A modern vocation

It seems like life was leading Joe Campbell to the priesthood. He had lived his first 25 years in a similar mode to his peers, with football and socialising, but that life also included much praying, and very regular mass-going. The Rosemount man is the son of a farmer and before meeting up in Moate for the interview for this story, Fr. Joe was busy testing cattle on his father's farm. "Every farm's a small farm," he said laughing, when talking about his father's dairy and beef farm. Moate's a familiar spot for Joe, because he spent four years of his secondary school education in the Carmelite School, and then his final year in the Community School, after the amalgamation. "I dabbled a bit in sport at the Carmelite, but I was never serious, though I played a bit of football for Rosemount, but I warmed the bench more often than not," said Fr Joe Campbell laughing. Joe is one of the four sons of John and Betty Campbell, who are a farmer and nurse respectively. Growing up, and working on a farm probably encouraged Joe to study Agricultural and Environmental Science at UCD following doing his Leaving Cert at Moate Community School in 1997. However in those university years and alongside his many other pursuits, Joe continued with his interest in prayer and a devotion to the mass, which had been with him since he was very young. He had served mass in Rosemount church during his childhood. He also used to go to Lourdes every year as a helper, from the time he did his Leaving Cert, and he knew many of the priests from the Diocese of Meath from that time. The work of these priests appealed to Joe, which further ignited feelings of becoming a priest, which were latent in him since his secondary school years. "I used to go to mass daily when I was in UCD, although it was without me being a holy Joe," he said laughing. "In fact I was nourished by the mass, and it was not that I would think I was better or holier than anyone else over it." Joe missed mass very few times in his life, and when he was living at home, he always went to Easter Ceremonies and all that, but he says he was not pressurised to do so at home, but it was par for the course, and he didn't see a need to question it. "I was disappointed in myself whenever I missed mass, but honestly I could count them times on one hand, and when I went on holidays in his early years, the first place I looked for was a Catholic church," said Joe. However before he finally decided to become a priest, he worked in the environment department of Westmeath County Council for two years and worked one year with an agricultural consultant on Environmental plans, in Banagher, and his hobby was still playing football for Rosemount. Despite the idea of being a priest being with him since childhood, Joe didn't make the final decision lightly, and without great consideration. "I was 25 years old, which is a time when you decide what direction in life you really want to go, and I had a great social life, and was working, and I was thinking if I should get on the property ladder, but thank God I didn't," said Joe. "I was involved with Foróige from a young age, and was outgoing, and liked working with people, but there has to be more to it than that. Christ has to be at the centre of a decision where you join the priesthood, and he was at the centre for me. "If I wanted to just work with people, I could have worked as a social worker." He said that a lot of people have had to make such a decision about "a call", and that there comes a time, when you have to find what direction you are going in life. "I felt a call, yeah, a niggling that I had to go and answer, and a lot of guys go that direction, and don't finish up as priests, but they do find out whether the priesthood is for them or not," said Joe. Joe visited the Vocations Director in the diocese of Meath, and Bishop Michael Smith, who he knew from his many trips to Lourdes, and in September 2004, he took the journey to Maynooth to study for the priesthood. "It was a totally different style of life for me, and I was used to my independence, but when I first went to Maynooth, I had to stay in there for a month, with no mobile phone," said Joe laughing. "I got out to go to Glendalough, for a break with the lads who started with me. Twenty-four of us started at the same time in Maynooth, and I was the only one from the diocese of Meath." Throughout the years, the mass continues to be an invigorating source of power in his life, and as a priest he says mass once a day, but he also tries to attend mass as a mass-goer. "I did have doubts about being a priest about two years into study in Maynooth, because I had just finished Philosophy, and moved into studying Theology, and it was a step closer to priesthood, which required more commitment of myself, but I could see what I was doing, and I decided that the priesthood was for me," said Joe. During his first year in Maynooth, he worked in a nursing home in Leixlip, and in his third year, he worked with people who have HIV and AIDS. He also worked with people with special needs, and did a pastoral year working with patients in Tralee General Hospital. Interestingly, Joe also worked in Mountjoy Prison on a one to one basis with a prisoner. He was ordained in his parish church in Rosemount on June 20 last year, making it almost one year since Joe became a priest. There was great celebrations that weekend in Rosemount and Joe says he could never thank enough the people of his parish for all they did for him. "My income may be small, but I certainly can't complain because I don't have a mortgage, or anything like the demands people of my own age do have. I'm based in Drogheda, where I'm a curate and am one of two priests there," said Joe. "We have a lovely church in Drogheda and 16-17,000 people in our parish." Alongside his regular parish duties, he works in schools in his adopted Co. Louth town, including working as a chaplain in a boys' secondary school, and chaplain in a girls primary school. "I get on great with the kids I think, but schools are different than when I went there twenty years ago, and there wasn't as much questioning in my time, but there is good and bad changes overall," said Joe. While loving his new life and priestly career in Drogheda, Joe returns almost every week to his family in Rosemount, and travels to Athlone's Regional Sport Centre to do some training. Fitness is still a big part of his life, and he plays astro-turf soccer with some teachers during the week in Drogheda, and recently did a charity cycle from Maynooth to Galway, and back again, for Pieta House, which is a crisis centre for self-harm and suicidal people. Sunday, May 15, was Vocations Sunday, and around the time of such occasions, Joe feels many people may think of taking that life choice or exploring the call to priesthood and religious life. "If people feel they have the call, they should just talk to someone about it, like a priest that they know," said Joe. Joe said he's very happy and contented as a young priest living in 21st Century Ireland, and he likes being a diocesan priest, working close to communities he's familiar with. Joe said that he would rather work in Ireland, than on foreign missions, and he feels that there is enough work to do in this country, during these challenging times. "I would like to spend a good few years in my parish, because it takes time to get to know people, and I am enjoying my time as an Irish diocesan priest" he said.