While some wring their hands over prep seminaries closing, and the fact that younger men are choosing not to enter religious life, there is this silver lining: more older men are deciding they look better in black, and becoming priests.

Consider this great story from the South Carolina State newspaper:

When the Rev. Timothy M. Gahan was ordained a Roman Catholic priest this summer, he brought with him life experience in the secular world, including a military career, marriage and grown children.

Gahan believes that arms him with a certain wisdom as he begins a second career as parochial vicar, or associate pastor, of Columbia’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

“Any time you bring life experience” to a position it helps, he said. “Having been married, having been a father, having been out in the real world.”

Gahan, 62 and a widower, was ordained along with five others in a July 27 rite that drew more than 150 priests and 1,500 well-wishers from around the world.

Bishop Robert J. Baker, leader of the Diocese of Charleston, presided over the service at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, which included the laying on of hands by their fellow priests.

“It was a glorious experience,” said the Rev. Richard Harris, pastor of St. Joseph’s.

As the diocese’s vicar of vocations, Harris helped Gahan and the other newly ordained priests discern if they felt called by God to the priesthood.

A lifelong Roman Catholic, Gahan spent 29 years in the U.S. Marines, retiring as a colonel. His wife, Mary Patricia, died in 1985, leaving him with two young children to raise.

After retirement, he worked in Pennsylvania as the business manager for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter…

In 2001, Gahan moved to Columbia, where he worked as the business administrator for J.E. Wilson Associates, a financial advising firm just up Devine Street from St. Joseph’s.

His association “with good and holy priests” in the Priestly Fraternity contributed to his leanings toward the priesthood, he said. But it was not until Christmas 2003 that he told his family of his decision to enter Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Boston.

“I remember saying, ‘Christmas is a time for surprises, and I have one for you,’” he recalled. His son, Terrence, guessed what he planned to do.

Second-career priests are not uncommon in the Roman Catholic church, Harris said.

“It looks like more men, after they have experienced life and had careers in the secular world, are looking toward the priesthood,” Harris said. “Maybe they had those thoughts at an earlier age and for whatever reason, they decided to go into the world, but they never lost that calling.”

Read the rest of it for more, and let’s thank God for sending more laborers into the vineyard. These guys have a lot to offer, and we’re blessed to have ’em.

Photo: Charleston, S.C. ordination class of 2007, with Fr. Gahan on the far left.