A local paper documents the upcoming return to combat of a Catholic Priest and US Army Chaplain.  The article focuses on details from Chaplain (Maj) Brian Kane’s prior tour in 2005, and several of the anecdotes highlight the strong need for Chaplains in the US military.

The men went to the Al Anbar province at Al Asad airbase in western Iraq. Due to the shortage of priests, Kane spent the year traveling more than 5,500 miles by helicopter or convoy. He visited small bases that didn’t have a Catholic priest and small field hospitals, hearing confessions, saying Mass and counseling anyone who wanted to talk…

In one of the more interesting stories, he would ultimately celebrate 10 Christmas masses over 31 hours throughout Iraq.

Due to the priest shortage, the Marine Corps commander told staff that the priority for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was to fly Kane to as many bases as possible to celebrate the holiday with the Marines. Before he even landed at the first base, Kane saw two Marines running toward the helicopter he was in. They wanted to make sure he heard their confessions as a line had already formed around the base’s small chapel. He had enough time to hear everyone’s confession in time to celebrate one of what he considers one of the most wonderful Christmas Eve Masses…

…the weather had turned bad and he’d need to be taken [to the next base] in Humvee. Kane and Zlomke were 2 1/2 hours late for midnight Mass. They figured everyone would be gone, because no one really knew when they’d arrive. But when they reached the chapel, it was filled with people.

And there was a line outside the door.

“So we celebrated Christmas Mass at 1:30 a.m. and slept for a couple of hours and got on a helicopter and went to the next base,” he said.

As noted here many times before, the US military goes out of its way to accommodate the faith celebrations of its members when the mission and logistics allow.  It is an admirable display of a support of religious freedom unparalleled in the world.

Via the Army Chaplaincy blog.