Father Edward Stafford was ordained for the Third Order Franciscans in 1979 but has served as priest of the Diocese of Youngstown since 2012—currently assigned to St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Warren. He is a native of Youngstown—the son of Bill Stafford, a former longtime Catholic Exponent advertising representative. He attended Sacred Heart School and Ursuline High School before progressing to Youngstown State University (YSU), where he studied from 1972 to 1975. In 1975, he transferred to St. Francis College in Loretto, Pennsylvania, and joined the Third Order Franciscans. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1979 but left the order in 1980 and returned to Youngstown.
Over the next dozen years, he worked in a variety of social service, rehabilitation and education positions in Ohio and Pennsylvania, pursuing further education in those fields. He earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from Kent State University in 1982. From 1988 to 1990, he also completed studies in special education at YSU.
In 1994, he re-entered the Franciscans. The next year he enrolled at Washington Theological Union for studies in preparation for the priesthood. In addition, he pursued a variety of preparatory experiences, including a summer clinical pastoral education unit at the National Institute of Health clinical center in Bethesda, Maryland, and served as a transitional deacon for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Ordained a Franciscan priest in 1999, Father Stafford for the next 13 years was appointed to various pastoral ministry, school chaplaincy, campus ministry and hospital chaplaincy assignments in Texas, Washington, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
In 2012, Father Stafford began ministering in the Youngstown Diocese, with the goal of becoming incardinated into the diocese. He first served as associate pastor of Christ the Servant Parish in Canton from 2012 to 2014. He then was assigned for a year as associate pastor for St. Rose Parish in Girard.
Father Stafford was appointed pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Mantua in 2015. In 2019, he assumed the additional responsibility of pastor of St. Ambrose Parish in Garrettsville.
In 2023, he was named associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parishes in Warren. Later that year, he was assigned the additional responsibility of associate pastor of St. Mary and St. Joseph Parish in Warren. In 2024, all three parishes were merged into St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish, where he continues to serve as associate pastor.
