Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA


The Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, provides the Roman Catholic Church's pastoral and spiritual services to those serving in the armed forces of the United States and their dependents and to all military and naval bases, to the facilities of the Veterans Administration, and to other federal services overseas.
It was originally established as a military vicariate, with the Archbishop of New York also serving as the military vicar. It was reorganized as an archdiocese, with its own archbishop and its see relocated to the District of Columbia by Pope John Paul II in 1986.
The current diocesan bishop is Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio. He is assisted by several auxiliary bishops. Together, they oversee Catholic priests serving as chaplains throughout the world. Each chaplain remains incardinated into the diocese or religious institute for which he was ordained.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA is a personal jurisdiction, meaning that it has no defined territory and that its jurisdiction extends to those whom it serves throughout the world. It has jurisdiction wherever American men and women in uniform serve. The jurisdiction of the Archdiocese extends to all United States government property in the United States and abroad, including U.S. military installations, embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions.

History

Prior to the creation of the Military Ordinariate and then the Archdiocese for the Military Services, the armed forces of the United States was served by an informal corps of volunteer priests. Beginning in 1917, the spiritual care of those in military service fell to the Military Vicariate, the equivalent of a personal vicariate apostolic, that is, a particular church the membership of which is defined by some personal quality that is headed by a legate of the pope. Originally, the ordinariate was headed by then-Bishop Patrick Hayes, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York who served double duty as papal military vicar for the United States beginning on November 24, 1917.
Hayes was chosen because New York was the primary port of embarkation for U.S. troops leaving for Europe and therefore a convenient contact point for Catholic chaplains serving with them. When Cardinal John Farley, Archbishop of New York, died, Hayes was appointed as his successor and kept the additional title and duty of military vicar. In November 1939, the Holy See established the Military Vicariate of the United States of America. The post remained an additional duty of the archbishop of New York from Hayes' time until Cardinal Terence Cooke began plans to separate it as its own jurisdiction in the early 1980s, plans he was unable to carry out before his death in 1983. Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor—a retired Navy chaplain with the rank of Rear Admiral, having served as chief of Navy chaplains subsequently served as an auxiliary bishop for the Military Vicariate. He succeeded Cardinal Cooke as Archbishop of New York and Apostolic Administrator of the Military Vicariate. He oversaw the completion of the transition. On July 21, 1986, Pope John Paul II reconstituted the military vicariate as the present Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, naming Archbishop Joseph T. Ryan its first archbishop.
In 2012, Catholic Extension approved a $56,000 two year grant to the Archdiocese for the Military Services to support faith formation programs for Catholics in the United States military. As of April 2013, about 25% of the U.S. armed forces are Catholic.
As of 2017, the Archdiocese had 208 priests on active duty serving approximately 1.8 million people.

Bishops

The lists of bishops, archbishops and auxiliary bishops and their tenure of service:

Apostolic Vicar of the United States Armed Forces

  1. Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes, concurrently served as Auxiliary Bishop of New York and later Archbishop of New York
  2. Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman, concurrently served as Archbishop of New York
  3. Cardinal Terence James Cooke, concurrently served as Archbishop of New York

    Apostolic Delegate for the United States Armed Forces

  4. John Francis O'Hara, C.S.C., appointed Bishop of Buffalo and later Archbishop of Philadelphia
  5. William Richard Arnold

    Archbishop for the Military Services, USA

  6. John Joseph Thomas Ryan
  7. Joseph Thomas Dimino
  8. Edwin Frederick O'Brien, appointed Archbishop of Baltimore and later Pro-Grand Master and Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
  9. Timothy P. Broglio

    Coadjutor Archbishops

Seat

The diocesan chancery is located in Washington, D.C. The Archdiocese for the Military Services is the only US diocese without a cathedral, but celebrates its major functions at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Noncombatant status

The Geneva Conventions state that chaplains are noncombatants: they do not have the right to participate directly in hostilities. Captured chaplains are not considered Prisoners of War and must be returned to their home nation unless retained to minister to prisoners of war.

Reports of sexual abuse

Army

In 1985. Catholic US Army chaplain Alvin L. Campbell plead guilty to sex abuse and received a 14 year prison sentence. He served 7 years of this sentence and was removed from public ministry. He died in 2002.
In 2000, Catholic army chaplain Mark Matson was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for molesting a 13 year old boy while serving at an US Army hospital.
In 2005, Catholic chaplain Gregory Arflack was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting members of the US Army.

Air Force

In 1991, US Air Force priest Thomas Chleboski pled guilty to five counts of molesting a 13 year old boy in 1989 and received a 20 year prison sentence. He was accused of luring his victim with tours of Andrews Air Force Base.
Barry Ryan, who served two years in prison for separate acts of sex abuse he committed in 2003, was removed from the archdiocese in 1995 after allegations surfaced that he committed acts of sex abuse against a minor in 1994.
On April 12, 2019, Arthur Perrault, a former Roman Catholic priest who served as a US Air Force chaplain, was found guilty of sexually abusing an altar boy at an Air Force base and a veterans' cemetery in New Mexico in the early 1990s. On September 15, 2019, Perrault, who was extradited in September 2018 years after he fled the country, received a 30 year prison sentence. Perrault was serving in the Air National Guard when the abuse took place.

Notable chaplains by conflict

Mexican–American War