Meet our Pastor, Rev. Fr. Stephen J. Parlet

Father Steve is one of four children originally from South Dakota.  He originally received his call to the priesthood in eighth grade, but he sent the call to "voicemail".  He studied electrical engineering and computer science and received his degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  After graduation, he had a conversion experience and decided to finally answer his "voicemail".  After spending a year in Israel while in Seminary, he was ordained in 1997.

Father Steve was pastor at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Colorado Springs from 2000-2007 prior to coming to Buena Vista where he is pastor for St. Rose of Lima and pastor at St. Joseph Mission in Fairplay.  He likes to hunt, fish and hike.  He also likes boats, four-wheeling in his Jeep, researching his family geneology and classic comedy movies.

Deacon Mr. Russ Barrows

Deacon Russ is the first of three siblings who were born in Denver.  His summers consisted of swimming, and neighborhood play, and taking a few camping trips to the Arkansas Valley on weekends where his family fished and hiked up and down the Collegiate Peaks.

Although interested in Aviation, with eyesight below 20/20 he moved to his next academic areas of interest: mathematics and chemistry.  Long story short, he graduated from Metropolitan State College with degrees in chemistry and mathematics, University of Idaho, with a master’s degree in Chemistry, and finally from the University of Denver with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry.

He has worked in Washington State, joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Denver and worked for Lockheed Martin as a Contamination Engineer.   After ten years of Aerospace Engineering, he joined the Chemistry faculty at Metropolitan State University and spent 25 years rising through the ranks to become a full Professor of Organic Chemistry.  At the end of December of 2018, he retired and he and his wife Darcy moved to Buena Vista.

None of this sounds very “Deacon-ish”, but in the middle of work and family life, he entered the Diaconate program for the Archdiocese of Denver in 1995 and was ordained a Deacon in June of 2000.  Over the next eighteen years, he was assigned to four different parishes in the Denver area.  He was also a Catholic Chaplin at the Jefferson County Detention Center.  After retiring and moving to the Diocese of Colorado Springs, he was assigned to St. Rose of Lima in Buena Vista, where he now serves the church community and continues with prison ministries at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex.