New priest appointed to local parishes

PORTLAND — Bishop Robert P. Deeley has announced that the Rev. Edward R. Clifford has been appointed pastor of St. Joseph Parish (St. Joseph Church, Bridgton; St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, Fryeburg) and St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish (St. Catherine of Sienna Church, Norway; Our Lady of Ransom Church, Mechanic Falls; St. Mary Church, Oxford) effective July 1.

Since August of 2016, Clifford has served as parochial vicar of St. Michael Parish (St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Augusta; St. Augustine Church, Augusta; St. Joseph Church, Gardiner; Sacred Heart Church, Hallowell; St. Denis Church, Whitefield; St. Francis Xavier Church, Winthrop).

A native of Shawmut, he attended Yarmouth High School but graduated from high school in Milford, Ohio in 1981. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Dayton in Ohio and a master’s degree in public administration at the University of Maine in Orono. In 2014, he earned a second master’s degree (divinity) from Pope Saint John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts.

Clifford was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Robert P. Deeley on June 14, 2014, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. Upon his ordination, Clifford was named parochial vicar for the Portland Peninsula and Island Parishes (Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Parish, Portland; Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Parish, Portland; St. Christopher Parish, Peaks Island; St. Louis Parish, Portland; St. Peter Parish, Portland).

Prior to entering the seminary, he had a 20-year career in municipal government, serving local governments in executive positions in Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania; Norwich, Connecticut; and Biddeford.