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Army: Fr. Kapaun worthy of Medal of Honor

From The Wichita Eagle

By Roy Wenzl

Letter from the secretary of the Army about Father Kapaun

Father Emil Kapaun, the U.S. Army chaplain who died in a prison camp after saving dozens of soldiers' lives in the Korean War, is deserving of the Medal of Honor, the secretary of the Army has determined.

Kapaun, a native of Pilsen, in Marion County, and a former parish priest there, died of starvation and pneumonia in the prison camp at Pyoktong, North Korea, on May 23, 1951; he was 35. Soldiers who were with him have said that the communist Chinese camp guards murdered him because he rallied fellow starving soldiers to pray, to stay alive and to stay true to their country in the face of relentless brainwashing sessions.

Fellow prisoners of war have pleaded with the military for decades to give Kapaun the Medal of Honor. As a result, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, as early as April 2001 asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to review Kapaun's eligibility for the honor.

In a letter Tiahrt received this week, Army Secretary Pete Geren wrote, "After giving this request careful, personal consideration, I have determined that Chaplain Kapaun's actions in combat operations and as a prisoner of war in Korea warrant award of the Medal of Honor.

"This brave Soldier clearly distinguished himself by his courageous actions. The Army and our nation are forever grateful for his heroic service."

Tiahrt said Thursday that the decision is not entirely complete. Congress and President Obama must sign off on it.

"But it's the Secretary of the Army who does the research and makes the key recommendation," Tiahrt said. "This is huge, and I'm very happy about this."

Tiahrt himself called Kapaun's remaining immediate family — his brother, Eugene, and Eugene's wife, Helen, who live in Bel Aire. The news stunned Helen, who spoke for her ailing husband.

"We are proud of him, as we should be," she said.

"But I don't think Father Emil would have wanted honors for himself. He would have said, 'Oh, shucks,' and thrown off any thoughts about honors to someone else."

The Roman Catholic Church has for several decades conducted a separate investigation to determine whether Kapaun should be declared a saint. That investigation has gained strength in recent months.

The Vatican earlier this year sent an investigator to Wichita to interview families and their doctors who say their children miraculously recovered from what looked like fatal medical problems after they prayed to the soul of Kapaun. Proving at least two miracles is a requirement for considering sainthood in the church.

The military during the Korean War had already awarded Kapaun the Distinguished Service Cross, its second-highest award. But fellow POWS said he deserved the nation's highest award.

A number of them dictated notarized affidavits testifying to his heroism under fire and in prison. Several fellow prisoners, after they were released at the end of the war, came to Wichita and Pilsen to extol Kapaun's heroism.

Kapaun was a chaplain of the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the First Army Division during the Korean War. Soldiers in that outfit saw him run through machine gun and artillery fire during a number of battles, dragging wounded soldiers to safety.

Four months after the war began, with the communist North Korean Army falling apart and the American army apparently victorious, the Chinese Army suddenly entered the war. Kapaun's 8th Cavalry regiment was surrounded and nearly annihilated by tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers in November 1950.

American soldiers who escaped the battle outside the North Korean village of Unsan said Kapaun refused to leave the wounded even after officers ordered and soldiers screamed at him to leave the battlefield.

In the following six months, on a horrific death march to prison camps and then in two prison camps just south of the Chinese border, Kapaun saved many lives. He escaped numerous times to steal food to bring back to starving prisoners, washed the filthy underwear of sick soldiers too feeble to do it themselves, and made pots and pans out of shredded roofing tin to boil the only clean water soldiers drank in the camps.

Soldiers said he used many skills he told them he'd learned as a farm boy growing up outside Pilsen.

They said he was a devout priest who violated camp rules every night by saying the rosary with fellow soldiers; but he sometimes spoke four-letter-words after confronting vicious guards mistreating prisoners.

When starving soldiers, freezing in subzero weather, began to hoard or steal food from one another, Kapaun would give his own food away and bless it in front of the soldiers as "food we cannot only eat but share."

"By offering pieces of his clothing and giving portions of his own meager rations to his injured comrades, Chaplain Kapaun unwittingly weakened his resistance which, in turn, hastened his untimely death," Tiahrt wrote Rumsfeld in 2001.

Helen Kapaun said she and the family were "shocked" when former POWs came home after the war and told hundreds of stories of her brother-in-law's heroics.

"All we knew of him was that he was a good priest and a good man," she said. "My husband had said that Father Emil was a man who was always religious and always meant what he said."

"Bless Me Father!"

Written by Fr. Jose Bautista-Rojas, LT, CHC, USN (photo at left)
Monday, 31 December 2007 00:21
Thank you Lord for my priesthood!

