Staff Member: Father John Keehner
Father John Keehner
Pastor
Phone: 3304992201
Email: Click Here to Email
Fr. John Keehner, born in 1965, and one of five children born to John and Betty Goist Keehner, is a native of Youngstown, Ohio and a product of the Austintown Public Schools. After graduating from Austintown-Fitch High School in 1984, he attended the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio where he received a B.A. in English Literature in 1988. He then proceeded to Mount Saint Mary Seminary of the West in Cincinnati for his seminary formation, receiving a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies in 1993. He was ordained a deacon by Bishop James Malone on December 12, 1992 and a priest by Bishop Malone on June 12, 1993. Fr. Keehner served as Parochial Vicar at St. Charles Parish in Boardman, Ohio before going to Rome for further studies in Canon Law at the Angelicum, from 1997 to 1999. After receiving his License in Canon Law, he returned to the Diocese of Youngstown and began working full time in the Department of Canonical Services until 2012. In 2000 he was named Vice Rector of St. Columba Cathedral. He was named Director of Campus Ministry at the Newman Center at Youngstown State University in 2003, serving there until 2007, when he was named Rector of St. Columba Cathedral and pastor of St. Casimir Parish. In September of 2012, he became Pastor of St. Christine Parish in Youngstown and in addition pastor of St. Luke Parish in Boardman in 2017. In August of 2018, he became Pastor of St. Paul Parish in North Canton. His main hobby is genealogy. He also currently serves as State Chaplain and National Assistant Chaplain for the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the oldest Catholic organization for men of Irish descent in America. He enjoys reading and writing and studying his Irish heritage. His favorite saints are John the Baptist, Edith Stein, and Columba of Iona, the patron saint of the Diocese of Youngstown.
