Father Stafford was a curate at Saint Thomas from 1985 to 1991. He returned to the parish in 1996 as assisting priest, and as of September 1, 2004, he serves as pastor. Formerly Father Stafford was director of the Manhattan Plaza AIDS project, located in Hell’s Kitchen, where he worked since 1992. In 1982, Father Stafford came to New York City from his native Minnesota to work as the director of religious services at the Morningside House Nursing Home, formerly the St. Luke’s Home of the Diocese of New York. From 1980 to 1982 he was rector of St. Paul’s Church in Owatonna, Minnesota. He began his ministry in suburban North St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was vicar of St. Michael & All Angels’ mission from 1971 to 1973.

Graduating from the University of Minnesota, College of Liberal Arts, with a major in English literature in 1968, he went on to attend and graduate in 1971 from Nashotah House Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1979 he received an STM from the General Seminary in New York City, where he served as an adjunct professor of pastoral theology from 1985 to 1991.

Father Stafford has professional clinical experience and pastoral interest in the fields of substance abuse, family therapy, and sexual abuse.