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 Declan Cole consistently leans on his favorite Bible verse, Romans 5:5 which states: “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

The phrase reflects how Christ so often brought hope that overcame Cole’s doubts in his journey.

That hope will find fulfillment when Cole will be ordained a priest along with seven other men by Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez on Saturday, May 16 at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

“It seems like hope can dwindle when you look at the world, but it just shows that Christ left His abiding presence with us through the Holy Spirit,” Cole said. “Every time I get discouraged, (I) remember that Christ left His spirit and it’s not going to disappoint if we’re hopeful.”

Cole was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Huntingdon Valley with his family that always put Sunday Mass first as its priority at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Southampton..

Ironically Cole tried to avoid Mass at all costs as a little kid, attempting every method possible to avoid going with his mom Mary, who is a teacher at Conwell-Egan Catholic High School in Fairless Hills, Bucks County, his father Quentin, a pilot, and his six other siblings.

He even once played dead in a closet, laying with his back against the wall and his tongue hanging out. But the trick didn’t work, and off to Mass he went with his family.

Yet Cole said he always wanted to be a priest at that young age. That desire was fueled after seeing a live Stations at the Cross  at church in which the seventh and eighth graders played Jesus and the Apostles. Cole became jealous, always wanting to be Jesus.

“I made my family reenact the stations with me from the last supper,” he said. “I had Mass and then I had the white linen with a paper plate around my head as the crown of thorns. I carried a cross around the basement and just kept falling, making a loud sound like they would at church. It was the best time of my life.”

Motherly encouragement helped Cole accept the idea that becoming a priest was not an abnormal thing. His middle school years brought a moment of promise, one that remained deep within him through an adolescence fraught with struggle.

“I went to the seminary in sixth grade for a fun day, and I remember I made a promise from the choir loft,” he said. “I looked out in the church. I was like, ‘Jesus, I promise I’m going to be your priest.’”

Then high school came at Archbishop Wood, and that promise found competition with other thoughts.
Cole felt the tug to become a pilot like his father and discerned having a family, a big one like his own family of nine.

Cole felt as if high school with his friendships and his hockey team  was giving him everything he wanted, “everything the world said.”

But within him, something was missing, and he began to feel he was meant for more, and that God had to become real within him.

“I decided for 40 days, I was going to just look at a picture of Jesus for 15 minutes on my desk or after school,” Cole said. “I was like, ‘This is it. If something good comes out of it, it’s real. If nothing happens, then God probably isn’t really what I’ve been hearing.’”

He said those 40 days completely changed his life.

Continuing that prayer practice led Cole to return to that promise he made in sixth grade, through what he called a “battle” in senior year, where he visited the seminary again to give another chance to what he said he was running away from.

“The second I did that, the second I actually went to the campus and met seminarians, it was over,” he said. “I knew that was where the Lord wanted me.”

Cole said the seminary formation program has helped him to confront his own imperfections, to remain hopeful through his struggles as Romans 5:5 exhorts, and to overcome his self-reliance.

He believes he has become more selfless, and he allows other people to take over while he simply does what he can do. That formation, he believes, was enough to make him a holy priest.

He is now on the cusp of the day he had promised God would happen as far back as sixth grade. The thoughts of his priestly ordination and the subsequent first Mass he’ll say the next day at Our Lady of Good Counsel stop him in his tracks.

“I have no idea what God wants for me with his people, but the fact that he’s asked me to be His instrument, the way He’s going to change (lives) just as He changed my life through priests,” he said, “to use someone like me, it’s incredible.”