Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, Rector Major of the Salesian
Society, has appointed Fr. Steve Shafran as the next provincial of the Eastern
U.S.-Canada Province. Fr. Steve will begin his six-year term of service on July
1, 2015.
The announcement was published on January 21 by Fr. Tom
Dunne in a letter to the members of the province and then in the January 22 E-Service.
Fr. Steve is currently serving as president of Don Bosco
Cristo Rey HS and Corporate Work Study Program in Takoma Park, Md. He organized
the founding of the school starting in 2006 in collaboration with the Archdiocese
of Washington, which co-sponsors the school with the SDBs. The school, which is
part of the nationwide Cristo Rey Network, opened in the fall of 2007 and
graduated its first class in 2011.
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| Recruiting DBCR's first freshman class in December 2006 |
Fr. Steve, 58, was born in Passaic, N.J., and raised in
Clifton. His family is of Ukrainian origin and are members of the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church. After graduating from Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey in 1974, Steve
entered the SDB formation program at Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton,
N.J., that fall and was admitted to the novitiate on August 31, 1975. He made
his first profession of religious vows on September 1, 1976.
Bro. Steve earned his B.A. in philosophy from Don Bosco
College in 1979 and then did two years of practical training as a teacher at
St. Dominic Savio High School in East Boston.
Bro. Steve studied theology at the Salesian Pontifical
University and the Ukrainian Pontifical College of St. Josaphat in Rome from
1981 to 1984, earning a bachelor’s in theology from the UPS. Transferring to
the Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, where most SDBs of the New Rochelle
Province studied from 1967 till the late 1990s, he earned an M.A. in theology.
He was ordained on May 5, 1985, at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Cathedral in
Philadelphia.
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| With DBCR students, welcoming the Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez, to the school, Sept. 26, 2007 |
Fr. Steve also did graduate studies at the University of San
Francisco, earning a doctorate in education in 1994. His dissertation is
entitled The Educational Method of Saint
John Bosco as School Culture in the Salesian High Schools in the United States.
He has given addresses at the National Catholic Educational
Association’s conventions on youth spirituality.
He has at least a reading knowledge of Italian, Spanish,
Ukrainian, Slovak, and Russian. He also has a magnificent singing voice and has
cut two CDs as fundraisers, Songs That
Inspire My Life and A Christmas
Collection.
Fr. Steve has had priestly assignments at Salesian HS in New
Rochelle as a teacher and campus minister (1985-1986); the province’s vocation
office in Haverstraw (1986-1988) and Harvey (1988-1990); Archbishop Shaw HS in
Marrero as principal (1990-1993); Corpus Christi Parish in San Francisco while
studying (1993-1994); Salesian Center in Columbus as director (1994-1998); Don
Bosco Prep in Ramsey as director/president (1998-2004) and development director
(2004-2006); and DBCR in Takoma Park as president since 2006. He was also a
member of the provincial council from 1997 to 2006 with responsibility for
formation programs.
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| Concelebrating with then-Abp. Donald Wuerl at DBCR's Mass of the Holy Spirit, Sept. 7, 2010 |
In his announcement to the province, Fr. Tom Dunne described
Fr. Steve as “a man rich in faith who like our father Don Bosco gives witness
daily to a life centered on God and the young. He lives as a brother among his
brothers, with concern for the confreres. . . . Fr. Steve has an amazing
ability to work with the Church in making Don Bosco’s mission effective with
the young, especially those who are poor. He has a proven ability to inspire
many business leaders, local leaders, and lay people to collaborate for the
good of the poorest young people. . . . He is esteemed and loved by many lay
colleagues and members of the Salesian Family.”
About his upcoming responsibilities Fr. Steve offers this: “‘God
writes straight with crooked lines in our lives.’ I am humbled by this call to
a deeper service as a Salesian of Don Bosco. I have always been surprised at
what the Lord can do if I keep close to Him and Mary. I’ve seen that up close
in founding Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School and Corporate Work Study
Program. I am the son of Ukrainian immigrants who knew suffering and sacrifice,
teaching me to work hard and never forget God. I am my mother Olga’s son; she
taught me to smile and sing, and what family really means. I have grown with
the Salesians of Don Bosco since I was 13, and they have nurtured me as fathers
and brothers, as mentors and friends with deep love to see the face of Jesus in
the young—and then all else follows. I am grateful to our rector major for the
trust and confidence he has in me in response to this call from God as he
reminded me, ‘Courage; you are not alone.’ And I am grateful to our provincial
Fr. Tom Dunne for his great leadership and inspiration. During this bicentennial
year of the birth of Don Bosco and Year of Consecrated Life, I recommit myself
to this new call to service and ask for the grace truly to be ‘Like Don Bosco,
for the young, with the young’ [citing the Salesian Family’s 2015 strenna].”
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| At DBCR's 1st graduation ceremony, June 2, 2011, in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in D.C., Fr. Steve flips the tassel of one of the grads |
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