01Jan08: What am I, a priest, doing in Iraq? God brought me here to be with my Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers. I am here to bring God to them and to bring them to God. Every day is a different story.

The other day, a young Marine arrived to SSTP (Shock, Surgical and Trauma Platoon) hospital. He was so young and at the age where he was just starting to experience life. He had lost his legs from the waist down; he had a very low pulse. There was something special about his young man that made him different from every other one that arrived at the SSTP hospital up to that date. I knew him personally. He attended Mass twice a month while the other days he went on missions. It is different when you know someone personally. I still remember his face; he would ask for a blessing after each Mass. He would tell me: "Bless me, Father, I need your blessing." These are the last words that I heard from him a week ago. His words till resounded over and over in my head, "Bless me, Father." I will not give his real name out of respect for the family.

I could not control my right hand while holding Jose's, praying to God for him; my hand was shaking. In my mind, I was asking God to save Jose. I was thinking of his parents, of his brothers, of his friends, but especially of his mother. Lord, do not shatter Jose's mother's heart. Save him, Lord! Bring him back to his mother alive.

I was looking around the operating room. The doctors were speaking to Jose telling him, "Fight, do not give up, please fight!" Jose's commanding officer was at a corner of the room with tears in his eyes, looking at me as if he were asking, "Please tell God to save him!" He then would turn to the doctors as saying, "Fight for him please save him, save my Marine!" Another officer entered the room, looked carefully to the doctors and then turned to me asking me with the gesture of his hands to pray. Then, he turned to Jose's officer and greeted him as if giving his condolences.

Please Lord, save him! I prayed with all my strength while the doctors tried frantically to save his life. "He has no more pulse!" one doctor shouted, while a female doctor with her hands inside Jose's chest caressed his heart trying to revive him. After 45 minutes of massaging the heart and electrical shocks, the doctor declared him dead.

In my mind, I was praying Lord, do not allow Jose's mother to receive him without life. Looking at Jose on the stretcher, I only saw half of his body. How would his life be if he would have survived without legs and only part of his hands? I wonder if God instead of answering my prayer answered Jose's prayer. Maybe Jose was telling God, please take me with you, do not leave me here this way. I don not know; the only thing I know is that Jose will not suffer anymore.

I still hear Jose's voice when he would tell me, "Bless me, Father... Please, Father, bless me... I always tell my mom that you bless me, and she gets very happy..... My mother told me to thank you for your blessing." What will go through Jose's mother's mind? Will she be angry at God? Will she hate the Marine Corps that her son loved so much?

I wish I could tell her: "Senora, I was with your son on his last moments." My hope is that she will find some comfort in the knowledge that her son had a priest by his side in his last moments.

Jose's officer asked for my name to tell his mother that I prayer for Jose, and that he received the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. I would love to look at her eyes, and let her know that I was with her son on her behalf. I would like to embrace her, and tell her that her son asked for my blessing every time he could come to Mass.

I thank God for the gift of my priesthood and to my Cardinal who allowed me to come and serve as a chaplain. I am a priest not only to celebrate Holy Mass, but also to live it. The gift of my priesthood allows me to bless and bring peace to my muchachos and muchachas, that's the way I see them as my young kids, in the midst of this war.

Please, ask God that I may never get tired of blessing those who ask and wherever they ask me. Jose would ask me to bless him in the Chapel, or while I was walking to my "Humvee" (my transportation), which would bring me to my base or where ever he would see me.

"Father would you bless me?" Who will be the next priest to hear these words? Will our young men and women in the military services have priests to come to and ask for a blessing, or to come for confession, or will they have the opportunity to attend Mass? I pray that young men and women in the military will get the spiritual guidance they need. The only way this will be possible is if more men respond to God's call to the priesthood. When the Lord asks, "Whom shall I send?" many will say "Here I am, Lord!"

Fr. Jose Bautista-Rojas, LT, CHC, USN is currently serving as a US military chaplain in Iraq. A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, he was ordained for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1999, and has previously served at various parishes including St. Elizabeth Church in Van Nuys, CA.

"Priest gravely wounded in Iraq in 2004 dies"

Father Tim with some of the troops he ministered to in Iraq. (Provided by his family)

From the Star Tribune

Five years after being gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Rev. Tim Vakoc, a well-known and much-loved Roman Catholic priest from Minnesota, has died.

By CHAO XIONG

Five years after being gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Rev. Tim Vakoc, a well-known and much-loved Roman Catholic priest from Minnesota, has died, his family said Sunday.

Vakoc, 49, who most recently had been living at St. Therese Care Center in New Hope, died about 8 p.m. Saturday after being taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, said Barb Rode, president and CEO of St. Therese.

