ROME – The Reverend Mr. Jakob S. Pohlman, a candidate for the Catholic priesthood and United States Military chaplaincy, was ordained a transitional deacon on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, at the Altar of the Chair of Saint Peter in Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. The new deacon hopes eventually to serve as an active-duty chaplain in the U.S. Navy with endorsement and faculties from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS).
The Rev. Mr. Pohlman, 25, is currently in priestly formation at the Pontifical North American College and scheduled to be ordained a priest next year. His diaconal ordination was celebrated at an evening Mass through the laying of hands and the prayer of consecration invoking the Holy Spirit by Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, MN. AMS Auxiliary Bishop William (Bill) Muhm concelebrated the ordination Mass.
Watch video of the ordination Mass here.
The new deacon was raised and home-schooled in a Navy family. His father, retired Petty Officer Dustin Pohlman, P01, USN, served from 2001-2015 as a nuclear submarine engineer. Both the father and mother, Mrs. Jamie Pohlman, participated in the ordination Mass, along with three sisters and two brothers, Sara, Evelyn, Louise, Caspian, and Edmund. Another brother, Ryan Pohlman, SA, USN, is currently on active duty in the Navy in Oklahoma and could not attend the ordination.
The Rev. Mr. Pohlman is a 2022 graduate of The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC, where he earned a license in Philosophy, and a 2026 graduate of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas in Rome, where he earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (STB). He also holds a license in Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
Co-sponsored by his home Diocese of Worcester, MA, the new deacon says he began to discern a priestly vocation as a young child after his parents decided to become Catholic. “We were attending Mass for one of the first times,” he says, “and I remember seeing the priest elevating the host immediately following the consecration. I felt in my heart a draw towards that concrete action: ‘I want to do THAT.’ As a young kid of six, I found that pretty powerful and it has stuck with me.”
The Rev. Mr. Pohlman says he will spend much of his final year in seminary honing the priestly skill he looks forward to practicing the most: preaching. “I will have the opportunity to preach to the seminary community and to my apostolate, St. Patrick’s in Rome, which is the American Parish in Rome. I am looking forward to sharing the good news and the truth about God!”
The Rev. Mr. Pohlman reaches this penultimate milestone in his formational journey at a critical time for the exercise of Catholic faith in the Navy. Like other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Navy continues to suffer a chronic shortage of Catholic chaplains due to attrition: priests are reaching mandatory military retirement faster than they can be replaced. Since 9/11, the number of active-duty Catholic U.S. Military chaplains in all branches of service fell from more than 400 to fewer than 200 at one point, but has since begun to rebound, climbing to 216 today. While Catholics make up about 25% of the U.S. Armed Forces, Catholic priests still account for only about seven percent of military chaplains. In the Navy, fewer than 60 priests currently on active duty serve tens of thousands of Catholic Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen spread around the world, along with their families.
At the same time, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, the military itself remains a rich source of vocations in the U.S. CARA’s annual Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood found at least 4% of the Class of 2026 has prior military experience, and 12% comes from families where at least one parent served in the military, making the AMS the nation’s largest single source of new priests. The actual numbers are certain to be higher, because only 78% of this year’s ordinands (334 out of 428) responded to the survey.
The AMS is now busy tapping this source for prospective chaplains. The Office of Vocations is focusing attention on active-duty servicemen expressing an interest in the priesthood, inviting more qualified candidates to join the Co-Sponsored Seminarian Program, a vocations partnership between the AMS and cooperating dioceses and religious communities around the country. Thanks in large part to the support of U.S. bishops and religious superiors, along with increased awareness and discernment opportunities, the number of co-sponsored seminarians has risen from as few as seven in 2008 to 29 today, with more than 30 other men set to attend the AMS Discernment Retreat later this month in Baltimore, MD.
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 Office of Vocations at vocations@milarch.org or (202) 719-3600.