SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey. Join us for weekly conversations about our Catholic faith, and together let's strive to live a life of faith, hope, and love. I'm Jay Agnish, Communications Director for the Diocese of Patterson. With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney. Bishop Kevin, how are you? I'm good, Jay. How are you doing? Doing well, thanks. What's new? Uh what were you doing today? Hanging out with the uh some students today?

SPEAKER_02 0:33

We had uh May Crowning at our cathedral in Patterson with our Catholic schools. All of our Catholic elementary and high schools were represented and came in yellow buses, and uh the Patterson police helped with uh the uh traffic and uh and getting them on and off safely. And um we had a beautiful mass, Mary Bayer, our superintendent and our her staff and our principals and presidents and school administrators and um Monsignor Gino and his staff at the cathedral, and many of our priests were there. It was really uh first time in my time as bishop that we've been able to have this kind of a mass with our Catholic school students at the cathedral. So when on the Feast of St. Matthias, um I talked a little bit about MMs at my uh homily, but uh uh it was uh it was You an MM's fan? A little bit, Skittles, but um Okay, uh MM's word from Matthias and Mary. So I was I was wondering who the other M was so and tonight we're recording this a little episode a little bit earlier than it'll be. Um so by then hopefully the Knicks will be in the next round of the playoffs. But uh they have a big game five tonight. Um they're struggling with injuries, but their fighting is a great fight, is uh I've been watching a lot of hockey.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Um but my teams didn't even get in, but I've been enjoying the playoffs. It's uh some Canadian teams I'm rooting for.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

The Rangers are getting after up three all the time.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, yeah, we're gonna get some scared there, yeah. All right, so who who do we have with us? We're gonna introduce our guests. So we have Father Matt Palakowski. He's a retired Army chaplain and veteran of almost 28 years of service and has spent time in Egypt, Haiti, Germany, and Afghanistan. He's a graduate of West Point, where he currently works as a civilian chaplain with nine other military chaplains, one of which is another Catholic priest who functions as the pastor of most holy Trinity Church, located on the property of West Point. And Father Michael Parisi is one of our two Vicar, Vickers General, and the pastor of St. Catherine of Siena in Mountain Lakes. He is a retired Navy chaplain. He retired six years ago. He's he was last stationed at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. And why do we have these uh chaplains and retired chaplain on? Because Memorial Day is just in a couple days, right? And we thought it would be great to have them on. So welcome both of you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you, Father Matt.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Thank you, Father Mike, for being with us.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

So, Bishop, do you want to open up in prayer?

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Yes, and by the time we'll come out, it'll be after Pentecost. But we're recording a few days before Pentecost, so we'll ask um the help of the Holy Spirit as we place ourselves in God's presence, name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and we shall be recreated, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth. O God, who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us in that same spirit to be truly wise and always rejoice in your consolation through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Lady, seed of wisdom, mother of the church, pray for us. Saint Matthias, pray for us, Saint Martin of Tours, pray for us. All holy men and women, pray for us, pray for us. Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. St. Martin Ators, the patron of Saint Soldiers. That's right, very good. Chaplains. And some there's a book I read in the seminary that credited him as the father of Celtic spirituality. It's a long story. It was a good book, but uh um uh but Martin Attor is a great, great example of wonderful lives of the saints. Um but um thank you, Father Matt and Father Mike uh for being with us. And as my time as bishop, um, I often say thank God and Bishop Saratulli. Uh we uh and before him, Bishop Rodimer and Bishop Casey and the wonderful church that we have here in our diocese of Patterson. But especially um given Bishop Um Saratulli's promotion of and and encouragement of vocations and um the number of priests that he ordained, um we're able to um do our part um to help um the men and women who serve our country in uniform by providing priest chaplains. I know you're a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, and um Father Parisi can speak about how many um priests like himself um uh from our diocese who have served and are serving uh in in um as chaplains for our armed forces, and you can talk about some of the numbers and and some of your work, but I know that um we talk about um uh crisis of vocations or shortage of priesthood uh in general in in in dioceses in our country. And um, but in the military that's uh that's um I know even more of a challenge. So we can talk a little bit about that, but maybe um you could uh both give us a little bit of where you grew up, how you when you when you went to the seminary, got ordained. Um maybe Father Mike, you want to go first and then if I could refer to I'm I'm sure I'm speaking for both of us.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Thank you for letting your priests go serve in the military, and not just from us, and not just from Archbishop Ruillo, but from all of our military members who value the faith and value us, and for the bishops that let other people go, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

