By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

James Reutter raises his hands in prayer during rehearsal for today's ordination of priests at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains downtown. He's one of nine men who will be ordained today in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The Cincinnati Enquirer/STEVEN M. HERPPICH

DOWNTOWN - Kyle Schnippel was right on course for what America expects for many of its young men.

He graduated from Botkins High School in 1995 before he left to study pre-medicine at Ohio State University.

But after a year of college, where he was impressed by a speech on vocations at the university's Catholic student center, Schnippel's life changed.

"I wasn't ecstatic about pre-medicine,'' he said. "I think God saw that and gave me a good tap, so I went to seminary."

Today, eight years later, Schnippel, 27, will become the youngest priest in the archdiocese when he and seven other men are ordained at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, downtown.

It's the largest class Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk has ordained from the Archdiocese's Mount St. Mary's Seminary since 1981.

ORDINATIONS

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati: ordination of eight men - the most since 1981 - will take place 11 a.m. today at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, Eighth and Plum streets, downtown. The public is invited. Diocese of Covington: will ordain Phillip W. DeVous, 27, at 10 a.m. today during a ceremony at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, 1140 Madison Ave., Covington. His home parish is Mary Queen of Heaven in Erlanger. The parish he'll serve at has not been determined. The public is invited.

ORDAINED TODAY

These eight men will be ordained at 11 a.m. today at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, downtown: Eric A. Bowman, 34 Previous occupation: High school teacher. Home parish: Emmanuel, Dayton. Where he'll serve: Teacher at Archbishop Alter High School and associate pastor at St. Charles Borromeo, both in Kettering. Edward Burns Jr., 31 Previous occupation: Customer service and communications. Home parish: St. John the Evangelist, West Chester. Where he'll serve: Associate pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary, Anderson Township Geoffrey Drew, 42 Previous occupation: Music teacher at Elder High School. Home parish: St. Jude, Bridgetown. Where he'll serve: Associate pastor at St. Luke, Beavercreek Peter Helmlinger, 50 Previous occupation: Project manager for Sprint. Home parish: Holy Angels, Sidney. Where he'll serve: Associate pastor at Incarnation, Centerville. Joseph C. Kindel, 50 Previous occupation: Computer programmer. Home parish: St. Saviour Church of Rossmoyne, Sycamore Township. Where he'll serve: Associate pastor at St. James the Greater, White Oak. James Reutter, 40 Previous occupation: Computers and linguistics for Electronic Data Systems, Milford. Home parish: Holy Cross-Immaculata, Mount Adams. Where he'll serve: Associate pastor at Holy Angels, Sidney. Kyle Schnippel, 27 Previous occupation: Pre-medicine student at Ohio State University. Home parish: Immaculate Conception, Botkins. Where he'll serve: Teacher at Elder High School with his residence at Our Lady of Visitation, Green Township. James P. Weber, 39 Previous occupation: Payroll representative for Automatic Data Processing, downtown. Home parish: St. Antoninus, Green Township. Where he'll serve: Associate pastor St. Margaret of York, Deerfield Township.

Across the river, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Bishop Roger Foys will ordain one man, Phillip DeVous, at a 10 a.m. ceremony.

While the single ordination is typical in the 90,000-member Diocese of Covington, the eight being ordained here is welcome news to the 550,000-member Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

"Every vocation is a gift from the Lord. The Lord doesn't give lousy gifts," said the Rev. Mark Watkins, who has served as director of vocations for the archdiocese for 10 years. "If the Lord calls them to be priests, he'll fulfill them in that vocation.''

Watkins sees today's ceremony as a continuation of an upward swing since 2001, when the archdiocese ordained two priests, followed by four in 2002 and six in 2003.

That's encouraging to Watkins, in light of projections that show the number of priests serving the archdiocese's 224 parishes in Southwest Ohio will decline from 291 today to about 100 by 2010. Thirty years ago, 466 priests served the archdiocese.

While the new priests are not enough to keep up with the pace of dying and retiring priests in the archdiocese, the ordinations are higher than in nearby dioceses.

For example, the Diocese of Youngstown will not ordain any priests this year. The dioceses of Cleveland, Toledo, Evansville and Lexington, and the archdioceses of Indianapolis and Louisville will each ordain three priests or fewer.

The exception is the Diocese of Columbus, which will ordain six priests, the most there in 20 years.

While Watkins credits the Lord for calling the men to be priests, other archdiocese officials believe new recruiting techniques (targeted brochures, follow-up phone calls and appeals to Catholic men's groups) are making a difference.

"Young people are used to being recruited, and we needed to be in that mix with everyone else,'' Watkins said. "People want to be wanted - whether they're considering being a lawyer or a priest."

He emphasized that he doesn't create the will to become a priest.

"What I do in a recruitment effort doesn't create a vocation. It's the Lord who does that," he said. "I look at it as putting oxygen on a spark that the Lord has put in a fellow."

Other dioceses have taken notice. Watkins has been asked to speak to the annual National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors on four occasions.

Different paths

Schnippel represents the traditional path to the priesthood - going from high school almost directly into the seminary. Many of this year's new priests are part of another trend: Older men who have lived and worked in the business world.

James Reutter, 40, was successful in computers and linguistics at a Milford company when he decided he wanted more.

"It's more fulfilling to work with people," said Reutter, who will serve as associate pastor at Holy Angels in Sidney, north of Dayton.

For him, bringing life experience to the job has its benefits.

"I've worked in that business world. I understand the pressure people are under and that they're having to balance prayer and their faith life with taking care of their families and working 50 or 60 hours a week," Reutter said.

Schnippel, who will teach at Elder High School in Price Hill and serve as a priest-in-residence at Our Lady of Visitation in Mack, relishes the opportunity to help other young men answer the call to priesthood.

"Hopefully, guys at the school can relate better with me and see that I'm happy and content in the midst of a time when the church hasn't had the best image,'' he said.

"I want to teach for several years and end up in a parish. To journey with people as they grow closer to God, what greater thing can there be?"

E-mail kvance@fuse.net