About Us

About us – we, the people of St. Philip Catholic Church, as disciples of Jesus Christ, joyfully celebrate the Eucharist as a community and share and proclaim the Word of God to our neighbors.

Guided by the traditions of the past and with a clear focus on our future, St. Philip strives to retain the vision of those early families who struggled to bring the Catholic faith to Franklin by reaching out to the community. Today, St. Philip Catholic Church continues to do so as one of Franklin’s most dynamic Christian churches.

Our Priests

Office: 615-550-2832
FrEd@StPhilipFranklin.com

Father Edward F. Steiner, son of Edward & Mary Neligan Steiner, Jr., was born in Chattanooga. In 1976 his family moved to Clearwater, Florida but Father Ed, a senior in college, elected to continue his priestly studies for Nashville instead of moving to Florida. He has two younger sisters, Laura Steiner Wade, living in Odessa, Florida, and Elizabeth Steiner Herbst, whose family lives in Stuart, Florida. Father Ed’s father died in 1996. His mother, Mary, lives in Nashville.

Father Ed double-majored at Saint Meinrad Seminary College in Theatre (directing) and English (Creative Writing). He went on to study at the North American College in Rome and finished his graduate studies at The Catholic University of America. Father Ed later earned his Doctor of Ministry in Homiletics (D. Min.) from The Aquinas Institute of Theology at Saint Louis University. His experiences as a priest have been varied. In addition to his normal priestly assignments, he participated in Search & Rescue for 12 years as a bloodhound handler. He was a volunteer chaplain for the Nashville Police Department and at the behest of the Nashville Fire Department trained as a Critical Incident Stress Debriefer. Father Ed also spent six years as a civilian chaplain at Fort Campbell while serving as pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Clarksville. Currently Father serves as the Catholic Chaplain to the Tennessee Titans.

Father Ed loves to fish, primarily for bass. A history buff, he also loves to immerse himself in local history. (Of which there is an unlimited supply in Franklin!) Father Ed loves all things medical, and before God hit him with a two-by-four, was set to go pre-med. His television only has a few channels: history, science, engineering and, of course, football. His favorite color: green. His favorite food: at your house.

Fun Fact: St. Philip Church was founded in 1871 and initially was served by traveling priests. The first full-time residential pastor was Father John Alphonse Nolan, who was appointed pastor in 1898. Father Nolan’s Irish family had immigrated to Chattanooga, where connection was made through Father Ed’s mother’s family. It takes a bit of genealogical math but Father John Nolan’s Irish grandparents, John Nowlin and Margaret Alyward, are Father Ed’s great-great-great-grandparents!

Office: 615-794-8588
FrMichael@StPhilipFranklin.com

Father Michael Baltrus is originally from New Jersey. He came to Nashville in 2000 to pursue music and choir directing via Atlanta, Georgia. In 2001 he answered God’s call entering the seminary and was ordained by Bishop Choby in 2007. Since then much of his ministry has been with the Hispanics of the Diocese of Nashville which he will continue on Sundays at St. Luke’s in Smyrna.

Deacons & Staff

Deacons

Deacon Rafael Bougrat
DeaconRafael@StPhilipFranklin.com

Deacon Paul Brancheau
DeaconPaul@StPhilipFranklin.com

Deacon John Froning
DeaconJohn@StPhilipFranklin.com

Staff

Administration

Communication
Communicate@StPhilipFranklin.com

Faith Formation

Finance

Maintenance

Music & Liturgy

St. Philip Learning Center

Councils & Committees

Pastoral Council

Rod Foster, Chairperson
PastoralCouncil@StPhilipMinistries.com

Members
Tania Davilia
Ismael Fierro
David Hetzel
Maria Matta
Barb Weller
Clare Witter

Finance Council

Ed Scott, Chairperson
FinanceCouncil@StPhilipMinistries.com

Members

Alex Farias Cunningham
Greg Elliott
Joe St. Lawrence
Thomas Moore
Rebecca Obarski
Mike Ren

Annual Parish Financial Report

Discipleship Committee

George Tutaj, Chairperson
Discipleship@StPhilipMinistries.com

Members

Dave Bilger
Israel Cordero
Carol Guthrie
Edme Mendez
Dorothy Nichols
Pat Thompson
Ellen Marie Tutaj
Randy Valenti
Ana Zarraga

Discipleship Page

Sanctus

Proverbs 29:18 says that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.
~Elbert Hubbard

During the Parish Pastoral Council Retreat in January of 2017, the desire was expressed to do a thorough review of our work as a parish, and earnestly seek where God is calling us to be in the next 5-10 years. Because of this, the Rev. Ashley Abarca-Mitchell was invited to share about her work using the Appreciative Inquiry model with healthy parishes as a new approach to Visioning and Strategic planning.

She proposed that that during our time together we would focus on a healthy parish model set forth in Acts 2:42-47 modeling fellowship, discipleship, worship, ministry and evangelism. Our process work would focus on:

a. Clarity of mission and vision- the why
b. Authentic community
c. Communication

This would require 3 months of high intensity work on behalf of a leadership team and the entire parish and 12-60 months of implementation.

Prayer is first and foremost. We must begin with prayer- for the leadership team and the entire parish. During the first 30 days, we met with Priests, staff, leadership teams and core groups to ask questions, build relationships and gain insight into the questions we needed ask during our visioning sessions.

Below is a full report of the process