We do it as a diocese together in a presbytery, and so we're happy and I'm happy, and Bishop Sarratelli certainly um was a big part of that. So, Father Mike, thank you though, but happy too.

unknown 6:10

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Sure. Uh Bishop uh I grew up in the Midwest and we moved to New Jersey when I was twelve years old to uh Boonton Township uh to the parish where I'm serving now as pastor. I was Father Glenn's altar server for a couple of years when I was in high school. Yes, fish and uh I uh I had a a girlfriend in high school and uh we were very close and I started college at the Coast Guard Academy, but at the same time I've been thinking about priesthood, and uh so uh the girlfriend moved to uh moved to Florida to be with her parents, and uh so that sort of came to uh to an end. And God works in mysterious ways. Yeah. Very mysterious, um not always welcome, but uh very mysterious. Right. And uh so at the at the age of I guess 19, I thought I'd been procrastinating for for uh an unforgivable uh length of time and applied to the seminary, resigned from the uh from the academy, and uh entered uh uh Seton Hall University. And after a few years, I think Bishop Redimer looked at a map to see how far away he could send me for theology and uh pick the North American College. So that's where I wound up for the years from 78 to 83, about five years there. I was in the slow learner program. And then a few years at St. Catherine of St. Uh Margaret of of Scotland parish in Morristown.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

What year were you ordained?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

I was ordained in 1982. I finished my license in biblical theology in 1983, and from 83 to 88 I served at uh St. Margaret of Scotland. The last couple years I was adjunct at the seminary and taught uh the introduction to to uh biblical criticism and hermeneutics for guys in first theology and in pre-theology. That was a that was a great experience also. But uh as that time was coming to an end, I got uh a letter from the Navy talking about the the need for chaplains to serve. And uh it was it was very brief and very direct. Uh it was uh from a priest who was serving at the office of the chief of chaplains and who had also attended the the North American College, and he just sent a blast out to the alumni of the college under a certain age. But he said in the United States at that point, so we're talking 1987, I think is when I got the letter. At that point there were about a thousand priests in I'm sorry, a thousand Catholics in the United States for every priest. But in the military, it was one priest per 2,700 Catholics. Wow. He said our guys are are stretched really thin, and if you could come in for three years, it'd be a huge help. A huge help. So I uh I did that. I uh I I told him I would like to apply. And uh Was it Bishop Rodimer at the time? It was Bishop Rodimer, the bishop who would ordained me. Well, I spoke to the Vicar General, a key person in any diocese, let me tell you. And uh it was Monsignor Joe Brustel, and uh I said, um I told him what I was thinking, and he said, and as only he could save your breath, you're not going anywhere. I said, well, maybe not, but I'd I'd kind of like to give this my best shot. So how how do you how do you um how do you approach him when you really want something from him? He said, I don't believe you're asking me this, but since you did, he said, don't ever surprise him. Write him a letter, tell him what you want to do, tell him you've been uh praying about it, you've been talking to older priests in the diocese, and and you have, right? Okay, yes, monsieur. Yes, monsieur, of course I have. And uh he said, and then uh his secretary will call you to make an appointment, and when she does, you make the appointment as late in the morning as you can. Because eventually he'll say yes to anything to get you the heck out of his office so he can have lunch. So I wrote it. Range advice. I I wrote my little letter and uh I got in to see the bishop. Uh the secretary said, uh, can you come Tuesday? I said, sure. She said, can you come at nine o'clock? He said, Oh no, there's a funeral, there's a funeral. There's a funeral. Uh I'm sure there was a funeral someplace that day. So uh I got in to see him at 11 30 and made my case and he he gave me three years. He said, Three, is that fair? Three years, and I expect to see you back in this diocese. Uh so at the to your point, I was really enjoying it, and uh unbeknownst to me, a priest, a local priest uh from St. Mary's Abbey in Morristown that I was serving with. Um he was the the chaplain of the surface forces of the Atlantic Fleet. At that point, I was with an amphibious squadron. Uh he wrote to the bishop to uh to tell him a little bit about the work I was doing. And I made an appointment to go see the bishop and uh ask about staying past the the original three-year uh commitment. And that uh that appointment I made in I guess uh late June or early July, and between when when I did that and when I went to see the bishop, uh Saddam Hussein's forces went into Kuwait and and when I was talking to the bishop in his office, CNN was showing the Marines marching aboard the ships that I was about to go on to to cross the Atlantic and go into the that um that Gulf War.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

