Diocese of Bridgeport

So, uh, it's my pleasure introducing Stacy Stuber.

Um, since 2024, she has been the superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Bridgeport.

Stacy is a lifelong educator and administrator with a master's in Catholic school leadership and an advanced certificate from Fordham University in school district leadership.

And Father Chris Ford has been with us before.

Uh, Father Ford was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport on June 1st, 2019.

He is Episcopal Vicar for Education and Formation, Director of Seminarians, and pastor of Notre Dame of Easton Parish.

Um, and, uh, Father has a PhD in administration and supervision, uh, church and non-public school leadership from Fordham.

Let's say three and a half million dollars for scholarships.

If 10,000 Catholics in this diocese of Bridgeport participated in the federal tax credit, scholarship tax credit, 10,000 of them, that would raise $17 million.

So that is five times more So to your point, there is an absolute need to make sure everyone knows about the program, they're free to enter or not, but no one should be ignorant of the program and say, oh, if I had known, I would have.

That should not be an option, in my humble opinion, going

And he became a good friend in later years, Father Bill Charbonneau.

And he would, he blessed the place, but he had to get permission from the Diocese of Bridgeport in order to do an exorcism, which at the time is what we believe was necessary.

Frankly, I don't think it would have done any good.

But we couldn't get that.

After her conversion to the Catholic faith, she obtained a doctorate in sacred theology before going on to study canon law at the Catholic University of America.

And since June 2025, she's been the first lay director of the Tribunal of the Diocese of Bridgeport in Connecticut.

So welcome, Dawn, to Canonically Speaking, and I wonder if you'd like to fill in, I mean, I know you could say a lot, but if you could give a, a sort of summary, really, of your journey to the church.

Uh, thanks so much, Father Paul.

I think it did happen shortly after he died, but it wasn't sustained.

So in the meantime, I simply privately ask his intercession, and I know many other people who do, too.

What is your present involvement in canon law? I mentioned at the beginning that you're on the tribunal in the Diocese of Bridgeport.

At this time, I am director of the tribunal and, uh, an ecclesiastical judge.

Keep digging, Steve.

Patrick Donovan is the director of the Institute for Catholic Formation here in the Diocese of Bridgeport.

And he's going to talk to us today about this really cool idea and this new initiative.

And I'm not going to spoil it.