Father John Stowe, OFM Conv. Father John Stowe was born 15 April 1966 to John R and Lucy Satelli Stowe of Lorain, Ohio. He attended grade school at Saint Anthony of Padua Parish staffed by the Conventual Franciscans and Lorain Catholic High School. After a year of community college, Fr John joined the formation program for the Conventual Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Consolation at Saint Bonaventure Friary in St. Louis, Missouri. During the time of his candidacy he began studies in Philosophy and History at Saint Louis University and completed B.A.s in each in 1990 after an interruption for novitiate. In 1992 he professed solemn vows in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. Father John earned a Masters of Divinity and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology in the field of Church History from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (now affiliated with Santa Clara University). He served as a transitional deacon at Saint David of Wales Parish in Richmond, California and completed his diaconate at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in El Paso, Texas. In 1995 he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop A. James Quinn at his home parish of Saint Anthony in Lorian. He was assigned to continue at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church as associate pastor. The parish is at the site of the Ysleta Mission, founded in 1682, and the oldest parish in Texas. It is on the U.S.- Mexico border and includes the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo of the Tigua tribe of Native Americans. Father John would continue as pastor of that parish. In December of 2002, Father John was invited by the Most Reverend Armando X. Ochoa, Bishop of El Paso, to serve the Diocese of El Paso as Moderator of the Curia and Vicar General. He later also served as Chancellor of the diocese. With a lack of priests in the diocese, Father John also assumed the role of Administrator of Our Lady of the Valley Parish there while serving in the Chancery. At the Province Chapter of 2010, Father John was elected Vicar Provincial of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation; he resigned from the Chancery in El Paso and became Pastor and Rector of the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio (Toledo Diocese). He was re-elected vicar at the Chapter of 2014. During his time in El Paso, Father John taught in the Tepeyac Institute for lay ministry, in the permanent diaconate formation programs for the Diocese of Las Cruces and El Paso, and was active in community organizing in an organization called EPISO. He was active in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue and frequently taught jointly with Rabbi Larry Bach of the Reformed Temple Mount Sinai. In the Franciscan Province Father John chaired the Peace and Justice Commission and the Finance Commission at different times and served a term as a definitor (provincial counselor) even prior to his election as vicar provincial. The Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation was founded in 1875 and features a statue of Our Lady from that time brought from the mother shrine in Luxembourg. The Conventual Franciscans were given guardianship of the Shrine in 1912. Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit the shrine each year from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, especially on the Feast of Mary’s Assumption in August. Bishop Stowe was ordained the third bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky on May 5, 2015.