"Certainly, our thoughts and prayers are with the family right now," Rode said. "We are doing an investigation to make sure we have all the answers."

Vakoc died surrounded by family and friends, according to an entry on his CaringBridge website.

"A man of peace, he chose to endure the horror of war in order to bring the peace of Christ to America's fighting men and women," Archbishop John Nienstedt wrote in a prepared statement. "He has been an inspiration to us all, and we will miss him."

Father Tim, as he was known, was the first military chaplain grievously wounded in the Iraq war. He was injured by a roadside bomb as he was returning from celebrating mass with troops on May 29, 2004, the day before the 12th anniversary of his ordination as a priest.

The blast cost him an eye and severely damaged his brain. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and transferred to the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center in October 2004.

After numerous surgeries and life-threatening infections, he slowly started to recognize friends and family, and to communicate with a squeeze of the hand or a slight smile.

For more than two years, he was in what doctors called a "minimally responsive state." Then, in the fall of 2006, he spoke for the first time in 2 1/2 years, raising hopes of recovery.

'Where angels fear to tread'

The Rev. Bob Schwartz, pastor at Our Lady of Grace in Edina and a longtime friend of Vakoc, said he would mime words with his lips. During a visit Schwartz paid him three months ago, Vakoc offered to give him a blessing. Later that day, he struggled but succeeded in maneuvering his motorized wheelchair down a hall and into an elevator to get to his therapy session, bumping against the wall the entire way because he lacked good motion control in his hands, Schwartz said.

"My sense of Tim is that if he was asked to walk across a landmine for somebody, he'd do it," said Schwartz, who served as priest at St. John Neumann Church in Eagan while Vakoc was associate pastor there. "He'd go where angels fear to tread."

Tens of thousands of people around the world followed Vakoc's story through his CaringBridge website. He had dozens of regular visitors, many of whom came to pray with him.

Teri Heyer of St. Paul visited him every other Sunday for three years, reading the newspaper to him. He communicated primarily with a "yes," "no," nod or facial expressions, she said.

"He was very aware of his surroundings," she said, adding that he once flashed a raised eyebrow at a story she recounted.

Ordained 17 years ago

When she last saw him a few weeks ago, he was doing well, she said.

Patricia Vacik of Colorado Springs, Colo., visited him three times, compelled by the friendship her family forged with him when he was their pastor at Fort Carson, Colo., in the 1990s.

"He use to take the babies and walk the babies on his shoulders during mass," she said. "He said the babies were so close to heaven [that] they really were still in touch with God. He was just so special."

Vakoc celebrated the 17th anniversary of his ordination on June 10 of this year, according to his CaringBridge site.

Vakoc, the youngest of three children of Phyllis and Henry Vakoc, grew up in Robbinsdale and entered St. Paul Seminary in 1987. He served as a parish priest in St. Anthony and Eagan before becoming an Army chaplain in 1996, and served extended tours of duty in Germany and Bosnia.

He shipped out to Iraq shortly before his 44th birthday. There, he was promoted to major and traveled to danger zones to pray with his fellow soldiers. He was returning to base from one of those trips when the roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee.

Family members declined to comment Sunday.

"Priest a wartime legend"

From The Windsor Star
By Marty Gervais

Rev. Mike Dalton celebrates mass with Canadian troops in Europe during the Second World War. Dalton, who died Monday at 106, used his army Jeep as an altar.

Photograph by: File photo, The Windsor Star

He was a soldier to the end. His threadbare army tunic hung on the wall, and his room was filled with religious icons, rosaries and holy pictures.

And when you spoke to him, his words were about the men he knew on the battlefields of France when he rigged up a makeshift altar on the hood of his jeep and said mass for them.

The photos from the Second World War show these anxious men kneeling, their heads bowed, silent in the muddy fields just hours before they were sent into battle.

And when age finally wore him down -- long after the war and years of serving parishes all over the London diocese including Windsor, Woodslee and Kingsville -- this old priest told me it wouldn't stop him from saying mass in his bed at the nursing home.

It would never stop him from being a priest. And there was no way he would ever lose his faith in his religion or people.

I'm speaking about an old friend, Rev. Mike Dalton, who passed away Monday afternoon at Sacred Heart Nursing Home in Courtland, Ont. He was 106, a month shy of his 107th birthday.

This son of a Goderich farmer is the most decorated padre who ever served in the Canadian Army. He marched at the front lines with his fellow soldiers, often carrying their weapons when they tired of battle.

Besides the Military Cross for bravery, Father Dalton was the first Catholic priest to receive the Member of the British Empire. The day King George VI pinned the decoration on his tunic at Buckingham Palace, he dug deep into his pockets and handed the monarch a Catholic religious medal.