So he didn't have much of a choice at that point, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Well he he asked why he said why would you want to stay? I can't imagine you enjoy that sort of life. And I said, uh, you know, it's got its challenges. It's uh it's hard to be so far away from family and uh and friends and from uh from my old parish, from the diocese. But um I said it's also got some some advantages. You know, I can I can reach people that I couldn't uh I couldn't reach from from the parish. I said in the parish, I was dealing with practicing Roman Catholics from 6 30 in the morning when we had our first mass to nine or ten at night, whenever the last um the last meeting or appointment would uh would finish. Most of them were older than I was in the military, dealing with people generally younger than I was, uh some practicing Roman Catholics, some people with other other faith, some people with no faith at all, and a lot of young Catholics who didn't who uh weren't making it to Mass on Sunday. But because of uh the context in which we served, I was able to to reach all of them and at least show a little bit of interest on the part of the church for uh for these wonderful young people. So uh he asked me he asked me a couple very very pointed questions. He said, What about priestly fraternity? I don't think you can you can uh expect a whole lot of that in the military. And I said, Sometimes there's no priest within a thousand miles. But when when my ships were in home port, there were at that point a couple dozen Navy priests stationed in Norfolk, and we got together on Sunday afternoon for a for a drink and went out to dinner together. And once a month we hired a um a retreat house in Hampton, Virginia, and uh brought in a retreat master who gave us a couple of uh conferences and then uh heard confessions and and dinner, and he said, Well, you're not doing too badly there. You're doing better than we are in the diocese in some ways. So uh at the end of that conversation, he said, Given what's going on in the world, I wouldn't feel easy in my conscience forcing you to come back. So should I release you for another three years? And uh I said, you could do that, but that's that just is kind of you know mechanistic to approach pastoral minister. Why don't you just make it indefinite and then you can you and I can can control that? And he said that sounds like a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

And how many years altogether? Thirty.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Thirty years on active duty.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Beautiful, beautiful. Father Matt, uh growing up, seminary, school, um how did the Lord call you and lead you and guide you?

SPEAKER_03 14:45

Well, it's uh it's kind of interesting. Actually, I never heard that much of your story. That was great to hear, by the way. So it was that was nice. Um so I'm from Seacaucus, New Jersey. I'm the youngest of seven children, so uh John and Rita, mom and dad, uh devout folk, Polish, all the way back, you know, into the to the to God's country there. And uh Catholic home, dad blue collar, came home every day at 5.50. We sat down for dinner at uh 6 p.m. Dad led Grace. I looked at a picture of the Last Supper. Normal. Like that's not there's nothing crazy about that. It just doesn't happen that much.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Unfortunately, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

But I think something as simple as that was. Yeah, but I think pretty it was pretty quickly eight, because that my older brother was fifteen years older, and then he went off to college, but still like yeah, the kitchen table was pushed up against the wall, we pulled it out and pushed it back up against the buffet was the washing machine.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Um but um uh I I do remember in third grade there was a they gave us this vocation thing in third grade. And it was just very simple questions. Would you rather play outside or inside? Would you rather build with blocks or paint? Uh stuff it was a whole series of questions like that. And they gave that same survey to all these professionals in all these different fields and see how they answered it, and then you got your results back, and you know, if your results matched up with these other people. And so I I would pay $100,000 to have this piece of paper. Um I had two spikes on my chart. One said one was for clergy and one was for military. Wow. That's a pretty accurate survey there. And I remember I remember getting home to my mom and dad saying, Well, how's that gonna work out? That you can't do both of those, and here we are. Um but so that that's just an interesting piece of it. You know, God calls us from the womb, right? And we're made certain ways, right? So um but really it was a high school seminar, St. Joseph's high school seminar, I think down near Trenton, that was the first time I got a postcard when I was looking at high schools that put the word priesthood in my head. And then it and then it closed that year, so you didn't have a chance to go, but the thought was there. And then St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, the Jesuits, they're fantastic at uh really forming people, right? Right. Um so uh wrestled that the the vocations as a young guy, uh priesthood was one of them, but also like you know, maybe even an astronaut or a cowboy or a fireman. Um but priesthood was always toward the front. So when I was getting ready to graduate from high school, I thought I'd go to a Catholic high school that would set me up for seminary because that seemed likely. And when I looked at Catholic colleges, none of them interested me. Zero. None of them sparked me. Georgetown, Boston College, Notre Dame, and um But somebody came along as a recruiter from the academies, and when I saw their video describing academy life, I was like, I didn't even know what they were. I was like, that's where I want to go. But I didn't know how, like, how would that get into the priest realm? I uh my uh a youth director, a past a chaplain for the search program, Monsignor Bill Hatcher, who became my first pastor when I was a newly ordained priest. Um I went and spoke to him about it, and it was it was kind of a tearful thing, because it was really tearing my heart a bit. And he said, serve God in the church, serve your country in the military, you're strongly motivated to serve. I think you're safe following where your heart leads you. Which I thought that was brilliant, that was sage advice, right? So um so I said, All right, well then my my passion is for the military.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

