It’s Never Too Late to Answer the Lord’s Call

Father Chuck Ruoff’s story is a great example that “it’s never too late to answer the call of the Lord.” He has been assigned by the Diocese of Venice, Florida, as the Parochial Vicar for the San Marco Catholic Church for the last four years and prior to Marco, he had been the Parochial Vicar at the Epiphany Cathedral in Venice and St. Peter the Apostle in Naples. On June 18, 2026, he will celebrate his 10th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

“The most frequently asked question of me over the past 10 years, when people find out that I’m a second career vocation, ordained a priest at the age of 58 is what made you become a priest late in life and what was your prior career?” said Father Chuck.

While the path to the priesthood traditionally favors younger candidates due to the rigorous training, there is a growing acceptance of older vocations within the Church. Father Chuck graduated high school from a minor seminary in 1975 but he did not pursue it. After a higher education in Journalism and Public Relations, Father Chuck spent 20 years in government and politics.

Charles Gilbert Ruoff was born in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was raised at the New Jersey Shore. He has worked for every level of government (municipal, county, state, federal, and international) and shared that as an elected deputy mayor for his home township of Little Egg Harbor (South Jersey) he vividly recalls the events of 9/11. Little Egg Harbor had families who lost loved ones who worked at New York City’s Twin Towers. He planned and coordinated a one-month prayerful remembrance of the tragic event. Father Chuck said that this year, for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, he plans to ask permission to have a Blue Mass (traditionally held for First Responders, emergency management personnel), and members of the Marco Island Police Foundation and the Naples Collier County NYPD 10-13 Club have expressed interest in the need for one.

Father Chuck recalled another memorable experience as an elected official attending the 37th Republican National Convention in Philadelphia as an honorary delegate. He has worked as an Assistant Public Information Officer for Ocean County government, Intergovernmental Affairs for FEMA in Washington, D.C., and an electoral advisor for the U.S. State Department and United Nations, working overseas in Bosnia, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia.

The “big shove from above,” Father Chuck said, came when he was working overseas and at FEMA in Washington, D.C. While working overseas, “there was very little social interaction because of the language barriers; it was a pretty isolated time of my life,” he said. And when he was in Washington, DC., “My interest waned in attending political parties on the Potomac. I began to sense and experience a more profound spiritual nudge - a prodding into action.”

The journey to priesthood for second vocation priests is often very complex with their diverse adult experiences that will help shape their spiritual journey, as Chuck Ruoff wrestled with answering the call. In 2010, Bishop Frank J. Dewayne in the Diocese of Venice, Florida, accepted Charles Ruoff as a second career vocation to enter the National Catholic Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts, to earn a master’s degree in theology and study for the Priesthood.

As St. Paul said in the Scriptures, “Change the ways of your former self, renew your mind and heart, and put on the armor of God.” Chuck Ruoff immersed himself in full-time priestly training. Six years later, in 2016, Father Chuck Ruoff was ordained a Catholic priest at the age of 58.

The call to a second career vocation in the priesthood can happen at any point in a man’s life, and there is no such thing as “too late.” According to studies conducted by the Catholic Church, late vocation priests, due to their life experiences and secular careers, are more mature, settled, and more at peace going into the priesthood.

“Being a priest is the most honorable, privileged, spiritually powerful, service-oriented, universal, and ultimate endeavor this side of glory,” Father Chuck said.