Rev. Bret J. Stockdale S.J., Associate Pastor joined the pastoral staff of St. Anthony's in August 2018. Since his ordination in 2013, he has served as a member of the Campus Ministry team at Fairfield University and as Chaplain at Fairfield College Preparatory School. In addition, he has been working on a Doctorate in Ministry at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC focusing on liturgical catechesis. He hopes to complete his degree this fall.

Fr. Stockdale, S.J. was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. He’s a 1993 graduate of St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1997. After college, he worked for a year in the mutual funds industry. 

Soon, he realized he was called elsewhere, and took a position in the Office of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Worcester in his hometown. For the next year, Fr. Stockdale organized retreats and special events for the diocese before accepting a job as a youth minister at St. Luke the Evangelist in Westborough, Massachusetts.

While working at St. Luke’s Parish, Fr. Stockdale enrolled in the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry where he earned his Master of Divinity degree in 2003. Some classmates there included students preparing to become Jesuit priests. His conversations with the Jesuits, combined with his work during the summer of 2002 at World Youth Day in Toronto, convinced him that his discernment was leading him to a vocation with the Society of Jesus.

After two years at the Jesuit novitiate, Fr. Stockdale was missioned to Loyola University Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree in philosophy as well as a master’s degree in social work.

For his regency assignment, Fr. Stockdale taught history and theology for three years at Fairfield College Preparatory School in Connecticut and worked with the school’s campus ministry office.

Next, Fr. Stockdale returned to the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, where he earned a Licentiate in Sacred Theology while serving as a deacon at St. Luke’s Parish, the same church where he had worked as a youth minister more than a decade earlier.

Fr. Stockdale is a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus and has served as Chaplain to the Fairfield 
University’s college council and to the Prep’s Squires). He is also an Eagle Scout and has been active in Catholic Scouting in Fairfield.