LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) -- Kyle Sahd was in the second grade, preparing for his first Holy Communion at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Columbia, when he thought about the wonder of the sacraments, and how he might want to become a priest. His teacher, Sister Anna Cosgrove, "got us interested in the faith," he recalls. "It was a living faith, with saints who actually lived up to holiness -- it's not something unattainable." On a recent Saturday, in a Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral in Harrisburg, Kyle Sahd was ordained at age 35 as a priest. Watching as he took his priestly vows was his identical twin, Timothy, a seminarian on his own path to the priesthood. An older brother, the Rev. Christopher Sahd, a priest in the Diocese of Scranton, was looking on, too. Even as Kyle Sahd was ordained by Harrisburg Bishop Ronald W. Gainer, the Catholic Church continued to wrestle with a priest shortage. The numbers According to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, there are now 20,000 fewer Catholic priests in the United States than there were in 1965. In 1965, there were two active diocesan priests per U.S. parish; by 2010, that number had fallen to one, and 3,353 U.S. parishes were without a resident priest pastor. "This past year has been a difficult year for the Diocese (of Harrisburg) in terms of the number of priests," said Joseph Aponick, the diocese's spokesman. "We have had some unexpected retirements and deaths." Nevertheless, he said, "we feel that we are, at this time, able to provide for the people of the diocese a sufficient number of priests to staff the parishes." Vocations to the priesthood are up, he says, "partly due to innovative programming and efforts by our Vocations Office." Since 2005, that office has organized Quo Vadis Days -- quo vadis is Latin for "where are you going?" -- at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Held last week, the annual event drew some 100 young men interested in the priesthood. Aponick says the "number of men we have in the seminary studying for the priesthood ... is very encouraging." "Our projections for the next five years show us being able maintain our current number of priests. We will have to see how those numbers hold up." The Sahds certainly are doing their part. Grounded in faith The family is on its way to producing three priests. "God willing," Kyle Sahd says. "God willing." He says his parents, Ronald and Karen Sahd of Columbia, encouraged him and his three brothers to choose a path, any path, so long as it was "grounded in the faith." Kyle says his eldest brother, Dan, who's married and has three "beautiful children," is a "big inspiration for me as well. The mission of the church isn't only the deacons and the priests spreading the faith. It's all the baptized." The family prayed at mealtimes and attended Mass. Ronald and Karen Sahd encouraged their sons to get involved with their parish as altar servers and youth group members. The Sahd boys went to parochial school and graduated from Lancaster Catholic High School. Timothy Sahd, who's taking part in a summer spirituality program at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Nebraska, said his "Grandma (Lucille) Sahd was a huge influence in my life." It was through her, he says, that he first "heard a calling." "She gave a beautiful witness to the faith by the way she lived," writes Timothy Sahd, in an email. "She prayed the rosary three times a day and attended daily Mass. Most people who met her saw God at work in her. "When we were kids, she used to take Kyle and I to weekday Mass with her whenever we slept over at her house ... I grew to love the Mass because of these trips to church with her." 'God's call' Timothy Sahd tried to ignore his early call to the priesthood because, he explains, "I didn't want to live the life of a priest." After his brother Christopher was ordained as a priest in 2001, and Kyle entered the seminary in 2008, Timothy Sahd says, "I thought I was off the hook and that God no longer needed me. ... But in the end, I couldn't ignore God's call." He worked as a political journalist in Washington, D.C. -- he was an editor at the political newsletter, The Hotline -- before returning to Pennsylvania to work in the family business, Sahd Metal Recycling. "Despite my happiness, I just felt like something was missing," Timothy Sahd recalls. "So I prayed for God to tell me what direction he wanted me to go in life, and I reheard the call to the priesthood. "This time, I answered it, and I haven't been happier in my life. In finally answering God's call, I found what I was missing." He entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary near Philadelphia in 2012. The peace he's felt since applying to the seminary is a "sign," he believes, "that -- at least for now -- I am where God wants me to be." "In the last two years, I have served at parishes and a high school both here in the Diocese of Harrisburg and in Philadelphia ... and the people that I've met at each of those places have helped me grow in my relationship with Jesus." Path to priesthood Kyle Sahd attended Bloomsburg University, then taught history at York Catholic High School for seven years. "It was during that time that I felt God was calling me to discern a vocation to the priesthood," he says, noting that for some people, a calling comes as a lightning bolt. "For me, it was more of a gradual process." Since his childhood, he says, "It was in the back of my mind. It never totally went away." In the summer of 2006, he took a college class in world religions. And he says he was struck by his love for his faith, and for Christ. "My mind went all the way back to second grade, and I wondered, 'Was God calling me?'" He entered St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe in 2008, and two years later, began studying at The Pontifical North American College in Rome. He was ordained as a deacon at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in October. He spent four years in Rome, before returning to the United States earlier this month. "It was beautiful to be very near our pope -- Pope Benedict first, then Francis," Kyle Sahd says. "They are two very different personalities, but they both lead us to the truth in their own way." Francis' example "People see in our pope how to live a life that Christ wants us to live," Kyle Sahd says. As a diocesan priest, he will not need to take a vow of poverty. But still, he says, Francis has called on his priests to live simply. As he begins his life as a fully ordained priest, Kyle Sahd says that Pope Francis' "words are always going to be on my mind ... His actions will always be in my mind. What kind of car am I going to drive? What kind of furnishings am I going to get for my living quarters?" Francis has exhorted priests to buy "humble" cars -- the pope drives a used Ford Focus -- and he takes his meals in a Vatican refectory. With his ordination upon him, Kyle Sahd says he "has a lot of joy, a lot of anticipation." He knows the priesthood will have its challenges, especially now, as parishes make do with fewer priests. He says he looks forward to learning from whatever pastor he'll be assisting. "I pray that God will give me the graces necessary to meet the challenges of the faithful I will be serving," Kyle Sahd says. "We must always show them Christ ... and his love and his mercy."