Rev. Joseph E. Daniels, Pastor

Father Joseph E. Daniels, the son of the late Robert I. Daniels of the Bronx and Vivienne I. Miller of Jersey City, New Jersey was born on March 21, 1963in Jersey City and the Archdiocese of Newark. His two brothers are Robert, b. 1956, and Paul, b. 1967. His formative years were in Scotch Plains, New Jersey where he was a member of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle Parish and graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in 1981. He attended Saint Joseph University in Philadelphia and received both his college and major seminary formation at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey from where he received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1985 and a master of divinity in pastoral ministry in 1990.

Father Daniels’ first pastoral experience of the Diocese of Portland was in Lewiston as a seminarian pastoral intern at Central Maine Medical Center during the summer of 1987, residing at Saint Joseph Church. After acceptance as a seminarian for the Diocese of Portland, he served a pastoral internship at Saint Mary of the Visitation Church in Houlton. He was ordained to the diaconate on January 7, 1990 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland and was ordained to the priesthood on August 23, 1990 by Bishop Joseph Gerry, O.S.B. at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Boothbay Harbor, his family home since 1988 and a place to which he first came in 1964 as a year-old infant. That unfortunately does not qualify him as a true Mainer.

Since ordination to the priesthood, he served in his first assignment as parochial vicar at Saint Mary and Saint Joseph Churches in Presque Isle/Mars Hill and returned to assist his first pastor, Father Claude Albert at Holy Family – Lewiston in 1996 after serving as chaplain at Maine Medical Center in Portland and Saint Joseph College in Standish.

Father Daniels was the pastor of the four churches on Mount Desert Island from 1997 -2002 and at Saint Joseph Parish in Bridgton and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Mission in Fryeburg from 2002-2008.

Most recently, he served with Monsignor Marc Caron as parochial vicar, helping to found Prince of Peace Parish in Lewiston. He was the delegate of the area pastors for the governance of Trinity Catholic School and was instrumental in the formation of the new Saint Dominic Academy serving grades PK-12. He has also served on the board of Saint Dominic Regional High School in Auburn and Saint Andre Health Care Center in Biddeford Pool.

In 2003, he completed a License in Sacred Theology under the direction of Father James Keenan, S.J. and Thomas Shannon at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Society of Christian Ethics, an association of moral theologians and ethicists from around the globe who meet annually in January. He serves the Diocese teaching in the masters’ degree and formation program for the permanent diaconate, in cooperation with Loyola University New Orleans, and on task forces dealing with end-of-life care and marriage preparation.

Father Joe is also a lifelong railroad enthusiast and since the age of 12 has been the proud owner of four Irish Setters, the most recent being his beloved “William” whose great natural speed and exuberance led to the tragic death of this wonderful animal on May 16th this year.