An unexpected calling

By BILL DOYLECFP CORRESPONDENT

Deacon Zachary T. Sullivan wasn’t very religious while growing up in Clinton so his family and friends were surprised when he told them while he was a student at Assumption University that he planned to become a priest.
“I think they’ve warmed up to it,” he said.
Deacon Sullivan said everyone wanted whatever made him happy and he believes that becoming a priest will, but he had a lot to learn first.
“I didn’t know how to pray the rosary until I went to seminary,” he said.
Deacon Sullivan was ordained a deacon on May 18, 2024, at St. Paul Cathedral and he will be ordained a priest there on June 7. The following day he will celebrate his first Mass at 12:15 p.m. in St. John Church in Worcester.
Deacon Sullivan, 29, was baptized and made his first Communion, but he stopped going to church afterward. He didn’t resume attending Mass until he got a job as a Clinton High School student at the gym at St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish. He swept the floor, painted, operated the scoreboard and refereed basketball games.
The gym’s director, Dan Young, became a mentor and one day Mr. Young urged him to make his confirmation.
“Dan was an amazing guy,” Deacon Sullivan said. “He was nice. He cared about us.”
He took RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) classes with adults during his senior year of high school.
The classes deepened his faith and opened his eyes to the teachings of the Church. Deacon Sullivan went on to attend Assumption University not only because it was a Catholic college, but because the school recruited him for cross-country and track. His best event was the steeplechase.
At Clinton High, he had played golf and basketball and in the summers he worked on the grounds crew at Twin Springs Golf Course in Bolton. After he ran well in the Clinton Tribute Road Race, however, he ran cross-country and track as a senior and was voted a league all-star.
At Assumption, he majored in psychology before switching to philosophy and politics after his freshman year.
Deacon Sullivan had attended public school until college. So when he arrived at Assumption, he was surprised to see priests walking around campus and not just inside the chapel. He was also taken aback when he found out that Mass was held daily, not only on Sundays. Soon he began attending daily Mass.
“It just kind of all hit me,” he said. “I really enjoyed it. I felt God’s presence. I felt God’s peace.”
So he became an altar server for the first time in his life and he felt that God was inviting him to become a priest.
“I was kind of surprised,” he said, “because I didn’t grow up very religious. There were no vocations in my family.”
He wasn’t sure who to see about becoming a priest, but he remembered visiting the gift shop at St. Joseph’s Abbey, a Trappist monastery in Spencer, with his father when he was a child. So he drove from Assumption to the abbey, knocked on the door of the monastery and talked to one of the monks about religious life. The conversation helped convince him he was making the right decision to become a priest.
At the end of his sophomore year at Assumption, he visited Rome for a couple of weeks with other students. He had never even seen a photo of the Vatican, so he found St. Peter’s Basilica to be breathtaking.
“Imagine not knowing what it looks like and seeing it for the first time,” he said.
After attending Mass in the basement of St. Peter Basilica, he felt an overwhelming calling from the Lord while visiting St. Peter’s tomb.
“I felt like the Lord and St. Peter were seeing me and saying, ‘Come follow me,’” he said.
At the start of his senior year at Assumption, he felt the calling stronger than ever.
“I was nervous to do it,” he said, “because you can’t get married and I didn’t know anybody who had done that type of thing.”
At the end of his senior year, Bishop McManus accepted his application to discern priesthood in the diocese.
Deacon Sullivan enjoyed meeting other young men aspiring to the priesthood during the two years he attended the theological college at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Then he spent a year in Rome attending North American College. One day, he and his fellow students were at St. Peter’s Square when Pope Francis welcomed the students of North American College during one of his Sunday addresses.
“He kind of looked over and we waved at him,” Deacon Sullivan said.
After a year in Rome, Deacon Sullivan still wanted to become a priest, but he felt he needed a break from the seminary. So he returned home to teach middle school and high school Latin, math and theology at a local Catholic school for two years. On the side, he worked construction.
Deacon Sullivan attended Mass at St. Peter Parish during that time and Msgr. Francis J. Scollen’s homily at his priesthood anniversary Mass inspired him to resume his journey to become a priest.
“I love Msgr. Scollen,” Deacon Sullivan said. “He was such a good guy and he was just so normal. He made it seem like, you know what, I could become a priest. He’s such a normal guy, but he’s so good. You can be completely yourself and still be extremely holy.”
Deacon Sullivan believes his own background as a regular guy will help him relate to parishioners.
“I was just a normal kid,” he said. “I liked playing video games, I liked playing baseball and basketball. I went out with my friends.”
In the fall of 2022, he enrolled at Saint John’s Seminary in Boston and he graduated early this May.
“I knew it was what God was inviting me to do,” he said. “That was the best thing – doing his will instead of my own.”
Deacon Sullivan was reminded why he wanted to become a priest when he worked in parishes during the summers under Msgr. Scollen at St. Peter Parish, Father Jonathan J. Slavinskas at Our Lady of Providence Parish, Father John F. Madden at St. John Parish, all in Worcester, and Father Nicholas Desimone at St. Mary Parish in Uxbridge.
Father Slavinskas will vest him at the ordination.
Deacon Sullivan found parish work to be more fulfilling than studying at the seminary. He enjoyed baptizing children, preaching and getting to know parishioners.
Deacon Sullivan said he’ll do his best to become a friend of Jesus Christ and emulate his attributes, a goal he’s heard Bishop McManus often state. He’d also like to learn from the approach of the priests he looks up to, including Father Madden, Father Slavinskas and Msgr. Scollen. They may take different approaches, but they’re all caring, giving and stand up for what’s right, he said.
“So just take all the great attributes of those priests that I’ve looked up to and hopefully be a little bit like that,” he said.
Deacon Sullivan’s father, Paul; mother Jackie; stepmother, Brenda; brother, Bill; stepsisters Jennifer and Stephanie; and other family members will attend the ordination.