The election of a new provincial leader and council took place during the 49th provincial chapter June 1-5 in Wisconsin
MANITOWOC, Wis. — Bro. Steven Kropp, OFM Cap., the former director of the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit, has been elected to serve as the provincial minister of the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph for the next three years, and will be joined on the newly elected leadership team by several Michigan-based Capuchin brothers.
Bro. Kropp will assume leadership for his first term immediately, following in the footsteps of Bro. Mark Joseph Costello, OFM Cap., who led the province from 2020-26. The transition was determined during the St. Joseph Province of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin’s 49th provincial chapter, June 1-5, in Manitowoc, Wis.
Established in 1857 at Mt. Calvary, Wis., the Midwest Capuchins are part of an international community of friars following the rule of St. Francis of Assisi. The brothers of the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph, headquartered in Detroit, serve in various ministries, including social service, schools, chaplaincy, a retreat house and parishes in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and to indigenous people on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations in southeastern Montana.
Bro. Kropp, a native of Hartford, Wis., was invested with the Capuchin habit in 1997 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2004. His ministerial background includes serving at the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit, including as its director from 2021 to 2025. Bro. Kropp served as director of postulancy and fraternal collaboration from 2015-17 and provincial vicar from 2017-20.
Most recently, as of June 2025, he left Detroit to become the pastor of the Capuchin parishes on the Crow Reservation parishes in southeast Montana.
“I am truly humbled to serve my brother Capuchins and the people of God,” Bro. Kropp said. “The Capuchins of the Province of St. Joseph have been serving the Church and those in need for more than 150 years, modeling the Gospel in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi. My brother Capuchins and I will continue to advance this work in the years ahead, and we ask for your continued prayers.”
In addition to the election of Bro. Kropp, four new provincial council members were elected to advise the provincial minister, including first councilor and provincial vicar Bro. Nicholas Blattner, OFM Cap., who ministers in Detroit in the office of provincial ministries and human resources; second councilor Bro. William Hugo, OFM Cap., who currently ministers as the rector/president of St. Lawrence Seminary High School in Mt. Calvary, Wis.; third councilor Bro. Igor De Bliquy, OFM Cap., who ministers at the Capuchin Retreat Center in Washington Township and as director of communications; and fourth councilor Bro. Roach Gaspar, OFM Cap., who is currently ministering as director of post novitiate and ministry formation in Chicago.
The provincial council will also serve a three-year term, set to expire in 2029.
