It is good to be with you!
The Archbishop of Atlanta has loaned me to the Diocese of Orlando and Bishop Noonan has assigned me to St. Mary-Rockledge. I go by Father Joe. My last name is an Ellis Island name. Spelled Shaute. Phonetically: SHAY-ute. I am ¼ Austria-Hungarian and ¾ Irish. I have been a priest for more than 22 years, ordained on June 2, 2001. That means my first year as a priest included September 11, 2001 (911) and the January 2002 Boston Priest Scandal. My first year. Baptism by fire. My life journey began in Washington State, the first born son of an Army officer from Scranton, Pa., and an artist/interior designer from Lowell, Mass., who met at a wedding. My parents were married 57 years when my mom died of Alzheimer’s in December 2018. My dad died of COVID in April 2020. By the time I started first grade, we had moved six times in six years. For the next 14 years, we lived in Miami, an alive, vibrant multi-cultural place in the 1970s. Where I would learn Spanish and receive my First Communion and Sacrament of Confirmation. At age 20, we moved to Metro Atlanta, where I would finish my Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism at Georgia State University. After working for 12 years in the Communications field—and volunteering as a Life Teen Core Member at St. Ann’s for five years—the teens at St. Ann’s would call me to live my God-given vocation. And not be afraid. Over the last 22 years I have served as a priest in four parishes. I am a two-time cancer survivor, recently defeating Stage 3 Lymphoma Cancer. My health brings me here, a change of climate to reduce allergies and less administrative responsibilities. -Father Joe