TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION

 

            As Independence Day draws near, we think of the men and women of the military who serve with courage and competence, some far from home. How does the Church accompany them?

 

In 1939, Pope Pius XII created an independent jurisdiction of the Catholic Church called the "Military Vicariate." In 1985 Pope John Paul II created the "Archdiocese for Military Services, USA." Spanning the globe and serving nearly one and a half million Roman Catholics, more than one thousand priests minister in hospitals, on military bases of all the armed forces, on ships at sea, and on the battlefield. The AMS does not ordain priests, but accepts priests on loan from religious orders and dioceses.

           

In 1824 a Jesuit priest named Adam Marshall enlisted in the Navy and died at sea in 1825. He was assigned as a "schoolmaster," but he sought out and ministered to Catholic sailors. Twenty years later, President Polk was worried that the war with Mexico was seen as anti-Catholic, so he recruited two Jesuit priests to serve in the army as chaplains.

 

At the time of the Civil War, only about ten percent of Americans were Catholic. Military policies forced Catholic soldiers to attend Protestant services. The Church protested this rule, and many priests volunteered to become chaplains. Their witness and the courage of the "Nuns of the Battlefield" (several orders of sisters who assisted Civil War victims) helped temper prejudice against Catholics and pave the way for the life and ministry of this vigorous and unique archdiocese.

 

Rev. James Field