Justin K. Vakko

Father Justin Vakko likes to say that God calls the weak in order to shame the strong, and he counts himself among them. It is a humble way to describe thirty years of priesthood, but it fits a man whose first response to almost any question about his life is thankfulness. "I look at my life and God has always been gracious," he once said. "I can never complain."

That same humility shapes how he sees the priesthood itself. He believes a priest is never really hidden, that his presence speaks before he does. "As a priest, we never go unnoticed," he said. "What we believe, what we stand for, and who we represent is always visible." So he holds on to his faith and, in his own words, holds it out to others. Among the greatest blessings of that vocation, he counts the chance to sit with people and counsel them through the hard seasons of their lives, something he receives as surely as he gives it.

That faith took root early. He grew up in Kerala, India, where the Catholic Church was, as he puts it, like a second home. He and his seven brothers and sisters were there daily, praying together and joining in parish life, and when they were not at church they were at school with the Carmelite convent. Surrounded by that kind of faith, he entered a Carmelite monastery at fifteen and, after thirteen years of formation, was ordained in 1998. He came to the Diocese of Orlando in 2006 and served parishes in Winter Haven, Longwood, Orlando, and Ocala before arriving at Prince of Peace, where he became pastor in 2021. In 2023, on the silver anniversary of his ordination, he was incardinated into the diocese by Bishop John Noonan.

He has poured himself into the parish ever since. Prince of Peace is a big and busy place, some two thousand families, with a food pantry that logged more than ten thousand visits last year and a thrift store that keeps it running. He looks after that community closely, and he has not hesitated to speak up for it, standing before the county council to defend an entrance his older parishioners depend on. Away from the work of the parish, he keeps life simple, making time for volleyball, basketball, and a little bowling. But ask him what these years have given him, and he returns to where he always does. "I'm always thankful for my vocation," he said. "I'm very grateful for this great life God has given me.