My Brother the Father

A remarkable story about two small towns in Michigan, Fowler and Westphalia:

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.

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