Short supply of priests strained by deployments - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Short supply of priests strained by deployments

Priests in the war zones are worn out, beat up by a relentless deployment tempo and “compassion fatigue,” the Air Force’s top chaplain says.

Right now, the service’s 68 Catholic priests have a 1:1 deployment-to-dwell time because of their small number, said Maj. Gen Cecil Richardson, chief of chaplains. They represent 12.6 percent of the chaplain force; more than 20 percent of airmen are Catholic.

“We’ve had chaplains get back and they’re seemingly fine, [but] they’ve seen so much, heard so much, felt so much empathy and shared so much sadness and pain,” Richardson said. “A common phrase I hear from our chaplains … when they return is, ‘It was the best six months of my life, and I definitely want to go back.’ But some, they have a tear in their eye and their hand is shaking.

“We need to give them a breather.”

The Air Force has plenty of Protestant chaplains, he said. Like priests, imams and rabbis are in short supply, although the service hires civilians to minister to its Muslim and Jewish airmen, Richardson said.

After World War II, the Air Force had more than 360 Catholic chaplains, said Lt. Col. John Kinney, chief of chaplain recruiting at the Air Force Recruiting Service. The steady decline mirrors the dwindling supply of priests in the U.S., he said

“The military life is just a microcosm of the greater society,” Kinney said. “Consequently, the shortage of priests is something that’s environmental.”

Richardson agreed, saying he believes there are plenty of priests who want to join the military but can’t because their bishops won’t release them.

“If there’s a problem, I want to fix it,” Richardson said. “But before you fix it, you have to own it, and I don’t own it — the church owns it.”

Despite stepped-up recruiting efforts, Kinney expects only six or seven priests to come on active duty in fiscal 2010; the goal is seven to 12.

Outside Afghanistan and Iraq, 25 Air Force bases do not have priests. Richardson’s office has devised a matrix to determine which bases have the direst need of priests. Factors include distance from the nearest church and the number of priests in the area.

Richardson said he worries about the effect of the priest shortage on airmen.

“Every American has a constitutional right to exercise their faith, and I’m in danger of not being able to provide for that right,” Richardson said.

Although the priests want to deploy and Richardson thinks war fighters desperately need them, he has to resist the urge to reduce their dwell time even more.

“We want deployed personnel … but I can’t burn them out,” he said. “They’re still human beings. You can only go so long and so hard.”

By the numbers

Air Force chaplains on active duty:

Protestant: 456

Roman Catholic: 68

Jewish: 7

Eastern Orthodox: 3

Muslim: 3

Greek Orthodox: 1

Total: 538