Family Affair: Diocese of Lincoln Has 6 Sets of Brothers As Priests

My Diocese! This is what happens when a Diocese has been blessed with three solidly orthodox Catholic Bishops in a row, as we have been.

From Aleteia

By Christine Rouselle

While all priests are "brother priests" in the spiritual sense, for six families in the Diocese of Lincoln, the phrase is a little more literal.

When a man is ordained a priest, he joins a spiritual fraternity of every other man who has received holy orders. But for six families in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, the phrase "brother priests" is a literal one.

On Saturday, May 24, with the ordination of Father Isaac Wahlmeier, the Wahlmeier family became the newest members of this special group. In 2020, his older brother Joseph was ordained a priest for the diocese.

For Isaac, his brother's vocation and path to the priesthood played a large part in his discovering his own vocation. When Joseph was studying at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, Nebraska, the idea of he himself entering the seminary became much more approachable, he told the Southern Nebraska Register.

The Southern Nebraska Register is a publication of the Diocese of Lincoln.

“Where you see the witness of one person, it’s an instrument for God to increase the trust in your own life, and the confidence you have in His will and His love for you," said Isaac Wahlmeier.

Joseph told the Southern Nebraska Register that he was studying in Rome when he heard the news that his brother had also decided to enter seminary.

He said he was "both surprised, and not, at the same time" in regards to his brother's decision.

“It kind of felt like my own vocation,” said Joseph Wahlmeier. “I didn’t really think about being a priest, especially until college, but when the call came, it just made so much sense.”

"May God's will be done"

The Wahlmeier brothers credit their parents, Patrick and Debbie, for creating an environment that nurtured their vocations, as well as those of their siblings. Patrick and Debbie are the parents of 15 children and grandparents of 29.

While two of her sons are priests, Debbie told the Southern Nebraska Register that she did not have any special inkling about their vocations when they were children, but that she prayed that all of her children would eventually discover God's call.

“I don’t think a parent has the power to make a vocation or make it happen, whatever that vocation is, but let it happen. Let God make it clear to your children,” said Debbie Wahlmeier.

Her prayer, she said, is simple: "May God's will be done."

In addition to the Wahlmeiers, the other sets of ordained brothers in the Diocese of Lincoln are Fathers Matthew and Jeffrey Eickhoff, who were ordained in 1989 and 1995, respectively;
Fathers Andrew and Christian Schwenka, ordained in 2019 and 2022;
Monsignor Daniel and Fathers Mark and Leo Seiker ordained in 1987, 1984 and 1991;
Fathers Evan and Dominic Winter ordained in 2016 and 2022;
and Fathers Matthew and Michael Zimmer, who were ordained in 2011 and 2012.