So ended up going to West Point and You I guess you were a good student. I was good.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

I went to a Jesuit high school. I did okay. Um not easy to get into West Point. No, it's it's it's pretty competitive. It's not easy to get into the military. Right. It's harder to get it to the military than it is to get into college. And that at West Point you have to get into the military and get into college or something.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Um But the Lord got you there, led you there?

SPEAKER_03 18:43

And uh it's a great school. Um and each year I kind of re-evaluated, am I supposed to stay here or am I supposed to was this just a year thing and then go to seminary? And every year it was stay. And um I loved it. Uh I loved the military life in a lot of ways. And when you graduate, you go into your particular field in the military. It's you know, it's not just one monolith thing. But I I chose infantry, which is basic basic soldiering, it's basic G.I. Joe soldiering. You know, it's um uh you're gonna pay me to walk in the woods and uh sleep outside and you know, jump out of planes and blow things up, you're gonna pay me, right? That's awesome. That's great. So um but it was in the first year after I graduated that I was in Ranger School, which is a pretty grueling, demanding school. It's a lot of fun, actually. It's a lot of fun, it's just very hard. Um But during that school is when in prayer God clearly spoke to me, because I was I was saying for years, do you want me to be a priest? And he finally answered the question because I was I was I think I needed it. I think I was too thick to really get through. And he said, Yes, I want you to be a priest.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Some guys guys use a sledgehammer, right? Right, right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

And for this head. So um, yes, I want you to be a priest. And I said, Okay. Then the answer is yes. That's easy. But I also have this commitment that I think you led me to, and I don't think we're supposed to be led into commitments to turn around and break them. So if you make the commitment go away, I'll start tomorrow. But and and God could do that like that. Right. Um so it didn't go away, and so I just served, I completed my time, which was you know six years. Six years. And then and then went to seminary. So when I that last year and a half before seminaries, I called Newark, I spoke to the vocation director up here. Um but before I did that, I actually went out to a payphone out on the sidewalk, you know, during the duty day. Payphone, what are those? Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Um you're looking at the There were these things out there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

We'd have these. Um But the You went out to a payphone? I went out to a payphone, and uh I called the military archdiocese, and I just had the vocation and the number for the vocation director from one of the chaplains at the time. And uh, this priest picks up, it was uh Monsignor Glynn at the time, and I said, Hi, I'm this is Captain Matthew Polakowski. I'm a chap I'm a captain down here at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and I'm interested in being a priest and elected door for the military. How do I do that? And he said, Who is this? I'm actually leaving right now to go be ordained a bishop, but you would you please call me back? So, really, my my first real real sense of the priesthood was really in the military. Um and then being from Newark, fortunately, Newark has a great reputation uh for being so supportive of the military. Newark and Boston were the two big dioceses for the most number of priests in the military at any one time. Um I'm not sure that's still the case, but it it was for a long, long time.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Patterson must be getting up there. Please God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:37

Um and so I just went back to Newark and um the first bishop at the time was just very gracious and said, sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Which seminary?

SPEAKER_03 21:47

I went to Seton Hall. Right. University.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

So but co sponsored, right? I remember in my time as vocation director in Brooklyn, there was that option to co sponsored.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

So I I showed up in Newark, already had already had my

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: We were ordained priests in the same year, you said that's a good idea. That's right. We're classmates in different schools. And uh your first assignment then after ordination was in the diocese?

SPEAKER_03 22:11

In the diocese of Newark at St. Thomas the Apostle in Bloomfield with with Monsignor Bill Hatcher, who is the youth director of the search program that was a biggest. Oh, yes, right. So it was a nice little thing. And uh so I did that for three years, and that was wonderful. I mean the the civilian parish was wonderful, it was exciting, uh big place. Uh so youth group and school, and um I was the chaplain to the police department, I was also the chaplain to the ecumenic the town's ecumenical council, right, which kind of fit coming from the military. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so that that worked out well. Um but I also stayed in touch uh with the military when I was in the parish just by going out and doing some retreats, you know, helping give retreats for different military parishes.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

And then after the three years active duty as a chaplain. How many years active duty as a chaplain?

