Bishop John J. Kaising, a Catholic priest from Delhi Township, and the Rev. Jess Abbott, a Lutheran minister in Kenwood, did not answer God's call so they could go to war.

        But they, and hundreds of other military chaplains like them, believe in a God who is everywhere, even on fields of battle where men fight and die.

        They believe that anyplace where bombs burst and missiles fly and lives are on the line, so, too, are souls.

The Rev. Jess Abbott is a major in the Army Reserves and a battalion chaplain. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

        “Who could need pastoring more than a soldier in battle?” asked the Rev. Mr. Abbott, 39.

        During the week, the Rev. Mr. Abbott is associate pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Kenwood. He helps lead a gleaming suburban church where the pews are nearly always full on Sunday and the sun streams through stained-glass windows into a sanctuary that is a refuge from a world of violence.

        But the father of three is also a major in the Army Reserves, chaplain to his 633rd Quartermaster Battalion, headquartered in Sharonville.

        There is no indication that his reserve unit will be called up to active duty anytime soon. But the battalion is ready to go, the Rev. Mr. Abbott said.

        The unit he was attached to 10 years ago — shortly after he became a military chaplain — was called to active duty in the Persian Gulf War, but the war ended five days before its deployment orders came.

        While the Rev. Mr. Abbott waits to see if his services are needed in a military action, Bishop Kaising is helping prepare young priests for active duty on the front lines — a place where he has been.

        “I know what it is like to be shot at,” said the 64-year-old Elder High School graduate, who spent a tour of duty in Vietnam, ministering to soldiers in the midst of jungle firefights.

        A military chaplain has to be prepared physically and emotionally to endure everything a combat soldier endures; he has to have the same kind of training to keep himself alive on the battlefield.

        When a clergyman or clergywoman of any faith joins the Army to become a chaplain, he or she must go through a 12-week training course at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

        The course includes the basics every soldier learns — field marches, drills, how to survive in hostile environments, physical fitness — everything except firing weapons.

        But the chaplains-to-be are also trained in counseling service personnel and their families in war and peace, as well as practical knowledge, including how to tie a tourniquet or administer morphine on a battlefield.

        The only difference between the front-line soldier and the chaplain is that while the former may be armed with an M-16 or a rocket launcher, the latter is armed only with his faith.

        For Bishop Kaising, his tour of duty in Vietnam was followed by nearly 30 years of military chaplaincy.

        In 1998, he took an assignment as a parish priest at St. Dominic Church in Delhi Township, a posting he had hoped would ease him into retirement from the active priesthood.

        But early last year, a call came from the Vatican — the monsignor had been made a bishop and assigned to the Archdiocese of the Military USA in Washington, D.C.

        There, his principal job is finding more young priests to do what he did for 29 years — serve as a military chaplain.

        Nearly one-quarter of the soldiers in the U.S. Army are Roman Catholics, but only 8 percent of the approximately 1,250 Army chaplains are priests.

        Only 93 priests are serving as chaplains now, the bishop said, “and we could use at least 300.”

        Bishop Kaising speaks regularly to the heads of archdioceses around the country, asking them to encourage young priests to join the military.

        “We tell the bishops around the country all the time that they have to remember that the people who are going into the military and going to war are still their people,” Bishop Kaising said. “These are still your parishioners.”

        The armed services are more diverse than ever, the bishop said, with more young men and women of different faiths. About 200 religions and denominations are accredited to provide military chaplains.

        The Rev. Mr. Abbott said he recently swore in a Muslim cleric as an Army chaplain and knows Buddhists in the chaplains' corps.

        Bishop Kaising, too, has found that there is something to the old Army saying that there are “no atheists in foxholes.”

        “They're coming into the service sprouting their independence,” Bishop Kaising said. “But when there's a war — when they're in trouble — they come looking for Father.”
       

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