www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Eastern Bishop at Archdiocese of the Military

The Archdiocese of the Military is the place where you go to be endorsed to be a Chaplain. They help latin and eastern priests. Currently they have three Roman Catholic Bishops in their office. There is no Eastern Cahtolic Bishop in the office endorsoing or assisting Eastern Catholic Priests. I just wondering if it would be possible for a Eastern Cathol Bishop to work in the office. He could be an advocate for Eastern Catholic Priests who want to become chaplains in the Armed Forces. It might mke it easier for Eastern Catholic priests to become Chaplains in the military. God bless, Chap H

Some years ago the back in the 70s when I was young, one of the USA navy fleets parked off the the port of Fremantle, which is the sea gateway to Perth the state Capital of Western Australia. An impressive sight it was too. There were Sailors all over the place, some even took themselves off into the coutryside to visit monasteries. The chaplain was a Ruthenian Benedictine Monk from Butler in Pennsylvania, very interesting and busy man he was too. So Byzcaths do get to be chaplains. I suppose it is up to the Metroplia to organise for Byz clergy in the services under the Archbishop of the Armed Services. It should not be problem, there must be proper channels to go through. Age and fitness no doubt are factors to be considered. I take it there are hardly any, or no byz clergy in the services at the present time. This has been the second topic in this subject in recent weeks.

ICXC
NIKA

Bishop Richard (Seminack) of Chicago was in the Navy, I believe. Perhaps we have a few other bishops with military experience who might be willing to help out??

With respect they need more than former service personel to help out. They need men trained for the job, who are fit and able to go with the service men and women where ever they go and that often means the front line.

In the Military Diocese in Australia there are service men who are being admitted to the diaconate for service in the diocese. I am sure that this may also be the case in the USA. I know there are sisters in uniform as well in the USA helping out.

ICXC
NIKA

Dear Pavel,

I was on the USS Marvin Shields and visted Perth/Freemantle in 1980.

Question for you. Is the Church successful in evangilizing to the native Aborigine population? I have been wanting to ask that for a while.

Thank you.

Michael

Well it is a small world. Was your ship on it own or part of a bigger fleet?

The story of the indigneous people of this continent is totally shameful. They have been subject to every degredation and then some.

A large number of Aboriginal people are Catholic and were brought up on 'Missions'. The various denomiations and the government ran these 'missions'. They varied in what life was like from, nice places to be, to hell on earth. The Churches have appologised for their part in what happened and the various diocese now have chaplaincies to serve them, as they do all groups with special needs. The term 'missions' is not longer used here, as it has only one meaning for most people and it is quiet negative.

We have totally failed with indigenous priests, all have left. There are a very few sisters. There is an Aboriginal sister from Western Australia among the Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in the USA.

There are have been some wonderful Catholic Aboriginal people who have been a inspiration to all they have come in contact with.

Spanish Benedictine Monks were among the earliest to minister to Aboriginal people modeling their mission at New Norcia ( http://www.newnorcia.wa.edu.au/ )in Western Australia on the Jesuit missions in S. America. Various other orders came along later. The monks have a very positive relationship with the local Aboriginal people who live in their area or who grew up at the former mission.

Aboriginal people never had treaties with the invading colonials. The land was designated Terra nullius and was annexed one 1/2 at a time. The High Court of Australia recently ruled this was rubbish and recognised that 'native title' was not extinguished on various land holdings in the public arena. Public land is called 'Crown land' and the various people who can prove their tradtional links with the land will have certain rights recognised in law. The Church now walks alongside the indigenous people and supports them in their fight to get on with their lives with dignity.

ICXC
NIKA

If you think there is a need for BC chaplains for the armed forces then consider the situation of the Orthodox military chaplains. There are so few Orthodox and scattered all over the area like in Iraq and are unable to travel etc. I have personally experienced Orthodox chaplains visiting where a number of Orthodox (rumanian soldiers) ignored the services and only 2 or 3 were in attendance at a well announced liturgy. Do I get the impression that the BC chaplains would just function as RC priests under the circumstances?

Does anyone know of any Eastern Catholic chaplains? I am an officer in the USAF...and I have yet to come across one. I don't really even know where to begin. The closest I've come across is that my bishop (Richard) of Chicago served in the Navy.
Please advise if anyone knows any EC chaplains.
Thanks,
Pavlo

The Melkites have two:

Fr. Sean Brown, Lt, CHC, USNR, AME #235, P. O. Box 20002 Ceiba, Puerto Rico, 00735.

Rt. Rev. Archpriest Lawrence G. Gosselin, USAF (Ret), St. Joseph Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, 130 N Cabrini Ave., Scranton PA 18504 (570) 343-6092 (Chairman: Committee for Eastern Catholics in the Military Services - Canada and the United States)

Plus we (Pittsburgh Metropolia) have a chaplain at the Naval base in San Diego, but his name escapes me. I'll have to look it up in my directory and let you know.

Does anybody have any idea what the Orthodox Chaplains get paid?

Are most of the Orthodox military Chaplains married?

Pirohy amd Kolachi, of course!

The keyword is military. They will tell you that a wife is not issued with your seabag/dufflebag.

Here is the site for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA

http://www.milarch.org

I'm still looking for an Orthodox site for Military Vocations.

Here is what I found for Orthodox Department of Military Chaplaincies

http://www.oca.org/DOdept.asp?SID=5&LID=1

I would imagine they get standard officer's pay. I believe they go in as second lieutenants/ensigns.

Orthodox and Catholic Priests get paid based upon two factors: their time in service and their current grade (rank). On average, a new chaplain is an 0-3, which gets paid around $4,000 a month plus their housing (goes by a DoD ZIP Code allowance) and a subsistence allowance (based on marital status). On average, a new chaplain can expect to make about $5,000+ Gross/month.

Cyril, U.S. Army Officer