When I met Father Dalton in the mid-1990s, this legendary padre with the Essex Scottish, who landed at Normandy in 1944, complained of sitting in a wheelchair. His legs had given out on him. He prayed for God to give him back his strength, so he could stand up again and say mass.

TWINKLE IN HIS EYES

Deep down, he knew better. He told me so.

The day I met him, Father Dalton wore the Roman collar, and had a twinkle in those slate-grey eyes and a wit and a humour that bubbled out in the stories he spun for me. He loved to talk. He loved people. He loved life. He loved God. He loved being a soldier. He loved being a priest.

If there was anything he didn't like, it was losing those fathers and sons to war. He had sensed their inner fears. It didn't matter if the orders were to stay clear of the front lines -- he listened instead to his own heart, and drove his jeep to the brink of battle. And he would sit there in the open jeep -- its windshield festooned with flowers -- and hear the laboured, disturbed confessions of terrified soldiers.

Or sometimes he would join a soldier on a road to a battle and try to ease their woes and lift their spirits.

Somehow Father Dalton believed he was invincible. He said he feared nothing. He figured he had a purpose, a reason to be. He felt lucky. He felt destined and blessed for some higher purpose. How else, he asked, do you explain how twice his truck was hit with shrapnel, and men died all around him?

"I didn't have a scratch. I couldn't even get a cold," he said.

And sometimes he was so lost in the reverie of saying mass on the hood of his jeep that he would suddenly turn to give a blessing, "and there was no one there ... I was all alone. The soldiers had jumped for cover, and shrapnel was flying everywhere. I hadn't heard a thing."

Rev. Matthew George, a longtime friend of Father Dalton, in hearing of his death, said the biggest regret of this priest's life was discovering too late the botched Dieppe invasion. "He had been at a chaplain's meeting and when he found out, he wanted to be put ashore, but they wouldn't let him.

"He cared about those men -- and never forgot them," said George.

It reminded me of what Dalton told me years ago when I asked why he joined the army. He said that when he served at St. Alphonsus in downtown Windsor, he realized those same kids who had made their First Communion in that church were now running off to war.

"I had to go with them," he said.

Now with his passing, I'm speculating the old padre is catching up to them, once again.

"Military padres a rare breed"

From Canada.com
By Matthew Fisher

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Padre Bastien Leclerc is one of the rarest of the rare. He is a Roman Catholic priest and a cleric in the Canadian Forces.

Just as the Catholic Church is having a devil of a time finding priests for its parishes across Canada, it has become more and more difficult for the military to find priests to fill billets at bases in Canada and overseas.

Forty of the 84 Roman Catholic positions in the forces are now filled by lay pastoral associates. Four more are lay deacons, meaning that the 40 priests still in uniform have become a minority within their own chaplaincy.

"It is very hard for a bishop to give up a priest but it is even worse if the priest is young and I was only 34 when I joined the military,” said Father Leclerc, whose rank is major and is Task Force Afghanistan’s senior chaplain.

"There is such a shortage of priests in Canada that some have two or three parishes and spend all their time running from masses to baptisms to marriages. I admire the priests who can do that, but that was not me."

A priest who was a padre suggested to Leclerc, who was not keen on parish life but enjoyed his work at the time with street kids in Quebec, that joining the military might be his calling.

"I took spiritual direction and prayed and signed on the dotted line," he said, pausing for a moment as a pair of fighter jets screamed past his window. "My bishop reluctantly agreed. Ten years later he can see how much happier I am."

Nevertheless Leclerc, unlike some other military priests, remains on loan to the forces, and could be called back to Quebec at any time.

"The bishop still has that option but I think he knows that he would only get half a priest back," Leclerc said with a boisterous laugh.

Leclerc’s home base is Edmonton. He has done a tour of duty in Bosnia and is now near the front end of 9 months in the heat and dust of southern Afghanistan.

Part of his duties at the Kandahar Airfield include celebrating a mass every Saturday night for a congregation that includes not just Canadians, but soldiers from many other NATO countries and devout Filipino civilian workers who provide music for the service. Leclerc also often fills in for an American padre at a mass on Sundays.

Like all padres, Leclerc went through boot camp — minus weapons training — when he joined the military. The deployment to Afghanistan was preceded by months of pre-mission training at Wainwright, Alta.

During exercises there that simulated serious casualty situations "we made training prayers," Leclerc, explaining with another big laugh that "I had to begin those prayers by stating, ‘I am faking a prayer.’

"It is different work here than in Canada. The guys are younger and we deal a lot with family issues. Some will leave a newborn and come back to a walking kid who looks at them and wonders, ‘Who the heck is that guy?’”

