Calling

A glimpse at a young priest’s lifelong commitment

STORY BY MARILYN NAPIER | PHOTOS BY NICK DANIELSON

On Sunday morning at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bellingham, people are restless and babies are crying. The stained glass windows illuminate a soft light throughout the space. Some sit above on the second floor overlooking the sanctuary, others choose the last bit of standing room below where the pews have filled up. The hour-long service begins with music from a few singers and guitarist playing at the front. Rev. Joseph Altenhofen walks down the aisles wearing green and gold robes. He greets his parish with a smile and begins his service.

Altenhofen is 34 years old, considered young for a Catholic priest nowadays. He took vows to the church at 29 years old. This is the same age an average American man gets married, according to the Pew Research Center.

A man in the Catholic Church can be ordained a priest after four or five years of seminary, a theological college to prepare for priesthood. Their life as they know it in some ways is over. These men have now taken over a role in the community that may seem very foreign to outsiders.

Altenhofen always knew he wanted to be a priest. He grew up in Seattle, attending Catholic school until he went to University of Washington to study psychology.

“It was Luke Skywalker’s dark outfit in The Return of the Jedi that made me want to become a priest when I was a kid,” Altenhofen says.

Prepared with smiles, small talk and blessings, Altenhofen shakes the hands of parishioners immediately following a Sunday mass at Sacred Heart Church.

Ordination

Through the traditional ceremony of ordination, a bishop can give a man the religious authority of priesthood. They are asked to make promises of obedience and celibacy.

“That was a freeing day,” Altenhofen says smiling. “A lot of people think of celibacy as shackles but that was the last day for me I was scared that I had to make a decision; it gave me a lot of freedom.”

Altenhofen was relieved to be ordained. There was no longer a pressure to choose between a traditional life path of marriage or a marriage to the church.

“I felt very firmly that God was instructing me to be a priest so there wasn’t much fear,” Altenhofen says. “It was probably the happiest day of my life.”

He talks about entering this calling like a man would talk about his wedding to day to his wife, full of joy and excitement.

Around half the men who enter seminary do not end up becoming priests, Altenhofen says. Most of the ones who leave end up married soon after. In the United States, becoming a Catholic priest isn’t seen as an easy thing to do anymore.

In the past 50 years, there has been a 35 percent decrease in priests in the United States, according to Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), Georgetown University.

The average age of a priest in the United States has increased from 35 years old in 1970 to 63 years old in 2009, according to researchers at CARA.

After preparing a salad for himself, Altenhofen steps out of the kitchen to spend some time alone. Despite having to speak publicly frequently, Altenhofen considers himself an introvert.

Daily Life

During his Sunday mass sermon, Altenhofen reads a passage from the Bible and talks to parishioners about their own callings. He emphasizes that everyone has a call from God and that it is important to do whatever one loves. He makes a joke during his sermon, parishioners chuckle.

Altenhofen says that he is terrified of public speaking, but somehow is able to do it on a regular basis.

“I get sick to my stomach before every mass, it’s a strange sort of relationship,” Altenhofen says.

Society tends to look at priests differently than everyone else. They seem wiser, moral, and most of all; holy. These figures in the community are held to a different standard, and it is sometimes forgotten that they too are only human.

They do not live lavish lives. Altenhofen makes around $20,000 a year, working 100 hours a week, he says. There is no differentiation between work and his life, something that most people have a hard time comprehending.

He starts his day around 6 a.m. with some exercise and about an hour of personal prayer. Four days a week Altenhofen holds confession, one of his favorite parts of his duties along with leading mass. Depending on the day Altenhofen also meets with people for marriage counseling, visits the hospital and hospice, works with college students or teaches confirmation and relationship classes before ending his day around 9 p.m.

“As a priest I may have to celebrate a funeral and then come back and deal with 19-year-olds who want to get married,” Altenhofen says.

Altenhofen sits crossed-legged in a quiet red-walled room of the house, solving crosswords during his lunch break. After a busy morning, the young priest has about two hours to relax before an equally busy afternoon.

One has to wonder with a man so clearly devoted to his calling, are there ever doubts or days that are less holy, less ‘priestly’?

Altenhofen explains that choosing this kind of life doesn’t necessarily have to be lonely.

“I am with people more than married couples are but there is an absence of really close relationships,” Altenhofen says. “I’ve found the way to deal with that is to have a relationship with God. Priesthood can be lonely but it doesn’t have to be.”

Altenhofen is a part of the Newman Catholic Campus Ministry at Western, which emphasizes a strong Catholic community of students. He leads mass on campus twice a week.

Patrick Kissinger is a freshman at Western and attends Altenhofen’s mass on campus every week.

“Father Joseph does a really cool thing,” Kissinger says. “He recognizes there is a difference in people attending mass on campus compared to church and adapts his homily.”

College students tend to be less sure about their faith and what is going on in the world and students begin to question the ideas their parents put into their minds about religion, Kissinger says.

“He has this fine line as a priest between wanting students to question their faith because it’s healthy and natural, but also wanting to be there to provide answers that reflect the church,” Kissinger says.

It helps that Altenhofen is young, Kissinger says, making it easier for college-age students to get involved in religion and having someone they feel is relatable.

He speaks less than eloquently, making him unintimidating and very much human. His resting face tends to be with a slight smile. He is reserved, yet is able to get his message across loudly from the front of the church.

“He’s a complete kid in a sense,” Kissinger describes Altenhofen. “He’s really fun to be around and really active in the community, he doesn’t seem like an authority figure, just an approachable friend.”

After leading a mass on campus, Altenhofen proceeds with a group of students and parishioners down to the Newman center singing hymns and swinging incense.

At the end of Sunday mass Altenhofen shakes everyone’s hands outside and talks to the parishioners as they leave. This is very much a community church, people know their priest, and he knows them.

Altenhofen says that part of being a priest is giving your life to something, not just doing your own thing.

“We make a promise of service so there is a bit more of an expectation that we are good people,” Altenhofen says.