By Jay Sorgi
Special to The Texas Catholic
They share sibling rivalry — and a calling to the religious life.
After more than a decade each in formation and service of God’s people, twin siblings Father Andy Kmetz, IVE, and Sister Mary Servant of the Cross, SSVM, also share a workplace.
Father Kmetz and Mother Servant, as she is called, each share roles at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Parish, with Father Kmetz as parochial vicar and Mother Servant as a second grade teacher. They have worked together since 2022.
“It’s crazy. It’s really crazy,” said Mother Servant, a superior with the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara religious order, which she entered in 2009.
“We go to Mass every day. Oftentimes, he’s the one celebrating Mass,” she added. “He’s also able to give me Communion. I’m able to see him in his apostolates and his works. It’s pretty cool.”
Father Kmetz said that even if your direct family members share the Catholic faith, they may not get every aspect of religious life.
“There are just many things about the religious life that you only really understand when you’re in it,” he said. “It’s a privilege when you have a sibling that’s in religious life. Then you have a sibling who happens to be your twin; but then, to even be working at the same place, it’s a very special time and opportunity, because you combine all of that together.”
The twins grew up with their parents and three other siblings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and attended Bishop Kelley High School. Both played basketball there before Mother Servant took the college hardwood, playing at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.
That is where her Catholic faith became her own.
“It wasn’t until I went to college that I really had a conversion,” Mother Servant said.
That spawned two years with FOCUS Ministries at Loras College in Iowa evangelizing to college students, before her discernment of religious life began.
“It was through a deeper conversion of faith and some particular moments of exposure and being around sisters that I was open to hearing God’s call (in) yearning for something more.”
Father Kmetz attended the Air Force Academy, working in finance and administration after getting his economics degree, but made what he called a seamless transition to religious life in 2011 with his sister spiritually by his side.
“I met this religious order (Institute of the Incarnate Word) because when Mother Servant entered the order, I was able to meet just some of the priests,” he said, “and I remember specifically just being very attracted to the charism of the order; I could see, like, either God was calling me to be a priest with that order or he was not calling me.”
Eleven years after he entered the order, he joined his twin sister at St. Bernard of Clairvaux. They not only share their mission of evangelization and education but use their shared love of basketball to help raise money with a game as part of their gala fundraiser. It happened this year on May 19 at the school, replete with plenty of sibling trash talk.
“We both are very competitive, and we’ve always had a little — a strong — rivalry as twins,” Mother Servant said, accusing her twin brother of being a bit of a ball hog on the court.
At the same time, they see Christ within each other, even when they bump into each other in the hallway or when one of them hacks the other and draws a foul on the basketball court.
“When you see your sibling, even your twin, living the religious life,” Mother Servant said, “it’s kind of like you’re looking in the mirror.”
Cutline for featured image: Mother Servant of the Cross, SSVM, left and Father Andy Kmetz, IVE, pose for a photo May 19 prior to St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic School’s annual basketball game fundraiser, which featured he twin siblings leading opposing teams. (JANELL MIANK/Special Contributor)