There is also the immense challenge of helping soldiers to deal with grief.

"There is only so much that a man can take sometimes," he said. "When they lose a friend, and sometimes more than one, they sometimes ask questions about what we are doing here."

Leclerc was philosophical about the inexorable trend toward more Roman Catholic lay ministers in the military.

"The lay ministers bring a lot of different ways of doing things, of thinking and of reflecting, and there is a real richness to that," he said.

The future of the Catholic ministry within the military was already evident in how its representatives have been divided into three groups, with priests, deacons and pastoral associates.

"A lot of our future Catholic chaplains will be permanent deacons." Leclerc said. "These are usually married people who have been pastoral associates. They are not allowed to say mass but they can do weddings and baptisms."

Leclerc considers himself to be doubly blessed to be a padre and to have been given the "experience of a lifetime" by being posted to Afghanistan.

"To be here or anywhere in the world with our soldiers is a privilege," he said. "Some people, especially in Quebec, have questioned this mission. But it is something special to be part of a team that is trying to improve the quality of life here."

"Seminarians serve as sports chaplains at Mount St. Mary’s"

From The Catholic Review

By George P. Matysek Jr.

Photo at left: A sports chaplain watches the soccer team in action at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg. Seminarians from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary serve as chaplains to all the sports teams at the university. (Courtesy Mount St. Mary’s University)

Coaches may be charged with making sure athletes perform at their very best at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, but it’s seminarians who help nurture their spiritual well-being.

For several years, men studying to become priests at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary have served as volunteer sports chaplains for every team at the university.

They pray with players and coaches, attend practices and offer support whenever it’s needed. It’s a partnership that benefits future priests and future college graduates alike, according to those involved in the program.

“They try to relate to us as college students,” said Colin Stuver, a 21-year-old senior and left-handed pitcher on the baseball team.

“They’re not too overbearing or easygoing,” he explained. “They’re right in the middle. They’re very well respected.”

Last year, when the brother of a fellow player died, it was the sports chaplains who helped console the baseball team, Mr. Stuver said.

The chaplains have become a familiar presence at practice, Mr. Stuver said, and are often seen tossing a football with the players and just holding conversations.

“They hang out at our practices and watch us,” he said. “It just shows they’re not there because they have to be. They’re there because they want to be there.”

Mr. Stuver said it was impressive to see his fellow teammates kneel in prayer with their chaplain before every game. He joked that team members felt lost on those few days when the chaplain couldn’t be there to lead prayer.

“Praying before the games helps collect our senses and realize why we’re playing,” the northern Virginian said.

Deacon Tim Naples, a 26-year-old seminarian and transitional deacon who will be ordained a priest for the Diocese of Burlington, Vt., this year, has served more than two years as chaplain of the track and field team.

To participate in the chaplaincy, he had to show an interest in athletics, have a good academic record and get approval from seminary leaders.

Rev. Mr. Naples attends practice at least once a week and sometimes goes running with team members.

“I have a hard time keeping up with them,” he said with a laugh.

The former high school soccer and basketball player said sports chaplaincy is a ministry of presence. He often answers questions about theology or the life of a priest. He has held several spaghetti dinners for the entire team that were well attended.

“I’ve learned a lot from them about the virtues of fortitude and endurance,” Rev. Mr. Naples said.

Being a sports chaplain has helped him learn how to minister as clergyman, he said. When it’s appropriate, the chaplain has gently encouraged team members to go to confession or attend Mass.

The deacon believes the presence of chaplains in clerics helps promote good sportsmanship.

“If we can influence the athletes to be a little more virtuous in small ways, that’s good,” he said. “I’ve heard from other chaplains in the past that the students are definitely more conscious of their language when we’re around.”

The chaplains usually serve for more than one season – giving them the chance to get to know team members over a long period of time, according to Father Leo Patalinghug, director of pastoral field education and coordinator of the chaplaincy program.

“It helps the students in the university better know the seminarians,” Father Patalinghug said. “The chaplains encourage the athletes to use their God-given talents well.”

Chaplain, Bronze Star winner, heads to West Point

From Grand Forks Herald.com
By Stephen J. Lee

The North Dakota Catholic priest, who won a Bronze Star as a chaplain in Iraq and who resigned this year from parish ministry to go back to the war, reported Wednesday for duty as chaplain at West Point, the Army’s elite academy in New York.

Monsignor Brian Donahue was set to return to Iraq with a Texas National Guard unit this fall, a unit he had served with in 2005 when he earned the Bronze Star.

But Army authorities decided recently to send him to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

Meanwhile, his clothing, chaplain supplies and personal effects are on a ship headed to Iraq, a news release from the Catholic Diocese of Fargo said.

