St. Joseph Catholic Community is grateful to host a number of presiders from other communities to celebrate Masses with us.  We enjoy their views and inspirational homilies, and we appreciate and welcome them into our Catholic Community.

Father Robert Fitzpatrick








Fr Fitz was born in New York City and attended grade school at Saint Mary's in Dumont, New Jersey, which now makes him Archbishop Hebda's "Jersey Boy."  When his Dad's job brought the family to Minnesota in 1961 he started high School at Benilde, but finished in 1965 at Saint Joseph in South Bend, Indiana.  Studebaker's demise took out lots of jobs in South Bend, including his Dad's, so he came back to Minnesota to attend Nazareth Hall and Saint Paul Seminary, including a year as the founding Senior Class of Saint John Vianney.  He was ordained at Saint Richard's in Richfield in June, 1973, and was assigned to Saint Olaf in downtown Minneapolis.  He was associate for seven years at Holy Spirit in Saint Paul and full time youth minister as well.  He was assigned as pastor to Saint John's in Little Canada in 1984, and moved to Saint Rose of Lima in Roseville in 2005.  Corpus Christi in Roseville was added to his responsibilities in 2012, an early 65th birthday present.  He "retired" July 1, 2018, continues to live in Roseville, and enjoys helping out various parishes in the community.



Father Robert Hazel








Fr. Robert Hazel, retired from St. Joseph (1999 - 2006) and the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, was ordained in 1966. His ministry included parish work in the Archdiocese, chaplaincy at the University of Minnesota and extended foreign mission service, both in Bombay, India and in Venezuela.


Father Tony Kilroy








Fr. Tony graduated from Duluth Cathedral High School in 1952, attended St. John’s University, entered the Dominican Order and was ordained in 1961 in Dubuque, IA. He served in three different parishes, St. Dominic Parish in New Orleans, LA, St. Albert the Great in Minneapolis and St. Joseph of the Lakes in Lino Lakes. In 1980, he went into full time preaching doing Parish Missions, retreats and Spiritual Direction. He enjoys attending parish activities and singing in choirs.


Father Steve LaCanne








Fr. Steve LaCanne retired in July 2015 ater 39 years in active ministry.  He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in 1976. He graduated from the University of St. Thomas and St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. He served as pastor for fifteen years, Director of Spiritual Care in a hospital for over eleven years and received extensive Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) for hospital ministry. He’s certified with the National Association for Catholic Chaplains. Fr. Steve works with Cross Catholic Outreach and has a passion for serving the sick, dying and those on the margins of society. He says: “healing wounds in the hearts of those who are suffering, especially the emotionally, spiritually and physically poor, expresses God’s love to those most in need. This is the call of the Gospel!”


Father Matthew Malek








Father Matthew was born in Richmond, Virginia, and raised in Lexington, Kentucky.  In May 2013, he received his Master of Divinity Degree from Washington Theological Union in Washington, DC.  Fr. Matthew, OFM Conv. was ordained by the Archbishop of Indianapolis in July 2013. Fr. Matthew's first assignment in priestly ministry was at St. Benedict Parish in Terre Haute, Indiana.  In October 2016, Fr. Matthew worked on his Master’s degree in counseling psychology at St. Mary’s University. Before joining the order, Fr. Matthew worked in education, mental health and workforce development. He enjoys preaching, counseling, cooking and gardening. He is a Virginia native.


Father Steven J. McMichael








Steven J. McMichael, OFM Conv., is an Associate Professor in the Theology Department at the University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, Minnesota). His interests include Franciscan studies and interreligious dialogue, especially Jewish-Christian and Muslim-Christian relations. He is currently researching and writing on the topic of the resurrection of Jesus (in medieval theology, preaching, and art) and especially the role of Mary Magdalene as resurrection witness. He continues to play hockey and tries to travel to Italy as much as possible. 


Father Martin Shallbetter









Father Martin retired in 2012 after serving as pastor of Ascension in Norwood Young America and St. Bernard in Cologne from 2005 to 2012. He has also ministered at St. Margaret Mary in Golden Valley (1969-1972), St. Luke in St. Paul (1972-1974), the archdiocese’s Vocations Office (1972-1978), Assumption in St. Paul (1974-1976), St. Anne in Minneapolis (1976-1977), Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Clement in Minneapolis (1977), St. Mary in Waverly (1977-1986), St. Edward in Bloomington (1986-1998) and St. Therese in Deephaven (1999-2005).

With his retirement in 2006, he joined Cross Catholic Outreach because of its message and service to the poorest of the poor and the realization that we can do something about that to bring peace, justice and service to others in the world. Fr. Hazel also continues his work with Retrouvaille, a marriage ministry to those who are in hurting or bad relationships.

Father Bill Whittier









Father Whittier is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of St.  Paul and Minneapolis. He was ordained in 1961, and served as pastor of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake from 1971-1978. He then served as pastor of St. Edward in Bloomington from 1979-1982 and became interested in ministering to alcoholics. As pastor of St. Bridget of Sweden in Lindstrom from 1982-1994, he ministered to people recovering from addiction at Hazelden. His training and passion brought him to work with alcoholics in India from 1994-1996.  Father Bill's last assignment at St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake, led him to the Philippines where he continued teaching addiction counseling at a college and helping people in addiction recovery. He returned to India to work with Kripa until 2011. In 2018, after four trips in a decade to Uganda, his work resulted in a gratifying new addiction treatment facility that was named after him.