Father Joe
Rankin is from Louisville and grew up in the west and south ends of the city
having attended
grade school at St. Thomas More, Sacred Heart, St. John Vianny, and later at St.
Mary in Lanesville, Indiana. He went to high school seminary with the Comboni
Missionaries, later going to college at Xavier University in Ohio and completing
his theological training in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1979.
After ordination he supervised high school seminarians for four years and then
was assigned to the foreign
missions in Esmeradlas, Ecuador. While there, he was pastor of a parish and
director of seminarian formation and youth ministry. From there he was
transferred to Kitchener, Ontario where he did mission and vocation promotion.
Since Father Joe’s return to Louisville in 1990 he has been the associate pastor
at St. Athanasius, pastor at St. Monica and then St. Francis of Assisi. He
was assigned to St. Rita on June 22, 2005.
