accepts position as executive director

Father James P. Steffes, rector of Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, has been named executive director of the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. The new appointment becomes effective August 1.

In 2002, he was named rector of the Winona seminary, where he had been director of spiritual formation since 1997.

In accepting the position, Father Steffes said “I am deeply humbled and honored to have this opportunity to support the bishops of our country in this key area of ministry as they shepherd the people of God toward salvation. I have been blessed to work in vocation and formation ministry for the past 12 years and feel God deepening a call in me to continue this now in a new and special way through this office.”

Father Steffes was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Winona in 1993, after completing seminary studies at the Gregorian University in Rome. After ordination he taught at Loyola High School in Mankato, Minn., and was parochial vicar at St. Joseph the Worker Parish, Mankato, Minn.; Holy Family Parish, Crystal Lake, Minn.; and at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Winona. He served as diocesan vocations director and director of seminarians from 1996-2002.

He has been sacramental minister at Saint Mary’s from 1996 to the present.