New priest joins Lovell community: Andrew Kinstetter serving St. Joseph’s Catholic Church

Andrew Kinstetter recently became the shepherd of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Lovell. He goes by Father Andrew because, “Father Kinstetter sounds too formal for me,” he said.

He was born in Gillette but grew up on a farm north of Moorcroft. 

I’m a Wyoming native through and through,” he said.

He came from a family of three boys. With an older and younger brother, he described himself as “the dreaded middle child.”

Father Andrew grew up in a strong, stable environment and a close family.

“A good, good family. Ranching, but then a solid Catholic family. It was always Mass every Sunday. I altar served. We were active in the church,” he said.

Father Andrew said concerning Greg, his brother two years his elder, who is married with four children and one on the way, “I got to marry him and his wife back in 2017, which was beautiful.”

Their younger brother is high functioning autistic and lives with his parents. He plays his role as a typical little brother.

“He’s as annoying as a little brother can be,” Father Andrew said.

A key moment in Father Andrew’s life came when he was in ninth grade.

“I was a cradle Catholic, like I mentioned. One of the key moments in my story was when I was confirmed. I was in ninth grade. After confirmation Bishop David Ricken pulled me aside -- I mean, I was a ninth grader. I had barely met Bishop Ricken before. He said when he confirmed me he felt the Holy Spirit wash over him, and he invited me to be open to the priesthood. What was great about it was it wasn’t forced, there was no pressure, just be open to it.

“At that time I really wasn’t open to it. I went to Mass every weekend, but I wanted to go into computer science when I graduated,” he said.

He went to South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, where he studied computer science for three years.

“It’s comical how divine providence plays into all of this,” he said. “What would have landed me a job with Microsoft or Google, but specifically with computer science you’re looking at coding and writing all the code behind the software. That sort of thing I found I could do and was good at, but it was too anti-social for me.” 

When he envisioned his future in this career he said he could see himself sitting in an office cubical writing code all day. That was not where he wanted to go with his life. So in the summers he started interning with Peabody Energy out of Gillette, working in their IT department. That fit him better, because he was working with people, yet still dealing in technology that he enjoys. However, that didn’t satisfy him.

“Even with both of those, especially in school, I wasn’t fulfilled, like you kind of know in your heart that this isn’t what I should be doing,” he said, “even though I was good at it and I enjoyed it. Throughout those three years I was getting more involved with the Cathedral Parish in Rapid City, helping out with their youth group and their middle school ministry.”

Father Andrew also got involved with a Catholic young adult retreat called Search for 16 through college age students. He began giving talks on prayer and liturgy and sharing how God has moved in his life.

“It became clear to me that that was where I was flourishing, and that’s where my energy was and that I needed to pursue something like that,” he said. “And, of course, the idea of the priesthood just kept cropping up. The priest at Cathedral would ask, ‘Have you considered it?’ Well, not really. Finally, there was a trip to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minnesota. I just didn’t have a valid excuse not to go, so I went to check it out. It was one of those experiences that showed me that, even if I wasn’t called to priesthood, I needed to be in that environment to pray and to discern and get away from the world and listen to what God was asking me to do.”

From there Father Andrew contacted Father Ray Rodriguez, who used to pastor here. He was at this time the vocational director. Father Andrew made application and chose the Wyoming diocese to work in. He went to Conception Seminary College in Missouri and graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts with an emphasis in philosophy. Then he spent four years in Denver at St. John’s Vianney Theological Seminary receiving a Master of Divinity. He explained, however, that the degree was not important.

“Their graduation is not important, but what is important is ordination,” he said. He was ordained as a priest in 2016 in Cheyenne.

For the next eight years Father Andrew has been in various places. He was associate pastor for one year at St. Stephens Indian Mission outside of Riverton and at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Cheyenne for three years. For the next two years he was pastor at St. Laurence O’Toole in Laramie.

The bishop asked him to consider going back to school, which “was something I wasn’t expecting or wanted,” he said. So for the last two years he’s been in Washington, D.C., at the Catholic University of America. He graduated from there last month with a Licentiate in Canon Law, which is basically Catholic Church law, all the laws that govern the Catholic Church.

When asked what drew him to ministry he replied, “In my own story, you have the big picture, but what I didn’t say was all the spiritual ups and downs. For me, really what drew me to this is I want to share what God has done for me. Everyone can relate to this in some degree, but in high school I was bullied for being the goody two shoes. Looking back, you can laugh about it, but in the moment you take it personally, you take it into your life. There was a long period of my life … there were certain lies that I started believing about myself.”

He strove to prove himself by succeeding academically. He was valedictorian of his senior class. But seminary changed all that.

“Seminary, you intentionally go there with your chaplains and your priests and the formation advisors because they want to help us grow as human beings, but also reveal the truth. The truth is that every single person is made beautiful in the image and likeness of God. We’re all sons and daughters of God, and that is our identity.

“It took years of seminary to keep uncovering it all, and the more vulnerable I was with God the more I was able to get that out there. … Then there was this moment of revelation -- God loves me, He made me and what other people think doesn’t define me. The amount of healing that came through that experience was phenomenal, and it changed everything,” he said.

Father Andrew feels his strengths lie in one-on-one relationships. 

“That’s when you can really listen to each other and get to the heart of things,” he said. “The sacraments are key elements of grace, as well. Confession can be a part of that healing process. … My energy, my passion is, let’s sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk about the real issues of what’s going on in your life.” 

He hopes to enliven the parish and draw more people to the church. 

“There’s a number of things on the digital front that we’re starting to implement that are going to improve communication and a new website, all the techy things I can do to get people to see the church, and then hopefully we can draw more people in. But my biggest goal is to just be the Father of the faith community, which is why we are called father. To integrate into this community and be a part of it. … I want to be fully invested in this community,” he said.

As far as hobbies, he has a big interest in Star Wars. He loves science fiction and fantasy. He enjoys X-box live with his brother every other week. He said that’s how they keep in touch. On Instagram Father Andrew is known as Father Fett taken from a character in Star Wars. He said, “I am very much a techy millennial.” He also enjoys the theater and musicals.

In conclusion Father Andrew said, “I truly want to be as present to the community as I can be. I want people to reach out, even if they don’t have an issue, to just stop by the office and say hi.” 

He pastors St. Joseph’s here in Lovell and also the parish in Greybull, so he is in the church office here on Tuesdays and Fridays barring any emergency.