Saint Stephen Congregation

Fr. Stephen Buting

Parochial Administrator
Phone: 414-762-0552 x222
Email: Click Here to Email

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It’s with a mixture of excitement and apprehension that I greet you for the first time as your new Administrator, Fr. Stephen of St. Stephen. Someone in the Archdiocese certainly enjoyed finalizing that assignment decision! Excitement for the new adventure we’re embarking on together, and apprehension for that very same reason. The future unknown is always a little scary, no matter what season of life you’re in, so I ask for your prayers as I settle into my role.

A short life story: born on the east side of Milwaukee and raised in Brookfield at St. Dominic’s, I went to Marquette High and then off at UW-Madison. I was raised Catholic by my parents and we were Sunday massgoers who thought faith was an important part of our family. My years at St. Dominic’s and Marquette High planted a lot of good seeds of faith that thrived in the soil of Madison’s Catholic campus ministry, St. Paul’s on State Street. Though it looked like a nuclear bunker from the outside and inside (it’s been completely rebuilt since I left), I found the Lord Jesus there in a new way and grew in my faith immensely throughout college. By the end of my junior year, I lived in a discernment house up in Shorewood at St. Robert’s and determined that seminary was the right next step after I was done at Madison. I joined seminary at St. Francis de Sales here in Milwaukee in August 2014 and was then sent the next year to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Italy. Five blessed years of formation, prayer, study, and friendship came to a noteworthy end in March 2020 when the world shut down and we were sent back to the US where I defended my license thesis via Zoom and ‘graduated’ by closing my laptop. I started my first parish assignment at Lumen Christi in Mequon in July of that year and spent three excellent years there. This last year has been down in Mukwonago, Eagle, and East Troy at the parishes of St. James the Less, St. Theresa of Avila and St. Peter the Apostle. My five years of priesthood have been rich with experience, and I look forward to learning from you and growing with you even as I lead you closer to the One who makes all things new.

May God bless you!

In Christ,
Fr. Stephen Buting