BALTIMORE, MD — Fourteen men will gather here this weekend for a Sept. 28-Oct. 1 discernment retreat aimed at helping them decide if they are called by the Holy Spirit to be Catholic priests and U.S. Military chaplains. The Vocations Office of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), is holding the retreat at St. Mary’s Seminary/School of Theology, the nation’s oldest Catholic seminary, founded in 1791. The prospective chaplain candidates include six who hope to serve in the Army, four in the Navy, and four in the Air Force. The theme of the retreat is “The Priesthood and Military Chaplaincy: Discerning a Vocation within a Vocation.”
Father Aidan Logan, who served as AMS Vocations Director from 2014 to 2021, returns on an interim basis to direct the retreat in place of recently-departed Vocations Director Father S. Matthew Gray, Ch, Maj, USAF, who has returned to his home Diocese of Charleston, SC, and will soon deploy to the Middle East. The search is on for a permanent replacement. His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, will take part in the four days of prayer, reflection, and talks. Also participating will be Chaplain Recruiters Father Peter A. Pomposello, Jr., CH (CPT), USA; Father David J. Hammond, CHC, LCDR, USN; and Father William J. Vit, Ch, Maj, USAF.
This gathering is one of two discernment retreats the AMS holds annually in the United States, one on either side of the country. The next will be held from March 21-24, 2024, at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, CA. Young men interested in participating may contact the AMS Vocations office at vocations@milarch.org or (202) 719-3600.
The annual discernment retreats are part of the AMS’s ongoing drive to overcome a desperate shortage of Catholic priests on active duty. The shortage results from attrition: aging chaplains are retiring faster than they can be replaced. The decline has persisted for decades—over the past 20 years alone, the active-duty roster has shrunk from more than 400 to 187. Currently, 25% of the Military is Catholic, but Catholic priests make up only about seven percent of the chaplain corps, leaving them stretched thin over a globally dispersed faith community on a scale of one priest per 1800 service members, not counting their families, spread across more than 220 installations in over two dozen countries.
Paradoxically, church studies show the military itself is the largest single source of U.S. priestly vocations. An annual Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, found 4% of priests ordained in the U.S. in 2023 once served in the Armed Forces, and 12% have military family backgrounds. The actual numbers are almost certainly larger because only 334 of 458 ordinands, or 73%, responded to the survey.
The AMS continues to tap this source for prospective chaplains. The Vocations Office is focusing attention on active-duty servicemen expressing an interest in the priesthood, inviting more of them to attend one of the discernment retreats. Over the past few years, this outreach has begun to yield a bountiful harvest, with a growing number of young men answering “yes” to God’s call through the Co-Sponsored Seminarian Program (CSP). Enrollment has grown from seven (7) in 2008 to an all-time high of 47 before the pandemic, producing a dozen new ordinations this year alone. Currently, 34 men are enrolled in the program, preparing for priestly ordination and military chaplaincy in hopes of relieving the shortage.
The CSP was established in the 1980s between the AMS and cooperating dioceses and religious communities to encourage military service commitments from candidates for priesthood. Co-sponsorship means that a participating, non-AMS bishop or religious superior agrees to accept a prospective U.S. Military chaplain in his diocese or religious community as a seminarian, and the seminarian will participate in the chaplain candidacy program of one of the military branches. The AMS and the seminarian’s home diocese or religious community split the cost of his five-year, $50,000-per-year formation, each paying half of tuition, room and board, and other expenses, or about $25,000 a year per Co-Sponsored Seminarian. 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.
For the AMS and those she serves, the increase in co-sponsored seminarians is a mixed blessing. While more prospective Catholic U.S. Military chaplains are in the pipeline now, the costs for their formation have risen exponentially. The AMS’s share is projected at more than five million dollars over the next five years alone. 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.