Donahue already had been stationed in Texas with the 3-133rd Field Artillery Unit this summer when he learned the Army was assigning him to West Point.

He was saddened he wouldn’t remain with the troops he got to know well, Donahue said in the news release.

“I pray for them every day.”

Donahue, a former Grand Forks priest, grew up in Fargo, and as a teenager kept track of three of his brothers serving in combat in the Vietnam War.

He graduated from South High School in 1973 and after a stint as a television cameraman, studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1983.

He retired last year as a major after 20 years as a chaplain with the North Dakota National Guard. He also recently became a monsignor, a rank of honor among priests, and was serving as vicar general of the Fargo diocese, a key lieutenant of Bishop Samuel Aquila.

Aquila gave him permission to follow his latest calling, to serve full time as a military chaplain with troops in harm’s way in Iraq. He had served on active duty during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and in 2005 in Iraq. During the past year as a parish priest near Fargo, Donahue said he felt called to go back to Iraq, realizing his heart “has never left the military,” he told his parishioners last spring.

But this summer in Texas, Donahue said it became clear the complications of getting him unretired and back into the correct channels to head to Iraq with the Texas Guard unit would have taken too long and the unit would be returning by the time he got over there.

“At that point, I had to make a decision. And realizing that the very reason I was in Texas was slipping out of my hands, we made a decision to just start the process for (joining) the active Army.”

So, his assignment was changed to West Point, where he’s on temporary active duty until his transition back into the regular Army is completed.

“When they first told me, I was in shock. It is quite an honor to be assigned to West Point. I am really looking forward to getting settled and getting to work.”

He arrived at West Point on Wednesday morning and had a full day of duties, including waiting for his clothes, chaplain supplies and personal belongings to be returned. It will take several months to get them back, so he had to go out and buy stuff, he said.

For now, he’s temporarily in the Army Reserves, on a one-year assignment to West Point, on active duty starting today.

He will be working with a regiment of cadets, one of many chaplains of all denominations at West Point, he said.

Today, Donahue will say Mass in the Catholic chapel on campus.

Before he left Fargo for West Point this month, he looked up all the cadets from North Dakota.

“There are about 10,” he said. “I e-mailed all of them and told them I was coming.”

One is the son of a fellow chaplain of Donahue, the Rev. John Flowers, a Baptist pastor and chaplain with the North Dakota Air National Guard in Fargo.

“His son is in his final year here, so I will get to meet him,” Donahue said Wednesday evening by telephone from West Point.

Being at the hallowed site that traces its history to the American Revolution and where generals such as Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, “Black Jack” Pershing and Douglas MacArthur started out as cadets, is a kick, Donahue said.

“It’s amazing. I was looking out over the grounds today and it seems like a dream.”

"Army chaplain who had served in Kuwait dies at Walter Reed"

From Stars and Stripes
By Joseph Giordono

An Army chaplain who ministered to troops for decades died earlier this month after being medically evacuated from Kuwait to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Pentagon announced late Tuesday.

Chaplain (Col.) Sidney J. Marceaux, a Catholic priest, died Sept. 14 at Walter Reed "from a noncombat related illness," according to a news release. He had been serving at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, before being transferred to the Warrior Transition Brigade at Walter Reed, officials said.
A memorial service was held Wednesday in Kuwait, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Central said.

According to the Web site CatholicMil.Org, "during what was to be his final tour in Kuwait, the 69-year-old priest took sick and was sent to Walter Reed, where he died peacefully in his sleep."

The site quoted another Army chaplain in Iraq, who knew Marceaux, as saying, "It can accurately be said that he died with his boots on. He will truly be missed."

In an August 2007 interview with Stars and Stripes, Marceaux — who was then serving in the Benelux — said, "I loved dropping in on a FOB [forward operating base] where there were just a few guys, armed, tired, dirty and waiting for you."

"If something happens to them," he added, "they want to be reconciled with their creator."

Marceaux was raised in the rice fields of southwest Louisiana, and the Pentagon listed Beaumont, Texas, as his hometown in its news release. He had been set for retirement at the end of 2007, but because of a shortage of Catholic priests in the Army, requested one more active-duty tour.

The assignment that lured him back was ministering to troops in combat.

"I was able to exercise my priesthood in a way I couldn’t in a diocese," Marceaux told Stripes. "I was able to help them face death daily. They knew they had to go out and they knew they may not come back."

Marceaux joined the Army at age 17. As a member of the Texas National Guard from 1955 to 1963, he served as a rifleman, truck driver and radio operator.

