Fr. Steven Kuehn, OFM, a former Navy pilot, a 2003 U.S. Naval Academy graduate, and the son of an Annapolis graduate, knows what it’s like to be part of a team focused on mission.
As a friar, he’s found a similar vibe.
“The similarity is that in the Navy, there’s a group you have a common goal, you are working together,” he said from St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York, where he serves as campus chaplain. In the Navy, he said, “there’s a spirit of camaraderie. I feel that in the Franciscans as well.”
While in the Navy, Fr. Steve piloted 332 helicopter missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He also served as a senior officer on the USS Ronald Reagan.
Towards the end of his military career, Fr. Steve began to feel the tug of religious life. He comes from a devout family, and his father was both a Naval officer and a professor at the Naval Academy. His family was surprised but supportive about his post-Navy plans.
“I felt the desire to serve the poor,” he said, noting he began investigating various religious communities. He had no previous experience with the Franciscans but, then serving in San Diego, he connected with the friars in Santa Barbara, California, and learned about them by attending profession ceremonies and experiencing vocation retreats.
He found, “they seemed like pretty good guys, down to earth. I felt I could connect with them.” After leaving the Navy, he moved back to the East Coast and in 2015 became a postulant, professed final vows in 2021 and was ordained a priest in 2023.
As a friar in training, he ministered with the Missionaries of Charity and Little Sisters of the Poor in Washington, D.C.; food charities and a jail ministry in Chicago; with St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia, and St. Francis churches in Milwaukee and New York City.
At St. Bonaventure, he is involved in a different kind of ministry through an active campus ministry. Students come together regularly for Mass, Bible study, men’s and women’s spiritual support groups, and a “Blessing of the Brains” prayer service held before final exams. Students also live out their faith via service projects, including working in a soup kitchen and providing mentorship for local youths.
As chaplain, he is there to accompany the students on their faith journeys. That can mean everything from celebrating Christmas Mass, a week before the actual feast day as the students embark on winter break, or enjoying a film about Saint Mother Cabrini, followed by discussion with students.
Fr. Steve said students at St. Bonaventure are drawn to Catholic faith because, even as they live in sometimes trying times, they recognize “a God who loves all of us” and find, through the church, a team that inspires them to live out that love. He’s found students hungry for community after emerging from Covid isolation.
As for himself, Father Steve told OSV News in a recent interview that he is grateful for finding a community through the friars and their mission to the poor.
“With the friars, I’ve really appreciated the brotherhood. We stress fraternity, the community, and also care for the vulnerable, the poor. Those things have really given me life in these last few years as a friar. That direct service to the poor, it’s shown me God’s care for all people. And I’m just grateful for this way of life,” he said.
