BRIDGEPORT—Father Christopher Ford has been named Director of Seminarians by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano. The appointment is effective July 1.
He will succeed Father Joseph Marcello, who will be stepping down as Director of Seminarians to focus on his service as Pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Trumbull.
“I am immensely grateful for the leadership and spiritual fatherhood Father Marcello has given to our seminarians over the past years. In particular, he has helped shepherd our largest ordination class in ten years through the final years of their formation and preparation,” said Bishop Caggiano.
In appointing Father Ford to the post, the bishop noted that the recent revisions to the Program of Priestly Formation, Sixth Edition, place a significant emphasis on relationship and personal accompaniment in the process of formation (cf. PPF6, no. 91-92).
“Having served as Diocesan Director of Vocations since 2020, Father Ford accompanied many of our current seminarians through at least part of their discernment or application process, and, therefore, has had the opportunity to cultivate personal relationships with the seminarians and is well positioned to succeed Father Marcello in this role. Father Ford will continue in his other assignments.
“Please join me in expressing my gratitude to Father Marcello for the work he has done to accompany our seminarians thus far, and I also ask for prayers for Father Ford and our seminarians as they continue their formation,” the bishop said.
Father Ford was ordained a priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport on June 1, 2019. A native of Naugatuck, Conn., Father Ford is the youngest of four siblings. He attended St. Francis of Assisi School and Naugatuck High School before graduating from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven in 2011 with a degree in Political Science. Father Ford then worked in the Department of Residence Life at Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA, while obtaining a Master of Education degree in Evaluation & Measurement from Kent State University (OH) in May 2013. He entered St. John Fisher Seminary in August 2013 and earned his M.Div./S.T.B. degree from St. Joseph Seminary (Dunwoodie) in Yonkers, N.Y. before his ordination in 2019. Father Ford began his priestly ministry in 2019 at St. Gregory the Great Parish in Danbury.
(For information on the diocesan Office of Vocations diocesan vocations and exploring Religious Life, visit: www.bridgeportdiocese. org/vocations/home.)
