More on the Twin-Fathers

So it seems many of you enjoyed the story about the identical twins who were ordained the other night at the opposite corner of Pennsylvania from this City of Brotherly Love....

Good. If there's a story to be enjoyed out there, it's this one.

In truth, I loved it so much that it'll be appearing in this week's release of The Tablet -- it is our annual US Edition, after all -- and in the process of research, I found this longer story from the Erie Times-News. The new brother-priests are apparently the 12th and 13th children born to their parents, which is simply... wow.

Their parents never had to force them to go to daily Mass at 6:30 a.m.

"It wasn't an obligation for us, but rather something we saw as cool," Joseph Campbell said.

So it's no surprise that the 26-year-old Erie twins are being ordained priests tonight, together, at St. Peter Cathedral.

"It's the work of God," Dolores Campbell, their mother, said.

She and her husband, John Campbell, named their 12th and 13th children for Monsignor James Joseph Gannon. The late priest was the family's pastor at St. Andrew Catholic Church, just two blocks from the home where James, who is older by 15 minutes, and Joseph grew up.

Priests were always part of their lives.

James Campbell remembers not only the men who "offered the sacraments that we valued so much," but also the priests who showed their human side when sitting in his parents' living room....

Joseph Campbell admired the selfless care of the men who helped in times of sickness and financial need.

Over the years, the twins were inspired by too many priests to name. But the boys knew at an early age that it was a group of men they wanted to join.

Oh, this is such a great story. And you can all thank Bishop Trautman for it.


PHOTO: Janet B Campbell/Erie Times-News

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