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Year for Priests: Reflecting on vocation, ministry

Name: Father Kevin Richter

Birth date: Oct. 28, 1960

Hometown: Sheldon, Iowa

Education: Spalding Catholic High School, Granville; The American College in Louvain, Belgium

Ordination date: July 16, 1988

Current assignment: Pastor of St. Joseph, Le Mars

Hobbies/interests: I enjoy “fix-it” projects of all kinds, doing yard work, exercising, watching movies and (a new interest) crossword puzzles.

Describe your call to priesthood: I first started thinking about priesthood when I was in second grade.  That felt calling has never varied much in my life.  Throughout grade school and high school, I continued to think about and talk about the possibility of becoming a priest.  I am grateful that family, friends, teachers and priests were always supportive and encouraging without placing any pressure on me.  While in high school and in the first years of college, I dated and continued to look at other options for my life, but never could seem to get far away from the sense that I was being called to be a priest.

It was during my junior year of college that I decided that I would simply take the next logical step, which was to enter seminary and "give it a shot."  I knew that taking such a formal step would help me to discern how God was calling me in life, whether to priesthood or to some other vocation.  At that stage, the central question became whether I would seek to join a religious community or become a diocesan priest.

After much prayer and discussion with friends and family, I decided to join a religious community. Following graduation from college, I spent time with a community in initial formation and serving in a mission parish.  But after six months, I already had a deepening sense that I was being called to diocesan priesthood, and so made contacts with the Diocese of Sioux City.  In November, I returned to the diocese to teach in one of our Catholic Schools for the remainder of the school year before entering seminary in the fall of 1984. 

Did anyone or anything provide you with inspiration to follow the call to priesthood? I would have to start with both of my parents.  Though my father died when I was young, both he and Mom were always determined to center our family in our Catholic faith.  The Sisters and lay teachers throughout school, especially Sr. Rosalyn, my 2nd grade teacher, and Vicki Gach, my high school English teacher and speech/theater director also helped, as well as the priests who served as my Pastor or teacher or friend, especially Msgr. Cletus Keleher, my pastor when I was in grade school, and Fr. Rene McGraw, a Benedictine monk who became a good friend and support in college.

What do you enjoy most about being a priest? A priest friend of mine tells a wonderful story of how he has been taught that "the most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing."  I think that is what I experience as the best thing about priesthood.  I am invited into a life and lifestyle that is focused precisely on keeping the most important thing – a living, dynamic relationship with God – the most important thing, not only for me, but for those to whom I minister.