- Feb 5, 2002
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Michigan chaplain witnesses through a strong vocation — and welding.
Sparks fly, dropping bright glints of light around the piece of metal.
A metal worker is fabricating his latest project.
But with a clerical collar visible under his coveralls, this isn’t an ordinary welder doing the arc welding.
This welder happens to be a priest: Father Dominic Couturier, chaplain and welding instructor at Harmel Academy of the Trades, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. How did he come to combine his love of making metal malleable and shepherding souls?
“I was a semi-pro athlete, I had a girlfriend, and, when I was 33, God came crashing into my life more fully and told me he wanted me as a priest,” Father Couturier, 44, told the Register.
“I’ve only been a priest for four years. I know a lot about business and metal fabrication, but I’m still working on being a holy pastor of souls.”
“Our family business, Couturier Iron Craft Inc., officially started in 1967. My grandfather started it after World War II with his GI grant money,” Father Couturier explained.
“My dad left college after his freshman year to help. Later, my uncles did so too.” Ever since he was a little boy, he recalled, he was “champing at the bit to be in there with the other guys.”
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Sparks fly, dropping bright glints of light around the piece of metal.
A metal worker is fabricating his latest project.
But with a clerical collar visible under his coveralls, this isn’t an ordinary welder doing the arc welding.
This welder happens to be a priest: Father Dominic Couturier, chaplain and welding instructor at Harmel Academy of the Trades, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. How did he come to combine his love of making metal malleable and shepherding souls?
“I was a semi-pro athlete, I had a girlfriend, and, when I was 33, God came crashing into my life more fully and told me he wanted me as a priest,” Father Couturier, 44, told the Register.
“I’ve only been a priest for four years. I know a lot about business and metal fabrication, but I’m still working on being a holy pastor of souls.”
“Our family business, Couturier Iron Craft Inc., officially started in 1967. My grandfather started it after World War II with his GI grant money,” Father Couturier explained.
“My dad left college after his freshman year to help. Later, my uncles did so too.” Ever since he was a little boy, he recalled, he was “champing at the bit to be in there with the other guys.”
Continued below.
Meet the Priest Fabricating a Stairway to Heaven
Michigan chaplain witnesses through a strong vocation — and welding.
