ORLANDO  | On May 24, 2025, Deacon John Triolo of Corpus Christi Parish in Celebration and Deacon William Burns of St. Timothy Parish in Lady Lake, will be ordained to the priesthood at St. James Cathedral in Orlando at 10 a.m. Both men share their journeys and invite all to share in their joy.

JOHN TRIOLO

Deacon John Triolo loves listening to the Beatles and jazz, swimming and going to the beach.

Born and raised in Long Island, N.Y., he moved to Pennsylvania when he was 9. In 2006, his family moved to Orlando where they made a home and became members of Corpus Christi Parish in Celebration. It was there, at the parish’s dedication Mass in 2010, he first heard the call to the priesthood. A priest walked up to Triolo and other altar servers and asked him, “Have you ever thought about becoming a priest?”

“I was in great shock,” he recalled. “Are you asking me if I want to be a priest? I’m not holy enough. I’m not reverent enough. I’m not very prayerful. How would you think that I can be a priest?”

Looking back, he realized God wanted him to consider this question for a long time. “I always had an attraction to the priesthood,” he said. He and his mother recalled when he was young.

“I used to pretend to celebrate Mass with a blanket and I would have stuffed animals and my sister would be part of the congregation. I think it was a calling within. I always felt an attraction to what the priest was doing on the altar,” he said.

Then, as an altar server at Corpus Christi, He thought about how he looked up to then Father Gregory Parkes, current Bishop of St. Petersburg. As Deacon Triolo served at the altar, he “saw this sense of joy and reverence in (Father Parkes) as he was celebrating the Mass on the altar.” He said it was then he “discovered a deep connection and understanding of what the Real Presence of the Eucharist is all about.”

He began to earnestly ponder and pray deeply about his next step. “What are you calling me to do?” he asked God. “Because I had my own agenda. I was thinking about working in the hospitality industry, maybe opening my own restaurant,” he said.

Deacon Triolo finally decided to enter seminary. His first year was a beautiful, yet challenging experience. He recalled eight weeks in Guatemala on a summer assignment.

“I encountered the very deep sense of poverty that was there. It was a poverty I’ve never experienced before. And yet, there was also beauty in that poverty,” he said. “It was really in that poverty that I encountered the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a very intimate way, through their love and devotion of especially the Holy Eucharist. It was there I discovered — in that poverty of my heart — a sense of joy, a sense of happiness.”

The experience and his remaining years at seminary increased his desire, “to bring hope in a world that feels hopeless right now.”

“Hope is based on a firm conviction and a firm purpose that we are not alone in this world,” he said. “We’re not called to be in isolation. We’re called to communion. We’re also called to one direction, not backward, but forward to heaven. Hope is based on the firm conviction that I am definitely loved no matter what happens in my life. I am loved by not a concept, but a person. His name is Jesus Christ who is our living hope, our Redeemer and our Savior.” It’s what he hopes to share with those he serves.

As he approaches Ordination, he said he feels a great sense of peace and joy. “The Lord, I know, is telling me, ‘Do not fear. Do not worry. Have faith and hope that I will be with you here. I will be with you now and for many years to come.’ Jesus is my joy. He’s my all. He’s my living hope and my Savior.”

WILLIAM BURNS

William Burns enjoys bicycling, riding the trails, kayaking, Star Wars, and a rocket launch from time to time. “There’s the adventure, the technology, the idea of mission and all of the people it takes for that mission to happen,” he said of space travel. In a way, it is a reflection on his journey to priesthood.

Although he entered seminary later in life, he always had a sense of mission, and his vocation was revealed to him through many people God placed in his life and a desire God placed on his heart. There were some hits and misses, but ultimately God’s mission for him was successful.

Deacon Burns moved from Massachusetts to Wildwood, Florida with his parents when he was 8 years old. St. Lawrence Parish in Bushnell was then a mission church of St. Vincent de Paul. There he found community, something especially important when he lost his father at the age of 11.

He recalled how “Confirmation was profound.” “When I was confirmed, it just lit a fire in me and I wanted to be more involved in the Church,” he said. “And I very quickly became an altar server and a coordinator of altar servers, lector and then as soon as I was old enough – an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.”

Feeling a calling to the priesthood but unsure of what path to take, he went to community college after high school and later received a bachelor’s degree in religious studies and English from St. Leo College. He imagined he would serve the Church as a layperson. Then he pursued and earned a Master of Theological Studies at Western Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge Massachusetts, part of Boston College.

Missing home, he returned to Florida and worked at St. Timothy Parish in Lady Lake in 1996 as director of adult education for eight years. In 1998 he married and had his daughter, Sarah Rose two years later. Eventually, the couple parted, and the marriage was annulled.

He worked at Trinity High School in Ocala at the time, where several clergy and religious invited him to consider a vocation to the priesthood. He was surprised by the suggestion as he had been married and had a child, but felt he had time to discern as he had to wait until Sarah Rose was old enough and secure in college.

He also worried about his aging mother, with whom he was very close. “She never pushed me in one direction or another. She was open to wherever God would lead me,” he recalled.

“Through the good people of this diocese, the Lord just kept giving me more and more and more and it was a matter of well, I seem to just be called to more, and more,” said Deacon Burns. “It spoke to my heart and it’s just amazing the surprises God has in store for you.”

Sarah Rose supported him every step of the way. When he was accepted to Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts – a national seminary for later vocations – his daughter surprised him. “I want to drive you up there. I want to drop my dad off at college,” she said. It was something they would do each year until his graduation, when their schedules aligned.

At the seminary, there were many men who had families. From the “human formation perspective” Burns found it helped “to have men alongside of you who have similar life experiences that you can share and support one another in them.” He added, “It’s not a gift just for 20-years-old. Jesus calls people at different ages.”

Of formation and his future priesthood, he noted, “You think of the big ‘yes’, but sometimes you forget that every day is a ‘yes’. And within every day, every hour there are yeses. It’s a continual process of growth in Christ.”

Recognizing God’s hand through it all, he said, “I do have excitement and joy and look forward to what lies ahead of me. I’m looking forward to being involved again with the parish and the people but on a whole different level, on a sacramental level, to be able to celebrate Eucharist with people, to celebrate the sacraments with them in the priesthood of Christ.” n

Deacons John Triolo and William Burns will be ordained to the priesthood May 24, 2025, at 10 a.m. at St. James Cathedral in Orlando

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic Staff, May 08, 2025