Bishop John Stowe is originally from Amherst, Ohio. After a year of community college, he joined the formation program for the Conventual Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Consolation at St. Bonaventure Friary in St. Louis, Missouri. He began studies in philosophy and history at St. Louis University and completed a bachelor of arts degree in each in 1990. He subsequently earned a master of divinity and a licentiate in church history from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California.
Bishop Stowe professed his solemn vows to the Conventual Franciscans in 1992 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1995. He has served in Texas as a pastor, moderator of the curia, and eventually as chancellor for the Diocese of El Paso. In 2010, he was elected vicar provincial of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation and became pastor and rector of the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio. In 2015, Pope Francis named him the third Bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky. Bishop Stowe currently serves as Bishop-President of Pax Christi USA, and the episcopal moderator of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia and of the Federaciones de Institutos Pastorales (FIP).
In this episode, we speak with Bishop Stowe about the influence of Franciscan and Jesuit spirituality on his early religious upbringing and approach to episcopal leadership, the relationship between faith and political life that is oriented toward the “common good,” and how the church can use the tools of community organizing to build coalitions of mutual interest and empowerment. We also discuss the need to move from discernment to action around the Synod, and Bishop Stowe shares at length about his “formative experience” on the border in El Paso and how the people of the region taught him “the importance of solidarity as a virtue.”
In tandem with this episode, Bishop Stowe and Pax Christi USA have kindly let us reproduce the text of the bishop’s reflection shared at a prayer vigil outside the headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 24. Further resources mentioned in the episode are available below.
See also:
Overview of Diocese of Lexington’s net-zero commitment and synodal initiatives
Season of Faithful Witness proposal
Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)
Tepeyac Institute (Formation Center for the Diocese of El Paso)