SPEAKER_03 22:55

So I did twenty. So I was from 2020 from 2000 uh up until 2020 is when I retired. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

So now a civilian chaplain.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. Right. So I took the uniform off in 2020, uh but then the Army rehired me in a civilian capacity. So I still work for the Army, so work for the bishop. But worked for the Army and then I'm at West Point. So I've been at West Point for nine years now. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

And you're still practicing the ecumenical ministry, right? Because there's eight other chaplains, right? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Some of the distinctives of military chaplaincy that distinguishes it from most civilian ministry is uh by its very nature it's ecumenical, right? So we're working with chaplains, other Christian chaplains.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

You're a chaplain, you're in the military, you're a chaplain for everyone.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Right. You take care of everyone. And so and so for our Catholics, we prov we perform Catholic rites that they need. But for anybody else, what we're doing is we make sure that every American has their right to worship as they choose. And so I'm not going to provide those religious services, but I'm going to find another chaplain, or I'll find somebody in the community that kind of meets their needs. And at least in my conscience, I'm supporting freedom, and God gives us freedom to do so. I mean, other people wouldn't see it that way, but you have to see it that way to be a chaplain.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And as we're looking forward to Memorial Day, uh, you know, some I think so often see it as a three-day weekend that starts the summer. Uh and uh just speak a little bit about what Memorial Day means to you. Maybe each of you could say a few words, and then I know Jay has some questions. But um a little bit about Memorial Day, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

Well, I I'll just kick it off with like a good distinction because I this wasn't always clear in my head. We have Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Yes, right. Right. And so Veterans Day is when we celebrate our veterans who are alive, right? And so it's appropriate to go to veterans' homes and visit people. Memorial Day is like we're people who have died, we're remembering those who have died. Um so certainly all of our military, but then I remember in town growing up, we would have parades for Memorials Day, and it was also our police and our firemen. Um so uh you know, those kinds of professions, right? So um and so Memorial Day is gonna be a bigger thing. Like my my dad was Navy in World War II, and my uncle was a Marine, right? So they're both deceased, right? So Memorial Day is a day that we remember them and the those who have given their lives, right? Not just in combat, given their lives, but lived and then I think that's that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

That's uh you know, Memorial Day is when we remember those people who who gave the the the full measure of their devotions. Uh I think it was Lincoln who said at Gettysburg. Um we want to remember their uh their sacrifice and keep it in front of as many people as we can as a as a way of inspir of inspiring the next generation. Uh perhaps not to not to die for the country, but certainly to to spend their lives in service to their to their brothers and sisters.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

I just did a thing a couple of weeks ago where somebody in his own eulogy, he wrote his own eulogy and he said, um I I I deny that I uh am supposed to die for any of these things. I'm supposed to live for my country. And in the manner in which we live, that brings the very real possibility that I might die, but I'm supposed to live for my country.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

That sacrifice. Um, but that's an interesting way of putting it. Um, to live in such a way with love, the love that Jesus teaches us that is ready to give of itself, right? To put itself second, even to laying down one's life.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Um I know Jay had some uh Um Yeah, so maybe you can each share um so we don't have to get into all of it, but maybe some of your uh key tasks and uh duties that you and where where you found some some joy over the years in your service? Um any anything come to mind? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Is it in the relationships that you have with people? Is it some of the things?

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Or just an exciting place as well as that you've been, right? Because you've I think Father Priesty has been all around the world and um, yeah, I'm sure Father Matt has too.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Uh but I think I think the real joy comes in in the fact that that we can offer the gospel and the sacraments and we can we can point to Christ's presence in in places where people are are having a difficult time doing very difficult things and and in some cases really truly afraid for their for their lives, whether we're you know talking about um an isolated duty station or uh are actually going into action uh serving in dangerous parts of the world. Uh they're there's something that we have to offer that no one else has to offer, and being able to extend that to them is uh for me was a real grace.