He left the Army, finished college and taught social studies at a public high school. Then, in the mid-1970s, a weekend training stint that was part of his seminary studies brought him back to military service. That training was attending to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"Chaplain to answer one call, make another"

From the St. Louis Review Online

by Jean M. Schildz

Former vocations director Father Michael T. Butler may be answering the call of the military, but while serving he plans to do a little calling of his own, too.

After about 14 years with the archdiocesan Office of Vocations — 11 of those years as director — the St. Louis native was released from duty this June by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke to serve with the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA.

Father Butler will join the U.S. Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Sept. 25 as deputy wing chaplain.

The military, he says, is ripe for vocations. His new assignment "will be a good opportunity for me to challenge our young people in the military to think about serving as priests and religious."

Father Butler said jokingly, "You can take the priest out of the vocation office, but you can’t take the vocation director out of the priest."

In his new position, he will assist his commander in the training of chaplains and chaplain assistants.

"I’m going to be mentoring chaplains to make sure they’re doing their job," he said.

The post of military chaplain is not an unfamiliar one for him. In 1990, only one year after being ordained by Archbishop John L. May, Father Butler was permitted to serve as chaplain for the 131st Fighter Wing of the Missouri Air National Guard. The unit is based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Since then the 46-year-old has been on active duty about two months out of every year. The first time he was sent overseas was 10 days after the attack on the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001. He now has seven trips abroad under his belt as chaplain with the National Guard. Several of his assignments have taken him to the Middle East. He also has comforted U.S. soldiers at a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where the seriously wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq are taken.

Father Butler in an interview last week said that each time he has been deployed, he has made it a point to talk to young people about a vocation.

"And it’s amazing how many of them really do think about it," he said. For example, one young man he spoke with attended the archbishop’s retreat at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary last year, while another has just entered the seminary. "So I do know there are guys who have really thought about it, and I’ve encouraged them. I know there are vocations out there, too, even in the military."

Among his accomplishments with the Office of Vocations, Father Butler was instrumental in starting the annual archbishop’s retreat and the various vocation camps at the seminary. But what he is most proud of is his work in helping young men and women discern what God has called them to do.

Said the priest, "I hope that’s the legacy more than anything, that I’ve hopefully made a difference in their lives." He expects his work to continue to grow and prosper under the capable leadership of new directer Father Edward M. Rice.

On loan to the Military Archdiocese initially for three years, Father Butler said his assignment could be extended. He hopes to return to St. Louis to serve again as a priest, but doesn’t know when.

"A lot depends on the future archbishop and the military and myself," he said.

He leaves behind his parents, Deacon James Russell (Russ) and Betty Butler, a sister, two brothers, and lots of nieces and nephews. They are all supportive of his efforts, he said, because they understand his calling as a priest and know the military needs him desperately.

In the U.S. Armed Forces today there are less than 300 Catholic priests, he said. At the end of World War II there were 5,000. "My understanding is that in the U.S. Air Force now we have right about 74 active duty Catholic priests.

And in four years there will be half that number. Right now I understand we have 18 Air Force bases that have no Catholic priests, which shows it’s a huge issue."

Father Butler has gotten to know members of the military through his National Guard duty and has great respect for them.

They are "heroic people, who really come to defend their family and their nation from those who want to do us harm. Are they really happy about going out and perhaps killing people and even dying themselves? Certainly not. But they believe in this country, and they believe in their families. They want to protect them enough they’re willing to put their lives on the line."

He has a great love for the military, "not because I love war, for I certainly don’t, but for the people and what they’re willing to do."

He recalled one young man who came to see him after he had celebrated Mass in a Middle East desert. "He came to my office, which was a tent. I remember he was about 20, 21 years old. An all-American kind of guy. And I remember he cried, which is not unusual. But then he composed himself and said, ‘You know, I’ve been over here for some time, and I can’t wait to go home, but the only time I ever feel like I’m back home is when I get to go to Mass.’

"And then he said, ‘Thank you for doing this because I know we have a shortage of priests, and not many people would want to come over and do this.’ But, you know, he himself volunteered." That in itself, he said, was enough reason for him to volunteer, too.

As a Catholic military chaplain, Father Butler loves bringing Christ and being Christ to others, no matter where they are and no matter their faith.

Said the priest, "It’s a wonderful life when you serve Christ, in whatever way that is."

"Navy veteran is new pastor at Our Lady of Good Counsel"

From The Eagle Tribune (New Hampshire)

By Yadira Betances
Staff Writer

METHUEN — The Rev. Marc Bishop has left the war in Iraq behind him, but is taking memories of that service with him as he settles in as pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

Bishop, a former lieutenant in the Navy Chaplain Corps, was installed as pastor on Saturday.

"It's a privilege to be put in this position," he said. "We have a wonderful gift with the Augustinian and Marist traditions that merged here. There's a lot of learning ... and potential for growth."

