Acting Secretary of the U.S. Navy Hung Cao announced the Chaplain In-Service Procurement Program on Oct. 30, describing it as a new pathway for active-duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel to become Navy chaplains.
The first initiative to come from the Department of War’s recently established Office of Religious Affairs, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the program that office’s “first win.”
Under the funded option of the new program, the service covers tuition for a qualifying graduate theological degree at an accredited U.S. institution while service members remain on active duty.
After graduation, they will transition temporarily to inactive status through the Career Intermission Program to gain a minimum of two (and not more than three) years of full-time religious leadership experience as a religious ministry professional with their endorsing organization, after which they may then be commissioned as active-duty Navy Chaplain Corps officers.
Previously, active-duty Sailors or Marines who felt called to the chaplaincy usually had to leave military service, losing pay and benefits, to complete seminary and professional ministry experience as civilians, at their own expense, and then reapply. No dedicated in-service pipeline existed for this purpose.
Cao urged leaders to identify Navy and Marine Corps members “from every faith tradition,” both officers and enlisted, “who possess the character, calling, and commitment” required for the program, which was authorized under the National Defense Authorization Act.
“Spiritual readiness is combat readiness,” he wrote in the announcement.
Hegseth said the same day that previously, when service members had to leave the military to pursue theological studies, it lost many “good warriors who wanted to answer Godʼs call. But not anymore.”
He said he established the Office of Religious Affairs “to champion the spiritual readiness of our force,” calling the new program its “first win.”
“Chaplains are the backbone of this military,” he said. “And some of our warfighters watching this are feeling a divine calling to the chaplaincy. To you, I encourage you with the words of Isaiah … ‘Here I am, send me.’”
“President Trumpʼs Department of War will not make you choose between the uniform and your calling,” Hegseth continued, noting bipartisan congressional support for the program.
“Republicans and Democrats in Congress saw the importance of this and made it law. To those who feel called to be a chaplain, the Department of War has your back. Be strong and very courageous,” he said.
Archbishop welcomes initiative, but says it is of ‘little value’ to Catholics without changes
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, (AMS) told EWTN News that while the archdiocese welcomes the “effort to encourage chaplain service, the initiative is of little value to prospective Catholic chaplains” without some changes.
Broglio pointed out that candidates for the priesthood spend at least seven years in academic, pastoral, and spiritual formation, noting that the program “only envisions three.”
After years of seminary formation, co-sponsored by the AMS and their home dioceses, Catholics called to serve as chaplains must then engage in three years of civilian pastoral service before serving in the military.
Broglio said missing from the program is an allowance for the additional three years of civilian pastoral service, a period he said is intended to provide hands-on experience and which is a general condition for a chaplain candidate to receive AMS endorsement for active-duty service.
He encouraged the military to “consider allowing for both the time in formation and the pastoral experience” in order to support prospective Catholic chaplains.
Retreat for young men considering military chaplaincy
The announcement of the new chaplaincy program coincided with a discernment retreat hosted by AMS for young men considering the vocation to military chaplaincy.
According to the archdiocese, Broglio hosted 33 prospective Catholic chaplains at the Fall Discernment Retreat held Oct. 29–Nov. 1, the beginning of National Vocation Awareness Week, at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.
Participants from dioceses across the country prayed together, took part in adoration and Holy Hours, and heard talks from Broglio, archdiocesan vocations director Father Paul-Anthony Halladay, and military chaplains on topics including discernment, the role of priests as spiritual fathers, and the lives and examples of chaplains who served in each of the military’s branches.
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