SPEAKER_03 28:37

Yeah, yeah, the the daily joy is being allowed to to serve our military, uh the kind of people that they are. They live for our country, but they're also in a position where they might die for our country. So our our military, our cops, our firemen. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Uh and we throw we throw around the world sometimes uh professional but um and and training, and I I I I just have some sense from knowing some who have served and um learning a little bit and reading a little bit, but the amount of of training and preparation and professionalism that goes, you know, we s we say, thanks be to God, because you know our country has a lot of challenges and struggles at the moment, but it's such a blessed country and it has such a great history. And when we say that we have the best military in the world, you know, uh um it's because of women and men, right, that dedicate themselves and learn and train and are ready um on a moment's notice. Uh and I'm sure you kind of walk the journey with from the time that uh they entered uh to basic training or to even to uh maybe uh some uh the they're great professionals, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Yeah, they're they are there, and they they often come from um some pretty rough backgrounds, but they uh you just mentioned basic training, uh which I got to work in for a while. These young people that would come with a sense of maturity that I did not have my uh at my own age, they um many of them said, if I were to go to college now, I would just get drunk and waste my time and I don't want to do that, so I'm gonna go do something with my life. Holy cow, I d I don't think I even thought that way. Like they were I'm so I'm so respectful of that that they really want to do good things with their lives and and overcome some things that maybe maybe they had less than some other people and they overcome it. I think it's beautiful. I mean, I respect that so much, and their families too. So that I mean that's that's my joy to be allowed to serve them. You know.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Yeah, and and remember too, some of these um some of the people came come from broken homes and and have had a real rough start in life. And the military is the first time that somebody's told them, you're gonna get out of bed, you're gonna you're gonna put your uniform on, you're gonna you're gonna work hard all day, and you're gonna do what you're told and and um deal with the consequences if you don't. Right, right. And and most of them rise to those those very high expectations and and do great and uh and they they go back to their civilian lives if they if they don't do a career in the military, they go back to their civilian lives much better equipped to to face the challenges that they're gonna face there.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Aaron Ross Powell And it also just just as what exactly what you're describing, it grows them up uh and in the profession in which they're serving, they know that their life has a purpose. And I think that's that's something that would speak to uh I think our generation today that uh I don't know if our culture there's something's gone, something's happened in our culture where there's some growing up that is not happening. And people are challenging whether or not their lives have a purpose.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

And such a focus on me that um Jesus says, right, uh if you if you want to find your life, you better be ready to lose it. And if you're trying to hold on, you'll never you'll never find it. And uh that sense I think that there's such a focus on me and my needs, and uh and and and not as much as uh we I think heard not in the far past that we're called to serve, right? And there's a uh a value in in giving back and in in in sharing your gifts and talents and responding to a call. Um uh but you you see it, you see the good, right, and in so many who are doing that on a regular basis. Um but um um a challenge I think to that it's not as prevalent as as it was.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

And just another illustration of like the goodness of the people, um in the military, there's many time, many times, when we walk up to strangers that are wearing a uniform and we literally have placed our lives in their hands. Uh so whether it's getting on a helicopter or working around heavy equipment or jumping out of a plane and somebody else is controlling that, um, if they're wearing a uniform, I have every confidence that they're professional and they're good at what they're doing and they're taking it seriously. Right.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

I mean that that is really w what we're able to create in that um there's that connection between um our police officer and our firefighters with military, that uniform, what it what it means to to wear that uniform. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Have you jumped out of a plane? A couple of times.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

I jumped out of one two weeks ago, actually. Is that right? Yeah, I brought my whole focus team and another priest with me.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Yeah. I didn't tell we didn't tell the other priest bishop that he was jumping out of a plane until he was on the ground. And I always tell young people, you don't tell your parents that you're going skydiving, you tell your parents that jump in. You went skydiving.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

Your focus team.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Yeah. Yeah. So at uh so West Point is a military college. Right. Uh and so we've had focus there since 2015.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Focus um can uh uh camp uh college campus ministers, right? Fellowship of Catholic University students so the recent college college. Curtis Martin, I think is right. Fantastic. Yeah, they are they have been a blessing to the church in recent times. Yeah. So not only in uh missionaries really on college campuses. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

And and focus made a col a strategic decision as they were trying to think of like how do we how do we help the church and help our country get back on track? What's where do we put our emphasis? And they very deliberately said college campuses, young people that are growing up. And so that goes back to another joy of the the military is that sixty percent of the military is age 18 to 24. So no matter no matter who you are that's working with that group, so if you're teachers, college professors, you're working with that group, that's really the beginning of their adult life. And so if you get to be involved in forming them or helping them form their young adulthood in a good way, what a privilege, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:29

So the in the fleet, the average age of the enlisted people was was nineteen, the average age of the officers is twenty-four. My goodness. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Well those are and speaking of that, Father Michael, I think you've um done some vocation work within the military, within your um uh uh time in s in service, right, as a chaplain? It's a place where vocations come from as well.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

