Steve Niskanen

Steve Niskanen, CMF is a Catholic priest and a member of the Claretian Missionaries of the USA-Canada Province. He completed a Doctor of Ministry in Spirituality at Catholic Theological Union at Chicago in 2018 with a thesis-project entitled Creating an Open and Hospitable Environment for Addressing Sexual Diversity in Men’s Religious Formation Communities and published an article in Review for Religious in Winter 2022 based on his thesis entitled Shepherding Sexually Diverse Eros in Religious Formation. He participated in (and loved!) the Spiritual Direction Internship at Claret Center in 2020-2021 and is happy to be part of the team facilitating this year’s internship.He has served variously in parish (22 yrs.), vocation (4 yrs.), and formation ministry (8 yrs.) in Texas, California, and since 2012, in Chicago. Currently, Steve is on the formation team for students of his Claretian community at their residence in Hyde Park. He is an advocate for justice for immigrants and for openness to LGBTQ persons’ experience. He sees spiritual direction as a sacred privilege of walking together with another, helping them to become aware of and to respond to God’s presence and movement in their evolving life story.  Steve is bilingual in Spanish and English. He hails from Seattle, Washington (go Mariners!) and enjoys hiking, preaching, music, and photography. And popcorn!