Born:
Jeffrey Marc Monforton was born in Detroit on May 5, 1963, to Marc Louis Monforton and Virginia Rose (Ackerman) Monforton. He is the eldest of three sons. David is the middle son and Daniel is the youngest.
Education:
Bishop Monforton attended Tinkham Elementary School in Westland, followed by his attendance at John Marshall Junior High and graduation from Wayne Memorial High School in Wayne.
Bishop Jeffrey Monforton attended Wayne State University after which he entered Sacred Heart Major Seminary and subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in 1989. While residing at the North American College in Rome he received his Bachelor of Sacred Theology (STB) in 1992 and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Later, as a priest, he was awarded a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Ordained:
On June 25, 1994, Bishop Monforton was ordained a priest at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, by Archbishop Adam Maida.
Assignments after Ordination:
Following ordination, he served in the Archdiocese of Detroit as associate pastor at the National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, from 1994 through 1996. He also served on the faculty at the parish high school for two academic years in the Department of Religion.
Bishop Monforton served as personal priest secretary to Cardinal Adam Maida for seven years, from 1998-2005. In addition to his responsibilities to Cardinal Maida, he was a member of the Sacred Heart Major Seminary faculty from 2002-2012. Weekend assistant assignments included St. Paul on the Lake, Grosse Pointe Farms, from 1998-2002, and St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Sterling Heights, from 2002-2005.
In April of 2005, he traveled with Cardinal Maida to the Vatican and remained there for the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II, the conclave, and the election of Pope Benedict XVI.
Bishop Monforton became pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Church, Shelby Township, on July 1, 2005. Also in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI conferred upon him the title of Monsignor as Chaplain to His Holiness.
He was named an Apostolic Visitor by the Congregation for Catholic Education to participate in the Apostolic Visitation of United States' seminaries and houses of formation in the academic year of 2005-2006.
He was a member of the Madonna University Board of Trustees from 2006 through 2012.
Bishop Monforton was named by Cardinal Maida the twelfth rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary on August 24, 2006. He was formally installed as rector on October 29. Since 2008, he has been a Board Member of the American Friends of the Vatican Library.
He is a Fourth-Degree member of the Knights of Columbus; he was invested as a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in Chicago, Illinois in September of 2011.
Bishop Monforton concluded his six-year term as Sacred Heart's rector on May 5, 2012. He served as pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Rochester, Michigan, for only two short months before being named as the fifth Bishop of Steubenville.
Episcopate:
On July 3, 2012, Msgr. Monforton was named as the fifth bishop of Steubenville. He was ordained and installed as bishop on September 10, 2012.
His episcopal motto is, “Faith Comes From Hearing.”
Since his appointment as Bishop of Steubenville, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 2012-2018, as well as a member of the Development Committee of the PNAC.
Since 2012, he has served on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, and in 2019 was named Chairman of the Subcommittee. In 2019, Bishop Monforton became a member of the USCCB Committee on National Collections.
Since 2013, he has served on the Board of Regents and the Priestly Formation Board at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, PA.
In 2018, he accepted the position of Episcopal Moderator to the Diocesan Information Solutions Community (DISC).
Also, in 2019, Bishop Monforton was named a member of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of Priestly Formation and Seminary Life Committee at the Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, Ohio.
In 2020, The USCCB appointed Bishop Monforton a member of the Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and Evangelization and Catechesis committees.
In 2021, Bishop Monforton became a member of the Episcopal Advisory Board for the Diocesan Rosary Congresses.
Bishop Monforton was an adjunct faculty member at Franciscan University of Steubenville from 2013-19. On May 10, 2014, Bishop Monforton was awarded an honorary doctorate in Sacred Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville
In 2020, the bishop authored a book, "Ask the Bishop: Questions and Answers Over the Years." This is a result of seven years (2012-19) of Bishop Monforton’s evangelization initiative.
Bishop Monforton was a regular presenter on three different Catholic radio stations heard throughout the Ohio Valley.