They they do. They do. Now, statistically, about two percent of America's Catholics are in the care of the Archdiocese for the military services. So if we have a hundred Catholics in the United States, two of them are are either military or military uh family members. Uh but typically, year after year, about fifteen to twenty percent of our vocations, of our priestly ordinations come from that two percent of the American Catholic population. And uh we have the advantage that we're already dealing with the people who have a very strong ethos of of service and uh and a great work ethic. And uh it's it's easy to encourage them to think about about priesthood. So uh a number of the the people I think I've shown you a photograph of with uh of uh some of the students from the Naval Academy class of 2013 where uh one of the women is a Carmelite nun, one of the uh one of the guys is studying for Toledo, one of the guys had just been ordained for for Green Bay, um another was a submarine officer who was on his way into the Congregation of the Holy Cross, another is um uh a Dominican friar, in fact, I'll be going down to his ordination at the end of the month in in uh DC. Uh they their minds are open, their hearts are open, and uh and I I think it's it's much like young people anywhere, they they need to be encouraged and invited and and uh prodded a little sometimes and uh and and and brought along and and they again they they rise to our expectations.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

I was actually gonna mention that, Claire. I'm glad you brought that up. So that was a class in 2013 that had five five people in some religious vocation.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

More than um more than that. I'll I'll I'll pull out the picture, but I heard about this. I was I was that's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

So um our academies, like right now, uh West Point has five people that are in the seminary, two are about to be ordained priests this in June. Wow. Um and other people that are in the pipeline. One guy was just ordained a priest last year.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

These are alumni?

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Right. And then Texas AM, they are they produce the single number the single biggest number of vocations from any one school. Uh so there's there's something about that, not only the uh the military, but I think the officer program that really suits the priesthood. But uh like when we release our uh priests to go serve in the military, one we're taking care of the Catholics out of the military, so I think we have that obligation. But it's also a fantastic vocations pool. They're a vocations galore, and so people have to be able to be there to nourish them, right? Right, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Um in fact I think you know one of the one of the guys that uh that I shoehorned into the sound. So when I was Father Mark Bristol? Father Mark Bristol, he was uh second class petty officer when I first met him serving in USS Mount Whitney. And uh I invited him and his buddy to go to uh a vocation discernment retreat. And I thought I thought Vincent was really he was the he was the guy that I was gonna put my money on. And and Mark, well, we'll see. He goes to mass every day too. Maybe, maybe something will come of this. And and uh I saw them when they came back, and uh Mark just said it was it was awesome, it was it was life-changing, he was so happy that he had gone. And uh Vincent said it was one of the best things he had ever done. I said, really, why is that? He goes, Well, the retreat was great, and then I stopped at home on my way back and and uh I reunited with my high school girlfriend. That's why they call it discernment retreat. But yeah, but Mark uh came came back, he was uh ordained for Brooklyn and uh uh served in a parish and and now he's back on active duty as a as a chaplain. That's a great story.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

How did you guys get to know each other? So you've known each other quite a while, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Well at the Coast Guard Academy is really when we got to hang out a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

We probably Coast Guard, it's in New London, Connecticut. But I r I remember you from when I was I was recruiting around the year 2000, and the the Army had I think it was at a a meeting of the bishops in DC. Uh and there were some things going on at the military archdiocese at the same time. But uh you were priest then getting maybe getting ready to come back on active duty and uh right because 97 you ordained three years in in Paris, so around 2007. So around 2000 we met. Were you in the Pentagon at that time?

SPEAKER_02 39:47

Well, that's right, you spent some time in Pentagon.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

I was uh my office was actually out at uh uh in Hyattesville, and I I avoided the Pentagon like like all good.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

Uh Father Matt, say a word about uh West Point, uh its history in our country, it's here not not far from us. And uh I as you were talking, I remember um reading a uh biography of um of U Ulysses S. Grant, and uh he had some, I think, interesting times there at West Point. But how many uh can only imagine how many have gone through there that have served our country?

SPEAKER_03 40:20

So the history of West Point goes back to the war for independence, and its whole purpose was to deny the British the use of the Hudson River. Uh and so there's a very sharp turn in the river, it narrows, and so we we had fortifications, sir. That's its whole purpose. And ever since we established it, it's always been garrisoned and occupied, and then we created the military academy in 1802. Uh and so uh you even up to the time of the Civil War, over over 50 percent of the generals on both sides of both both sides of the force were Respond graduates. So that was our major source. So now we have RTC and OCS, which so right now um the academies are probably about 10 percent of our officers' force, but we would still hope that we're um giving it something of eleven into the wider force. Um just last week we had uh for our junior, for our sophomore cadets, so it's the end of their sophomore year, uh, we had something called inspiration to serve, where we actually take them on a walk through the cemetery because walking through West Point Cemetery is a walk through history. It's it's a lot of if if I if I want to go to the house. Sure can. Yeah, right. Yes, yeah. As long as you have a driver's license and you have no outstanding warrants. I think I'm okay. Um but uh but just to walk people through the the cemetery and you can point out uh people from different wars and um so we we have Grant's son is there, Grant's General Grant himself President Grant is down in New York City on the river, but his son is there. Um we have uh Colonel Ed White, who was the first man to walk in space and the Apollo 1 mission that blew up on the launch band. Uh he was one of those three astronauts. Um Great history. Yeah, it's really it's really wonderful. So and thriving, huh? We're doing great. Yeah. Yeah, it's a great it's a it's a wonderful place. Our leadership there right now is uh very, very good. Um how many students uh undergrad? So I think at all the academies it's well, Coast Guard is smaller.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Coast Guard's smaller.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

