Along with his new assignment as rector of the Cathedral of St. Andrew, Father Matt Garrison will be taking on another ministry.
He is now a chaplain in the Air National Guard and is attached to the 189th Airlift Wing at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville.
Since Father Andy Smith retired as a chaplain in 2001, there has not been a Catholic chaplain for the troops, Father Garrison said.
The chaplain’s responsibilities will include “providing a spiritual presence” for the military men and women in the Air National Guard and celebrating sacraments to those who live in the Air Force base. He could be deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or Germany with his unit, Father Garrison said.
“It’s kind of hard to say,” he said of the likelihood of him serving in a war zone.
Father Garrison, 32, was sworn in April 6 as a first lieutenant and will spend five weeks before October 2010 in Commissioned Officer Training at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C. He currently serves one weekend a month as a chaplain on the Air Force base.
“I’ve wanted to do it for a long time,” he said.
Father Garrison said the needs and sacrifices of military men and women are on his mind often because he has four nieces and nephews who are serving in the Army and Marines.
“A lot of times young kids go into the military, and they don’t know what they are getting into,” he said. “It’s important for us in the interest of men and women in the service to provide a chaplain.”
Father Garrison said the priest shortage is evident in Arkansas, but it is even more severe in the Archdiocese for the Military Services, which provides priests to U.S. military bases around the world. The archdiocese is in charge of the pastoral and sacramental needs of the 200,000 Catholics in the Reserves and National Guard. They also care for 375,000 Catholic active-duty U.S. military personnel and their family members, Catholic patients in 172 Veterans Affairs hospitals, and 66,000 Catholics in government service overseas.
According to the archdiocese, more than 25 percent of the military are Catholic, but only 7 percent of the chaplains are Catholic priests.
“No one is ordained for the military archdiocese,” Father Garrison said.
In an interview with Catholic News Service, Father James P. Steffes, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, acknowledged there is a shortage of priests in all branches of the military in general, “and not just in a war zone.”
The good news, he said, is there is an increase around the country in the number of men who want to be priests, but he reiterated it is up to a local bishop to let one of his priests serve in the military.
“They have a responsibility to serve their local flock first. If they have a shortage (of priests), they have a need for their own diocese,” said Father Steffes. “The focus is first on their local need.”
Father Garrison said he admits that he would welcome the chance to be a military chaplain fulltime.
“If the opportunity ever came up, I would. The military archdiocese is very tight on priests as well,” he said.
Catholic News Service contributed to this article.
