Church to Tap into Soldiers' Lessons of Life
Associated Press
June 19, 2008
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/19/priest-recruits-military/
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, Father McLaughlin lay bleeding on a Boston street after being stabbed from behind. The prayer-filled moments that followed, when Father 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.
 |
| The Rev. John McLaughlin, of St. Monica Parish in Methuen, Mass., is the first national vocations director at the Archdiocese of the Military in Washington. This month, Father McLaughlin begins traveling the country to recruit members of the military into the Catholic priesthood and sisterhood. Photo by Associated Press |
"You start realizing how fragile life is," Father McLaughlin said. "And when people start thinking in those terms, they eventually start thinking about helping people in life."
This month, Father McLaughlin left his parish north of Boston and became the first national vocations director at the Archdiocese of the Military in Washington. He will travel the country, speaking to troops about following a commitment to their country with commitment to their religion.
The clergy shortage in the Catholic Church is well documented, and officials see the military as potentially rich ground to find future priests and nuns.
Besides having faced questions of life and death, military men and women tend to have traits necessary for religious life, including self-discipline and a willingness to sacrifice, said Monsignor James Dixon of the Archdiocese of the Military.
ASSOCIATED PRESS The Rev. John McLaughlin, of St. Monica Parish in Methuen, Mass., is the first national vocations director at the Archdiocese of the Military in Washington. This month, Father McLaughlin begins traveling the country to recruit members of the military into the Catholic priesthood and sisterhood.
Church officials estimate 11 percent of seminary students during the last three years served in the military or had a parent who served. The archdiocese has long reached out to service members, but never had the money to hire someone dedicated to that job, Father Dixon said.
"We finally got to the point where we think it's become an absolute necessity," he said.
The Rev. Paul Hurley, an Army chaplain who attended seminary with Father McLaughlin in the early 1990s, advocated for his friend to get the job without Father McLaughlin's knowledge.
Father Hurley said Father McLaughlin has an authenticity and a knack for getting young people to talk about what's important to them. Those characteristics are crucial when someone is deciding if life as a priest or nun is right.
"He's got that special touch," Father Hurley said. "He finds a way of connecting with people where they're at."
Father McLaughlin's casual manner went with his unbuttoned clerical collar during a recent interview in his former office at St. Monica's Church in Methuen. A solid build reflects his past as wrestler at Boston College and successful high school coach in his native Woburn.
Father McLaughlin, 50, the oldest of four brothers, said his first major encounter with God came when he was stabbed in the liver at age 20 while walking near Boston's Faneuil Hall marketplace. He and his brother were jumped without provocation, he said. As he lay on the street, Father McLaughlin prayed for forgiveness, and for his family.
"Even when I faced the worst hardship I turned to God," Father McLaughlin said.
His commitment to the priesthood came more than a decade later, after experiencing an overwhelming peace during visits to Medjugorje, a Bosnian village, then part of Yugoslavia and the site of a widely-believed apparition by the Virgin Mary.
"I thought, this is what God wants me to do, is to tell people about that and bring that peace of God to them," he said.
Father McLaughlin was initially hesitant to take the new vocations post, telling Father Dixon that he was comfortable at St. Monica's.
Father Dixon replied that "there's a lot of men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq that were pretty comfortable, too," Father McLaughlin said. "That little guilt trip made me think about things."
Father McLaughlin believes he'll be helping both the church and the troops in his new job. If he succeeds in recruiting more priests to dioceses, he said, those dioceses may be more likely to allow their priests to serve in the military, where the priest shortage is particularly acute.
In the Army, for instance, there are just 100 priests to serve more than 105,000 Catholic soldiers, said Chaplain Ran Dolinger, a spokesman at the Army's Office of Chief of Chaplains.
Mr. Dolinger said he welcomed the church's move to create Father McLaughlin's job, adding he knows some people who leave the military for religious life will never return but that others will become the chaplains the military sorely needs.
If that happens, Father Hurley said, Father McLaughlin "is going to make a tremendous difference in the lives of some pretty heroic people."
Father McLaughlin said he wants to be sure troops are serious about religious life, and not just fulfilling the rash, fearful "deals" some might make with God if they return safely from battle.
"The hope is that they'll think about it, talk to me about it, and then at the end of their [military] commitment, that's when they'll make the decisions," he said.
The job will require extensive travel to bases around the country to build relationships with the chaplains in closest touch with those considering a call to the Roman Catholic Church. Retreats and correspondence with interested troops will follow.
But many plans for the new job are still largely uncharted, Father McLaughlin said, adding he knows the challenges of drawing people to the priesthood in the modern day remain huge.
"All I know is that if I show them I enjoy the priesthood and believe in it, if God wants it to happen, it will happen," he said.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.