Vocations program seeks to counter decline in military chaplains
April 24, 2013
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Since 2001, the number of priests who serve as military chaplains has fallen from 400 to fewer than 260.
“We are a country at war, and the need for military chaplains is very grave,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services. “Approximately one-fourth of men and women wearing uniforms are Catholic, and we have nowhere near enough chaplains for that number of people.”
The archdiocese’s seminarian co-sponsorship program, which seeks to counter this decline, has attracted 34 men who will serve in their home dioceses for at least three years before being released for ministry in the military archdiocese.
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Further information:
- Military Chaplains: ‘A Calling Within a Calling’ (National Catholic Register)
- Co-Sponsorship (Archdiocese for the Military Services)
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Posted by: TheJournalist64 -
Apr. 24, 2013 7:21 PM ET USA
The problem with being a military chaplain these days is that the mandates from the military conflict with our duties as clergy. For instance, if one counsels that homosexual conduct is immoral and unsafe to one's salvation, you could be brought up on charges.