DETROIT — Father Matthew D. Kurt, (1LT), USAR, a candidate for United States Military chaplaincy, was ordained a Catholic priest on Saturday, May 18, in his home Archdiocese of Detroit, MI. The new priest plans to go on active duty as a Catholic chaplain in the U.S. Army, providing pastoral care to soldiers and their families with endorsement and faculties from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS). Father Kurt will be eligible for accession once he completes three years of pastoral service in Detroit under his co-sponsored seminarian agreement with the two archdioceses.
Father Kurt was among five men ordained priests at Detroit’s Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament through the laying of hands and the prayer of consecration invoking the Holy Spirit by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron. AMS Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Coffey concelebrated the 10:00 a.m. ordination Mass. Among those in attendance were the new priest’s parents, Daniel and Kristen Kurt.
Father Kurt, 28, is a 2014 graduate of Salem High School in Canton, MI. In 2018, he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy from Michigan State University where he served in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). The new priest completed his formational studies, while serving in the Army Reserve, at Sacred Heart Major Seminary where he earned a BA in Philosophy, a Master of Divinity Degree (MDiv), and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology Degree (S.T.B.).
Commenting on his priestly ordination, Father Kurt said, “It was such a beautiful day! I’m so grateful to Archbishop Vigneron for ordaining me a priest and I thank God ahead of time for the great adventure that I have ahead of me.”
The eventual service of Father Kurt and other Catholic chaplain candidates is greatly anticipated by the Army, which, like all other branches of the U.S. Military, continues to suffer a chronic shortage of Catholic chaplains. Currently, the Army has only 84 priests on active duty, serving a Catholic population of nearly a half-million soldiers and their families, spread worldwide.
Young men interested in discerning a priestly vocation, and the vocation within a vocation to serve those who serve in the U.S. military, can find more information at milarch.org/vocations, or may contact AMS Vocations Director Father Marcel Taillon at vocations@milarch.org or (202) 719-3600.
Gifts in support of AMS Vocations are gratefully accepted at milarch.org/donate.
