Born in Newark, NY, Fr. Tom Celso entered St. Bernard Seminary in 1974. While in Clinical Pastoral Study in 1976 at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, MA, he was introduced to the Divine Will.
He was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on March 9, 1979. After faithfully serving at parishes throughout upstate New York, in 1994 the Bishop of Rochester gave Fr. Celso permission to work with the Secretariat of the Cause in Trani, Italy, for the promotion of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta. He was present at the opening of the Cause of Luisa on November 20, 1994, on the Solemnity of Christ the King in Trani, Italy. In 1996, Fr. Celso was asked to help copy the original writings of Luisa Piccarreta in the Secret Archives of the Vatican under the Direction of the then-Cardinal Ratzinger. On October 29, 2005, he attended the closing of the Cause of Luisa Piccarreta in which the Diocese of Trani gave its positive evaluation, asking the Vatican for its approval to have Luisa Canonized.
Fr. Celso has given and continues to give Retreats and days of Recollection throughout the United States and Europe focusing on the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, and the Divine Will. He says that “Everyone who loves Luisa and the Divine Will is waiting for The Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, to be named ‘Venerable.’ Many of the miracles attributed to her are being studied by the Vatican at this time.”
Fr. Celso became a Third Order Benedictine Oblate of the Divine Will in 2016 with Mother Gabrielle Marie and Father Elijah’s Communities in Italy. Fr. Celso, now a retired senior priest, helps out weekly at St. John Bosco and Chesterton Academy Schools in East Rochester, NY, offering weekly Holy Mass and Confession for the faculty and students. He is also on Weekly Programs on Mary’s Hill, The School of Mary.