The installation ceremony was conducted by the Rev. Arthur Coyle, vicar for the Merrimack Valley. During the service, Coyle presented Bishop with the keys to the church, the purple vestments priests wear during confession, holy oils and a French chalice donated to the church in 1954. The Revs. Peter Gori and Bill Waters, the first two pastors at the parish, attended the service.

Our Lady of Good Counsel was created eight years ago after the merger of St. Augustine Church on Ames Street in Lawrence and St. Theresa Church on Plymouth Street in Methuen. The parish has 1,180 members. The Augustinians led the parish until this summer when they withdrew from the church due to a lack of priests.

Bishop was born in Saugus. He was studying political science at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, when he decided to become a priest.

"As I was discerning different vocations and different ways of serving the Lord, I realized I could only be happy as a priest," he said.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

"Signing up for priestly recruitment"

Military personnel to be recruited for new kind of service.

From the South Bend Tribune
By JAY LINDSAY
Associated Press Writer

Photo by: MARY SCHWALM/AP Photo

METHUEN, Mass. — The Rev. John McLaughlin never served in the military, but he’s faced unexpected, violent death in the way troops do.

Decades ago, McLaughlin lay bleeding on a Boston street after being stabbed from behind. The prayer-filled moments that followed, when McLaughlin believed he might die, changed his life and ultimately led him to God. Now, in a newly created job, he’ll be trying to recruit military personnel to the Roman Catholic priesthood.

He believes that service members, who confront death as part of their jobs, could have a similar openness to religious service.

Read the rest of the article here: South Bend Tribune

Catholic Chaplains

Chaplain Paul Madej greets Pope Benedict XVI with AMS Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien standing next to the Holy Father.The three were in Rome 26October06 for the 5th Annual International Congress of Military Ordinariates.

One of the things made clear during the Vocations Directors Conference was the need for Cathololic Chaplains for our military men and women. Truthfully it is a critical need. However, on the upside the military chaplains there at the conference explained how many vocations may come out of the military ranks - quite a few potentially. But it's a challenge for priests to leave their home Diocese, which may be in dire need of priests as well, to serve as a chaplain in the military. Even then discernment would be involved for this call within a call. In any case we need to pray for more military chaplains and for the men and women they serve. For more information about military chaplaincy visit the website of the Military Archdiocese.

On the subject of military chaplains I had to relay part of a post Fr. Schnippel posted over at his blog Called by Name. The story comes from an Air Force Chaplain that Fr. Scnnippel met at the vocations conference:

During the social hour at the end of the day Tuesday, he was telling some stories of his experience in the military as a priest. I share one story he related here:

While he was in Chaplain Training School, which is sort of a basic training for the chaplains, he related that a Marine General (or a 'Higher Up,' I don't remember the ranks) came towards the end of the program to give them a pep talk and an introduction into life in the military. One of the Protestant Chaplains raised his hand to ask a question during the open forum portion: "Sir, what is your advice as to what we should do during open combat?"

The General, in a moment of political incorretness, asked the 25 or so new chaplains if there were any priests among them, four (including my storyteller) raised their hands. (One man raised his hand and said: "I'm an Episcopalian priest." He responded back: "No, I meant a Real Priest!"

The General looked at the gathered crowd and told them: "If you are in a combat situation, you stay the Hell out of these four men's way! They have something to do, they have something to offer which you do not have. Let them do their job!"

The Hero Priest

World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient Captain Joseph Timothy O'Callahan, Chaplain Corps, USNR giving last rites to a sailor after a Japanese air attack on their ship. Described by the ships commander as "the bravest man I've ever seen", Fr. O'Callahan later received the CMH.

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All priests are heroic in my mind, but did you know there have been four Roman Catholic Priests awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor since World War II? They are listed below.

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Father Vincent R. Capodanno, awared posthumously

Father Angelo J. Liteky

Father Joseph T. O'Callahan

Father Charles Joseph Watters, awarded posthumously

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For those of you who may not know the significance of the Congressional Medal of Honor, it is our nations highest military honor for the bravest of the brave. The award brings many honors, distinctions, and privileges. For example in the military the enlisted ranks initiate salutes to officers. However, all members of the United States military (including generals, and all the way up to the Commander in Chief - President of the United States) salute the CMH recipients even if they are the lowest members of the enlisted ranks.

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May God call MANY more worthy men to answer His call to the priesthood, ESPECIALLY as chaplains for which there is a CRITICAL need!

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For more information about these priests and many others who bravely served our military men and women as chaplains go to this site

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For more information on Fr. O'Callahan go to this page on the Congressional Medal of Honor site.