In Two Michigan Villages, a Higher Calling Is Often Heard

The New York Times ^ | 6/16/17 | Christina Capecchi

[marshmallow]

FOWLER, Mich. — Aside for the mole grazing his right eyebrow, it is difficult to distinguish Gary Koenigsknecht from his identical twin, Todd, four minutes the elder.

Growing up, the twins, now 26, milked cows side by side on the family farm. They both graduated at the top of their high school class. And with their ordination on Saturday, they have begun careers as Roman Catholic priests, two of 477 men in the United States expected to be ordained this year.

They demonstrate that priestly vocations are not evenly distributed by family or geography: they are among six priests in their extended family, and among 22 from their hometown, Fowler, Mich., population 1,224. They officially tie up the leader board with the neighboring village of Westphalia, population 938, which has also produced 22 priests, making for a robust rivalry in both football and Roman collars.

In an era when the number of priests in the United States continues to dwindle — declining by 11 percent in the past decade and crippling the Catholic Church’s ability to meet the needs of a growing Catholic population — this rural patch of Clinton County offers a case study in the science and mystery of the call to priesthood.

With the older generation of priests dying off, it would take three times as many priestly ordinations as is occurring nationwide to maintain the population of 38,600 priests, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

But the communities of Fowler and Westphalia, where it is not hard to find an altar boy who is considering priesthood, are doing more than their part. For the Rev. Todd Koenigsknecht and the Rev. Gary Koenigsknecht, encouragement arrived in many forms, from messages scribbled in crayon by grade-school children to $20 checks scrawled..............

[Salvation]

The identical Koenigsknecht twins — Todd is at left — took a moment to celebrate during their ordination on Saturday in East Lansing,