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Band of brothers: great story about brothers who became priests

20161027t1120-6236-cns-vocations-week-brothers

Deacon Greg Kandra - published on 11/11/16

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From CNS:

He had planned this moment for months, had thought about it for years. What would he say in this profound moment in his life and the life of his brother that both would remember for the rest of their lives? Yet when Father John Hollowell came to his younger brother, Father Anthony Hollowell, to give him a sign of peace minutes after he was ordained a priest, all of his planning disappeared and he said words that he never considered: “I love you.” This moment, which Father John described as “a blessing of the Spirit,” happened June 25 in SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis when Cardinal-designate Joseph W. Tobin ordained six men as priests for service to the church in central and southern Indiana. When Father Anthony Hollowell became a priest that day, he filled out three sets of brothers who have been ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis since 2009. All priests share a common brotherhood in their deep bond of ordained life and ministry. Fathers Anthony and John Hollowell, David and Doug Marcotte, and Andrew and Benjamin Syberg experience it at an even deeper level as brothers. And they hope their witness will deepen the faith of archdiocesan Catholics, and encourage them to make their families the seed bed of future vocations. But while they recognize the importance that growing up in faith-filled families had on their future as priests, the priests acknowledged that growing up together came with more than its fair share of scuffles. “Love fight,” said Father Anthony while reflecting on the times when he and three of his brothers would wrestle their oldest brother John. “In our family life growing up, we fought a lot,” Father Anthony told The Criterion, the archdiocesan newspaper. “But, in my mind, it was never outside of the context of our love for each other. You could stretch it at times. But, even in our worst fights … there was always a deep love there.”

Read more.

Photo: Sean Gallagher

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