By Jay Sorgi • Posted May 14, 2026

This profile is part of a series highlighting each of the eight men to be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 16.

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Deacon Charles Cappelli knew something was missing in his life. He needed to answer a call that came to him in missionary discipleship: would he become a minister of sacramental grace for those he loves?

That answer will come definitively on Saturday, May 16 at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, when Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez will ordain him and seven others to the priesthood.

Cappelli’s need manifested itself in the lives of the friends he had made on mission with FOCUS, the Fellowship of Christian University Students. He was assigned to Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut.

A priest who served as chaplain was reassigned during his time there, so students had no one on campus to serve their sacramental needs.

“It just kind of hit me, the one thing all my friends want, I can’t give them. I always knew intellectually that priests provide sacraments for people, but it hit me (that) priests get to provide sacraments for people they love, for people they care about,” he said.

“It just started eating at me. It was like, ‘Could this be me?’”

God began calling Cappelli to his vocation from early on. Born in Clearwater, Florida, the Cappelli family settled in Doylestown when Charles was 7 years old. Parents Carl and Susan Cappelli raised Charles and his younger brothers James, who today lives in Washington, D.C. and Dan, who lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Susan converted to Catholicism after marriage, and Charles called his upbringing “solid,” with his home parish at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Doylestown.

That faith was further fostered by his paternal grandparents whom Cappelli said are “super active in their parish.” He used his great-grandmother’s Bible when taking his oath of fidelity and profession of faith before his ordination as a transitional deacon last year.

He graduated from Central Bucks West High School, followed by Temple University. He began attending Masses at the university’s Newman Center, which led to a mentor in their chaplain, Father Shaun Mahoney, who now serves as parochial administrator at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in South Philadelphia.

He said Father Mahoney was deeply present with students, and turned spaghetti dinners at the Newman Center into seed-planters leading to Bible-study sessions and eucharistic adoration.

“All of a sudden, my faith just went from something that I did on Sunday to becoming more of an important part of my life,” he said. “Before I knew it, I ended up being at the Newman Center five or six days a week.”

He followed the calling to FOCUS from 2015-2019, first at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland, then at Western Connecticut State and that moment when he felt the need to encounter God within people he loved.

Cappelli said he was praying often with Psalm 40: 7-9, which says, “Sacrifice and offering you do not want; you opened my ears. Holocaust and sin-offering you do not request; so I said, ‘See; I come with an inscribed scroll written upon me. I delight to do your will, my God; your law is in my inner being!’”

He explained how awestruck he was to recognize that the law was within his own heart, and that he truly found delight in doing God’s will.

Combining that realization with the “Why not me?” question led him to reconnect with Father Mahoney., That in turn led to a “Come and See” retreat at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, which focused his vision and prompted him to seek admission.

His seminary formation included a spiritual year. During a 30-day silent retreat that year, he was asked to reflect on Christ feeding 5,000 people, and the miracles that came from it. He particularly asked God why He commanded His disciples to feed the throngs of hungry people, instead of simply giving it to the crowd Himself.

“What came to me was how the disciples are His friends, and He loves them, and even though He doesn’t need them, He wants them to experience what it’s like to feed the crowd, what it’s like to have a miracle happen in their hands,” Cappelli said.

He said that prayer helped the process of his vocation to mature.

“It’s not, ‘I should be a priest because God needs me to.’ It’s like, ‘I should be a priest because Jesus is inviting me to share in this ministry, in His ministry, in His priesthood, in His Church,’” Cappelli said.

He finally will begin to share the ministry of Christ as a priest starting at his first Mass which he will celebrate at his home parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Sunday, May 17 at 2:30 p.m.

He finally will give back the ultimate gift of Christ’s Body and Blood to the people he loves– his family, his friends from his days with FOCUS, and all other Catholics.

“They all encouraged me and supported me. To be able to give to them in return the Eucharist,” he said, “it’s overwhelming.”