Father Charles Cappelli\u2019s<\/a> familial influence, growing up with both parents Carl and Susan Cappelli and a pair of brothers attending Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Doylestown, delivered what he called a really solid upbringing in the faith. He said his mother converted to Catholicism after his parents married.<\/p>\nFather Cappelli\u2019s paternal grandparents modeled Catholic devotion that stays with him to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother (and) my grandfather had a huge devotion to Padre Pio. My grandmother still does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Father Cole said that Mass and devotions at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Southampton were the most important part of his childhood family life. He celebrated his first Mass there on May 17.<\/p>\n
His mother\u2019s vocation as a theology teacher was a constant faithful presence to him alongside his father Quentin and Father Declan\u2019s six siblings. Mary Cole\u2019s strong spirit of missionary discipleship within the household nurtured the seeds of her son\u2019s vocation in his early years.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be cool to be a priest?\u2019\u201d the young priest remembers his mother saying. \u201c\u2018Imagine getting to save souls. Imagine getting to hear confessions, bring people to God.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the new priests say their families attended countless events at St. Charles Seminary while continuing to support their sons and brothers through the tough times that invariably come to any student away from home in their formative years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go home and I\u2019m stressed about exams or busy, they\u2019ll encourage me,\u201d Father Cappelli said. \u201cThere\u2019s a rosary group that prays for vocations at my home parish, and my parents joined that when I entered seminary.\u201d<\/p>\n
The extensive priestly formation that each new priest has received in seminary has created a role reversal at home. The priests now are teaching more details about the Catholic faith to their parents and siblings, an opposite pattern from their childhood.<\/p>\n
Father Cipolla said his parents would see him pray the Liturgy of the Hours, or Divine Office, a prayer that clergy, religious, and seminarians commit to praying throughout each day as a life habit. The liturgy, prayed either individually or with others at prescribed hours of the day, features prayers and readings from Scripture including the Psalms.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom was interested\u201d in praying the office, Father Cipolla said. \u201c\u2018Oh mom, you should check this out,\u2019\u201d he told her. \u201c\u2019Start with Night Prayer. It\u2019s kind of short and easy to do. It\u2019s always the same each day,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cShe started doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their studies in seminary and catechesis in their homes no doubt will find their way into future homilies at their first parish assignments, capping a truly life-changing experience last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just pray that Tom\u2019s joy and love for his faith will help others,\u201d said Elena Cipolla. \u201cHis life will not be easy, but his inner joy and love for his faith is what our Church needs. He has influenced us in his devotion to prayer and his reverence for the Eucharist. I am so excited for all the families and for our Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Father Cappelli says he\u2019ll be able to thank all those who have influenced his faith by giving them a gift that literally means \u201cthanksgiving:\u201d the Eucharist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cI look at my family. They gave me the gift of my faith. I look at my parish. They helped form me in my faith. I look at my friends. They all encouraged me and supported me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son is spending his life selling eternal salvation and the Lord. Wow! That is humbling,\u201d his dad Carl said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pray that God gives him strength to lead, the strength to open people\u2019s hearts, minds, and souls. He will be the George Bailey (of \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d) of the Catholic Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those supporters will also gain an advantage by having a son, brother or friend become a priest as they have an open invitation to Christ in the Eucharist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they\u2019ve already told me how excited they are, that I can now celebrate Mass for them all, wherever they want,\u201d said Father Cole, \u201cand in their house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or maybe at school for Mom\u2019s students, where she\u2019ll tell them to do whatever her priestly son tells them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted June 24, 2026 Mary Cole can repeat the words of the Virgin Mary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[88229,88231,98646,8364,69158,69,71,70,83592],"class_list":["post-227318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-father-charles-cappelli","tag-father-declan-cole","tag-father-thomas-cipolla","tag-jay-sorgi","tag-ordination","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-scbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}