Father Dean Stasell is from Plainfield, Illinois, and had always kept the idea of the priesthood a possibility, as risky as that was. In June 1983, Father Dean entered the novitiate of the Legionaries of Christ in Cheshire, Connecticut, and made his religious profession in September 1985. He studied humanities in Salamanca, Spain, and continued his philosophy and theology studies in Rome. Father Dean was ordained a priest for the Legionaries of Christ on November 25, 1994.
During his first years of priesthood, Father Dean was doing vocational work, the superior of a community and always on the road—going from Miami, Florida, on the East Coast to the Eugene, Oregon, on the West Coast. A big change came when he was sent to Chihuahua, Mexico, in August 1998 to help get the Regnum Christi Federation and the Everest School going and growing. At the time, Father Dean was the superior and director of Regnum Christi sections and doing just about everything in the state of Chihuahua. He is grateful that he was sent there at a young age to work with such wonderful people who taught him so much and who did so much. Father Dean was also chaplain at Everest School in Chihuahua and named chaplain for the Chihuahua Men’s Trail Riders.
After spending 12 years in Chihuahua, Father Dean was assigned to the Philippians from September 2010 to August 2011. Then, he moved to Los Angeles to be superior of the community and help at the Hispanic radio station for Guadalupe Radio in August of 2011. In 2015, the Legion asked Father Dean to return to Chihuahua, Mexico, to help strengthen the community of Legionaries of Christ and the apostolates and to serve as the local superior for the community. In June of 2020 (during COVID), Father Dean took courses and did a year of renewal. In May 2021, he returned to the United States to be close to his elderly parents. On January 6, 2022, Father Dean arrived in Cincinnati and is grateful to be serving as the assistant chaplain to all the chaplains in the community. Father Dean has many likes, but his favorites are horseback riding and hiking. Spare time is used for contemplating, praying and helping register horses for a horse breeder down in Chihuahua, Mexico.