MENLO PARK, CA – Twenty men are gathering here this weekend for a February 16-19 discernment retreat aimed at helping them discern 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. Patrick’s Seminary in hopes of relieving a chronic shortage of Catholic priests on active duty. The theme is “The Priesthood and Military Chaplaincy: Discerning a Vocation within a Vocation.”
Most of the prospective chaplain candidates already have a military background. They include eight from the U.S. Army, including four cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY; one from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD; eight from the U.S. Air Force, including four cadets from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO; and four civilians with no military background.
AMS Vocations Director Father S. Matthew Gray will direct the retreat. His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, will celebrate Holy Masses, give a talk, and otherwise take part in the four days of prayer, reflection, and dialogue. The U.S. Defense Department’s Catholic chaplain recruiters will be on hand to help retreatants decide if priesthood and military chaplaincy are for them. They include Fathers Mikolaj Scibior, CH (CPT), USA; Dan Fullerton, CHC, CDR, USN; and Nicholas Reid, Ch, Capt, 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 Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, 2023, at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, MD. 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 continuing drive to overcome a desperate shortage of active-duty Catholic U.S. Military chaplains. The shortage results from attrition: aging chaplains are retiring faster than they can be replaced. The decline has persisted for decades—over the past 25 years alone, the active-duty roster has shrunk from more than 400 to fewer than 200. 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 1,750 service members, not counting their families.
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 of Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, found that of the Class of 2022, three percent of U.S. priests ordained last year once served in the armed forces and nine percent come from military families. The actual numbers are certain to be higher because only 317 of 419 identified ordinands, or 76% of the total, 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), a vocations partnership between the AMS and cooperating dioceses and religious communities. Enrollment has grown from seven in 2008 to an all-time high of forty-seven before the pandemic, producing eleven new diaconal and presbyteral ordinations scheduled for this year alone. Currently, 38 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 to encourage military service commitments from candidates for priesthood. Co-sponsorship means that a participating, non-AMS bishop or religious superior agrees to allow a prospective U.S. Military chaplain in his diocese or religious community to enter the seminary, and the seminarian will participate in the chaplain candidacy program of one of the military branches to the extent that it does not interfere with the diocesan or religious formation plan. The AMS and the seminarian’s home diocese or religious community split the cost of his five-year, $40,000-per-year formation, each paying half of tuition, room and board, and other expenses, or about $20,000 a year per co-sponsored seminarian. Typically, 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 over the past few years is a mixed blessing. While more prospective Catholic U.S. Military chaplains are in the pipeline now, the costs for their formation have soared exponentially. The AMS’s share is projected at more than $3.5 million 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.