WASHINGTON, D.C. – Twenty-nine prospective Catholic U.S. Military chaplains from seminaries throughout the United States gathered in the Nation’s Capital over the weekend for the annual Labor Day weekend gathering for Co-Sponsored Seminarians. The retreat, 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.
The prospective chaplains took part in a Friday evening dinner; a Saturday morning briefing and breakout sessions with chaplain recruiters; and an afternoon barbeque provided by the Knights of Columbus, James 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 (pictured); the Sunday morning Mass, in the Fort Myer Memorial Chapel at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, VA.
This year’s Labor Day weekend gathering is the last to be led by AMS Vocations Director Father S. Matthew Gray. A major in the South Carolina Air National Guard, Father Gray will soon be deployed to the Middle East after which time he has been called back to his home Diocese of Charleston. Former AMS Vocations Director Father Aidan Logan will temporarily fill the role pending the search for a successor. Vocations remains a top priority for Archbishop Broglio as the U.S. Military strives to overcome a chronic shortage of Catholic priests on active duty. Currently, 190 Catholic priests are serving on active duty, representing only 7% of the U.S. Military chaplain corps even though the military’s Catholic population stands at approximately 25%. The reason for the shortage is attrition: chaplains are reaching the mandatory military retirement age faster than they can be replaced.
The Co-Sponsored Seminarian Program (CSP), of which the 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, roughly $50,000-per-year formation in half, each paying half of tuition, room and board and other expenses, or approximately $25,000 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 11 new ordinations this year alone. Current CSP enrollment stands at 39. This growth is welcome news for the U.S. Military, which is struggling to fill the Catholic chaplain shortage.
Meanwhile, the AMS pays 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 milarch.org/vocations, or may contact the AMS Vocations Office at vocations@milarch.org or (202) 719-3600.