| Faith at Sea: An Admiral's Reflections |
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| Written by Fr David Daigle |
| Thursday, 12 February 2009 01:03 |
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Onboard the USS San Antonio, somewhere in the Gulf of Aden... The military entails a lot of sacrifice. It's part of the package when someone raises their right hand and swears to support and defend the Constitution. Among the biggest sacrifices is separation from family and friends. Deployment in foreign lands or on the high seas halfway across the world involves months away from home, and tends to be most difficult on those with children or spouses. This is by no means the only sacrifice the military requires of its members. Another challenging sacrifice for many is the lack of accessibility to religious services. For Catholics, this lack of accessibility translates into little to no opportunities to attend weekly Mass, receive the Eucharist frequently, and have access to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  All of this was brought home to me a few weeks back, when I had a chance to speak with Rear Admiral Terence McKnight. Admiral McKnight and I spoke about our shared Catholic faith, focusing especially on the practice of the Catholic faith at sea. Our conversation came about after my traveling many hundreds of miles to reach him. Admiral McKnight currently leads Combined Task Force 151, a multi-national naval force established to confront piracy off the coast of Somalia. We spoke from onboard the USS San Antonio located in the Gulf of Aden. At the time of our interview, I had traveled nearly 1,500 miles from the USS Iwo Jima. Two weeks earlier, the Admiral had requested the strike group to send a priest. To reach the Admiral, I hopped a ride onboard the USS Vella Gulf, and thus began a 3,000 mile round-trip journey to reach the Admiral and return to the Iwo Jima two weeks later.*** *** *** *** *** *** Chaplain Daigle: Admiral, thank you for meeting and sharing your thoughts about the practice of our Catholic faith at sea. Being a service member entails a lot of sacrifice. It means months away from friends and family on high up-tempo deployments. In addition, for many Catholics, one of the additional hardships is having little to no access to the Eucharist or the Sacrament of Reconciliation over an entire deployment. This is due as much to the shortage of priests in the military as it is to the great distances between strike group ships. I was just onboard the Vella Gulf for the past week getting here. It was the first visit they've had from a priest during the entire deployment. For the Catholics onboard, it was their first chance for Mass and the Eucharist in six months. Their situation is certainly not unusual. Please give us an idea of why this is so prevalent in the Navy, and your thought on how to get better Catholic coverage by chaplains. Admiral McKnight: In my career, I've generally been really lucky to have a Catholic chaplain around. I've always either had a Catholic chaps onboard the ship or accessible from the Marines. This deployment, however, has been different. It's been about two months since I last saw a priest and was able to attend Mass. Until you showed up, this is the longest I've ever gone in my career without being able to see a priest since when I was a young Lieutenant. There are a couple of factors going into this. One of them, of course, is the severe shortage of priests serving as chaplains. Another contributing factor we're facing in the Navy today is the separation of units, based on the wide array of missions we're engaged in at any given time. The missions we perform often call for different platforms to be located at different locations. As a result, amphibious strike groups aren't able to stay together as a cohesive unit as much as they used to. Now, as soon as the strike group passes through the Suez Canal, the ships tend to scatter over great distances whereas years ago, the amphibs stayed together and a chaplain could visit nearby platforms by Holy Helo. Today, the strike group ships are disaggregated and dispersed for multiple missions. Disaggregated ops is an every day occurrence. For instance, the Iwo Jima is currently 1,800 miles away. You're one of the only priests in the entire area. How do we get you to other ships in the strike group over such great distances? You are out of helicopter range for most of the time with most of the ships. To get coverage, it takes a lot of care and consideration by those responsible for watching out for ministerial care of all Catholics within the strike group. In addition, chaplain leadership needs to proactively plan so the battle group is getting ministerial care across all platforms, and not just on one or two ships. Chaplain Daigle: Admiral, how do you sustain your Catholic faith during such long periods of time without access to the Mass and the Eucharist? Admiral McKnight: I try to sustain my faith through a very personal level of daily prayer. I pray the Rosary as often as I can. I try to connect with my inner self. I find myself drawing on my relationship with God even during work, and I try to stay close to Him and feel His presence no matter where I am or what I am doing. Also, it's really important that if we can't get a Catholic chaplain, that we have a good Lay Leader onboard the ships. The Lay Leaders play a big part in keeping the