DIOCESE—Only once every three years, Catholics from the Diocese of Rockford are invited through the diocese to donate to the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS), USA.

 

The collection at parishes across the diocese will be held Nov. 5-6, the weekend before Veterans Day, as a special, second collection at Masses.

 

The ministry of the AMS is “serving those who serve.” This special archdiocese works to meet the spiritual needs of Catholics who are serving, or who have served, at home and abroad.

 

Priests that serve as military chaplains are “the front-line spiritual envoys,” AMS Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio says, describing the work of those priests as providing “access to the sacraments, spiritual counseling, evangelization and catechesis, and other forms of pastoral care to active-duty Catholic servicemen and women, veterans, and their families.”

 

He notes also that the AMS priests “stand ready to help their faithful” in the challenges to family life in changing times.

 

FAQ’s

 

-- The Archdiocese for the Military Services was created by Pope Saint John Paul II to provide the Catholic Church’s full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces. Archbishop Joseph T. Ryan was named and installed as the first ordinary of the Archdiocese for Military Services in March 1985.

 

-- The AMS includes more than 220 installations in 29 countries, patients in 153 V.A. Medical Centers, and federal employees serving outside the boundaries of the USA in 134 countries. Numerically, the AMS is responsible for more than 1.8 million men, women, and children. It is the physically largest of all dioceses, spanning the globe. The archdiocese currently maintains more than 2.5 million records of sacraments performed on military installations.

 

-- The archdiocese serves as the sole endorser (certifier) of Roman Catholic chaplains to the United States government and for the Veterans Administration hospitals. As of 2020, 204 Roman Catholic priests were endorsed by the archdiocese for active-duty military service. These chaplains serve on loan from their diocese of incardination or religious order/society and are released for a term of military service. 

 

-- While approximately 25% of the military is Catholic, only 6% of military chaplains are Catholic and vocations efforts are ongoing.

 

-- Once a priest receives the endorsement and the subsequent faculties of the archdiocese, he becomes a commissioned military officer of the United States. A priest’s assignments are provided by the Office of the Chief of Chaplains of each respective branch of the U.S. military. 

 

-- The AMS has an Office of Evangelization that offers Catholics in the miliary a web site and e-newsletters, partnerships with ministry organizations, catechist certification and lay leadership training, and participation in national and international pilgrimages.

 

-- The AMS receives no funding from the United States government. Rather, the archdiocese is solely funded by the generosity of its chaplains, men and women in uniform and private benefactors.

 

For more information or to make an online donation, visit: https://www.milarch.org/