Stump the Priests

Fr. Tim Ralston is Pastor of the Stella Maris Family of Parishes. Originally from Georgetown, OH, he studied Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. He went on to seminary at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary and was ordained a priest on May 22, 2010. He served as Parochial Vicar of St. Charles Borromeo in Kettering and Holy Trinity, St. Mary, and St. Anthony in Coldwater. In 2017 he was named Pastor of St. Bernadette in Amelia, and Stella Maris in 2022.

Fr. McCarthy was ordained in 2007. He has served in four assignments, three as Pastor, before coming to Clermont County. He is the only full-time priest for the four parishes of Holy Family. Originally from Maryland, he came to Cincinnati for school, then stayed for work. Eventually, he entered the seminary for Cincinnati at age 30.

Fr. Thomas Dorn currently serves as the Parochial Vicar at the Stella Maris Family of Parishes. He was ordained a priest on May 24, 2003. He is a Cincinnati native, attending grade school at St. Gertrude Parish, high school at St. Xavier, college at the University of Cincinnati, and seminary at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary.

Fr. William Wagner was ordained by Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin on June 2, 1973. He earned a BA from the Athenaeum of Ohio, an M. Div. from the Athenaeum, and MA in History from Xavier, and a MSW from UC. He has held numerous appointments across Cincinnati. Most recently, he was the Pastor of St. Thomas More for 21 years. He currently serves as Senior Parochial Vicar for Stella Maris.

A lifelong east-sider, Father Anthony hails from Amelia, Ohio (parishioner of St. Bernadette). He grew up in a strong Catholic family and is one of 7 children (5 girls and 2 boys). Father Anthony was homeschooled up to seventh grade, graduated from Amelia High School in 2012, and attended Franciscan University in Steubenville. During his college summers, he worked at Moonlite Gardens, where he bussed and bartended wedding receptions and small concerts. Father Anthony entered seminary after college, was ordained on May 15th, 2021, and his first assignment was as parochial vicar of the East-side region of St Mary’s Hyde Park, St. Anthony’s, and St. Cecilia’s, Cincinnati. Fr Anthony is now a student-priest in Rome working on a License/Doctorate in Liturgy and Sacraments in order to teach at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary and form future priests and laity of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

I grew up on a farm with four older siblings in a small town called “Russia” in Ohio, pronounced “ROO-SHE”, which apparently is the French pronunciation of the country of the same name. I have fond memories of working out in the fields on an old John Deere 4020 tractor. In my upbringing, my Dad always made sure to tell us kids to give praise to God for all things; the Sun, the rain, the harvest, and the very land itself. I did not know it at the time, but this idea echoes Psalm 148, which I now pray regularly in my prayers as a priest. I have eighteen nieces and nephews. Before becoming a priest, I was a Machinist. It was while I was working in a machine shop that I heard the call to be a priest. I have been ordained for ten years and I would say that my favorite part of being a priest is helping people turn away from the world and back to God.

Fr. Jacob Boddicker is a Jesuit priest serving at St. Xavier Church in downtown Cincinnati. A native of the great state of Iowa, he joined the Society of Jesus in 2006 and was ordained in 2017, serving four years as the pastor of two parishes on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. At the end of August he will conclude his four-year mission in Cincinnati and begin a six-month assignment in Sri Lanka preparing for his final vows.