Catholic community together, and drawing us together to pray and worship, especially on Sundays. Chaplain Daigle: What are the negative effects of the lack of Catholic coverage that you see affecting our Catholic service members who go without the Sacraments for the entire deployment, sometimes up to seven months? Admiral McKnight: There is a basic issue of human nature that needs to be taken into consideration. Habits form and are hard to break. Habits can be good or bad. A very real issue among our Catholics in the sea services is developing a habit of not going to Mass. That bad habit of not going to Mass every week can get ingrained when someone is not going for many months and this habit is not something that changes automatically when someone returns to shore. Especially among our young people, that will hurt us. Many of them are just forming their habits, or are still impressionable and searching for God. And so, without a Catholic chaplain, the regular practice of their faith does not become natural to them. It is not ingrained in them. The repercussion is that it's hard for them to change once they get back to land. There is another issue related to this. When I joined the Navy, deployments to the Middle East were rare. Port visits often were in Europe or other Christian countries. We would be able to get off the ship and go to Mass in a foreign port. Some of the best port visits were to France, Italy and Spain, where Catholics had wonderful opportunities to visit some of the most beautiful churches in the world. The ultimate highlight was connecting and uniting with the universal Church by getting to Rome and go to a papal Mass or papal audience. All of those spiritually uplifting and inspiring things are not possible in the ports we visit in the Middle East. More likely than not, there are no Catholic churches at these port visits since they are preponderantly Muslim countries. Chaplain Daigle: What would you say to a priest who was thinking about becoming a Navy chaplain? Admiral McKnight: I would encourage them, but I would also let them know upfront that this is not an easy lifestyle. It is a demanding ministry. However, for priests out there thinking about being a chaplain, this is one of the greatest opportunities they will have to work with and positively influence young people. Working with young people is a joy. Young people in the military want to work hard. They are interested in what they are doing. But they need guidance and are often seeking answers to big questions in their lives. They need a steady hand to guide them. They are dealing with the stresses and stain of difficult deployments. Suicides are all too common. That's where a chaplain can make a difference. Chaplain Daigle: What would you say to a bishop who was considering offering one of his priests for service as a military chaplain? Admiral McKnight: I recognize the difficult choices a bishop faces, and the hard decision he must make to release one of his priests. Bishops today are hard pressed to spare anyone. The bishop needs all his priests at home because of the great needs he has in his own diocese. Parishes are short of priests. That is the undeniable reality. All I can say to a bishop is to take it from me that there is at least as great need for priests in the military. We cannot get our priests from anywhere else, but from your generosity to the universal Church. I would add that our spiritual leaders cannot overlook the great need to spiritually nourish our troops, who are in great need of God. For them, there are no other options. People in the civilian world have other opportunities to attend Mass. They can jump in their car and drive to a neighboring parish. Troops on ships or on deployment in the Middle East cannot do this. We need to bring priests to them. It's a vastly different ministry on the part of the priest, because his lifestyle involves not being stationary, as in a parish, but going out for seven months at a time and traveling as widely as possible among the service members. I would ask our spiritual leaders not to consider the politics involved when making a decision. In other words, some people may think we are engaged in an unnecessary war or don't agree with the politics involved in where our troops are sent. But our service members have no control over policy. Believe me, if there's anybody who wants peace, it's our sailors, soldiers, and airmen. They are our nation's sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. We need to make sure we send priests to be with them. Rear Admiral Terence E. "Terry" McKnight, Expeditionary Strike Group 2/Commander, Task Force 51/59/151, is a native of Norfolk, and a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He completed his master's degree in International Relations at Salve Regina University in May 1998. Additionally, he graduated from the U.S. Army War College in 1994 and attended the National Security Seminar at Syracuse University in 2001. Most recent duties ashore include serving as the 85th commandant of Naval District Washington, the oldest continuously operated Navy installation in the nation and the deputy commander, Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region. Admiral McKnight's personal decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, as well as various other unit awards and decorations. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 25 February 2009 02:26 |