BOSTON—Father Carignan Rouse, 2d Lt, USAFR, a United States Air Force chaplain candidate, was ordained a priest on Saturday, May 18, in Boston. His ordination was celebrated at a 10:00 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross through the laying on of hands and the prayer of consecration invoking the Holy Spirit by His Eminence, Sean Cardinal O’Malley.
Father Rouse will now complete three years of pastoral service in his home Archdiocese of Boston, after which he hopes to go on active duty with endorsement and faculties from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS). AMS Auxiliary Bishop William (Bill) Muhm concelebrated the ordination Mass.
Father Rouse, 31, is a 2007 graduate of Lawton Chiles High School in Tallahassee, FL, and a 2013 graduate of St. Philip’s College-Seminary in Toronto, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Thomistic Thought and in Philosophy. The new priest celebrated his first Mass on Sunday at St. Anthony of Lisbon Parish in Cambridge, MA.
Father Rouse said:
“I feel honored to have been chosen by the people of God to minister to them as priest of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for all of the support from the faithful of the Church over these twelve years of formation. I know that I am only beginning the ministry, but I am thankful to be finished with academic endeavours. The ministry opportunities that await me are exciting and I want to serve our Airmen as soon as possible.”
Father Rouse will begin his pastoral service at St. Michael’s Parish in North Andover, MA, while continuing to serve in the Air Force Reserve while waiting to go on active duty as a chaplain.
His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, commented: “I am very grateful to the Archdiocese of Boston for the support of the co-sponsorship program. Boston has a long and very proud history of contributing priests to the chaplaincy. We cannot forget that the most well-known military Vicar was His Eminence Francis Cardinal Spellman who began his sacerdotal ministry as a priest of Boston!”
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 AMS Vocations Director Father Aidan Logan, O.C.S.O., by email at vocations@milarch.org.
