Co-Sponsored Seminarians Celebrate Labor Day Weekend in Nation’s Capital

Thirty gathered for prayer, fraternity, and dialogue

Archbishop Timothy Broglio speaks to Co-Sponsored Seminarians and prospective Catholic U.S. Military chaplains in Washington, DC on Sept. 4, 2021.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thirty prospective Catholic U.S. Military chaplains from 23 dioceses and one religious community assembled in the Nation’s Capital over the weekend for the annual Labor Day Weekend Gathering for Co-Sponsored Seminarians. The gathering, hosted each year by the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), is a three-day celebration of prayer, fraternity, and face-to-face dialogue between the chaplain candidates, AMS clergy and staff, and His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services. This year, for the first time, Father S. Matthew Gray, the new AMS Director of Vocations, directed the gathering.

The prospective chaplains converged on Washington from seminaries throughout the U.S. and in Rome. They took part in a Friday evening dinner; a Saturday morning briefing and afternoon barbeque provided by the Knights of ColumbusJames Cardinal Hickey Assembly #2534; and Mass on Saturday and Sunday celebrated by Archbishop Broglio. The Saturday morning Mass took place at the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; the Sunday morning Mass, in the Chapel Center at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.

The Co-Sponsored Seminarian Program (CSP), of which these chaplain candidates are members, is a vocations partnership between the AMS and cooperating dioceses and religious communities around the country. Co-sponsorship means that a cooperating, non-AMS bishop or religious superior agrees to accept a prospective chaplain in his territorial diocese or religious community as a seminarian, and the seminarian will participate in the chaplain candidacy program of one of the U.S. Military branches. The AMS and the seminarian’s home diocese or religious community split the cost of his five-year, $40,000-per-year formation in half, each paying half of tuition, room and board, and other expenses, or about $20,000 a year per Co-Sponsored Seminarian.

Under the Co-Sponsorship agreement, once the seminarian is ordained a priest, he will work in his home diocese or religious community for three years before going on active duty. Once he completes his military service, he will return to his home diocese or religious community to serve out his vocation.

The AMS established the CSP in the 1980s to encourage military service commitments from candidates for priesthood. Enrollment has grown from seven (7) in 2008 to an all-time high of forty-seven before the pandemic, producing more than 16 new ordinations this year alone. This growth is welcome news for the U.S. Military, which is struggling to fill a chronic shortage of Catholic chaplains as aging priests retire from active duty faster than they can be replaced.

Meanwhile, the AMS is struggling to pay the Co-Sponsored Seminarians’ tuition and other formational expenses. The AMS receives no funding from the Military or the government and gratefully welcomes donations at www.milarch.org/donate.

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 www.milarch.org/vocations, or may contact the AMS Vocations Office at vocations@milarch.org or (202) 719-3600.

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