But uh Navy, Air Force, and Army is about a little over 4,000. Right. Yeah. I guess Coast Guard's about 400. Yeah, yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

Awesome. And Father Perisi, uh when we did our pre-interview yesterday, your uh when you called me on the phone, there was a it was an awesome photo of you on a sailboat with your dog. Where were you? Is that is that a hobby that you enjoy?

SPEAKER_01 42:37

Is that it it is, it is. I enjoy it very much. That's uh that scout, she comes to us from the uh the Montville Animal Shelter.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

And uh we were on a uh boat that um a a Navy buddy and I bought. He's a former Naval Intelligence Officer, and um he uh he he left the Navy as a as a JO, married the lovely Jen, and uh did an MBA, went into uh uh work as a stock analyst and eventually gave that up to become a maritime photographer. And uh just just published a book called Never Home about the overseas U.S. cemeteries that are run by the Battlefield Commission. Oh yeah, so uh great great note uh for for Memorial Day. If you if you want something to look at, Never Home by Richard Sherman. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

Well, Matt, you still have family in Jersey? Uh I do. So uh I've got uh uh niece that's still in my hometown, and then everybody else is kind of moved south. I've got a brother that's still in uh North Jersey. So but if I could just make a connection, you're just talking about um our cemeteries. Uh last summer, a classmate of mine, Kevin Farrell, brought me over to Normandy uh in July to to walk that cemetery. And and he he's he's amazed every time he goes there. He says, every single day there are numerous groups of French school children that are brought to that cemetery to walk that cemetery and and be grateful for what all these other soldiers, including American soldiers, did for so I think if we're looking for something to do on Memorial Day, like we have cookouts and whatnot, and that's all fine. And the people aren't sure what to do. Like, do you say happy Memorial Day? Let's observe Memorial Day, and probably a good way to do it is to go visit military cemetery if you've got one in the air, it'd be a very respectful thing to do, and you'd learn something too.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Um I say mass at one of our cemeteries um uh on Memorial Day, so that's something that I'm happy to do. You're right, it's uh it's an appropriate way to uh honor Memorial Day, yeah. Um and a military cemetery even better.

SPEAKER_00 44:42

All right, perfect. Maybe we'll leave it at that.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Wonderful. Uh yes. Thank you, Father Matt. Thank you so much for your service uh to our country and please extend our thanks to all those uh that you serve um who are serving us. And uh as we pray for peace in this world that uh is challenged in so many ways, um we're grateful for our country and and for those who made our country and continue to make our country the great place that it is, and and those who are willing to both live and and lay down their lives um in service of freedom and uh and um and and so we we pray for you and and all those serving in our armed forces.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

Thank you again. And uh before we finish this episode, Bishop, anything else you want to share about anything that's upcoming or uh Any plans?

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Uh well uh we have uh two ordinations coming up, one to the transitional diaper Carlos Pinagos will be actually ordained on Memorial Day weekend at St. Margaret's Parish in um Morristown. And then on Saturday, June 1st, um uh Deacon Sebastian Um Munoz will uh will become, please God, Father, Father Sebastian Munoz, and be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, June 1st at our cathedral. So pray for them and pray for vocations.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

And Bishop, maybe maybe just as we're wrapping up, if I could ask your blessing for all of our service members, living and deceased, uh throughout the world, there's there's there's no range to a blessing.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

That's right, that's right, that's right. The Lord be with you, and with your spirit. And we ask through the intercession of Mary, our Blessed Mother, Saint Joseph, St. Michael the Archangel, Saint Martin of Tours, and all the angels and saints, God's blessing upon the women and men who serve our country in our armed forces, especially upon the chaplains, and upon those who have given their lives for our country. We ask eternal rest and the fullness of everlasting life in heaven. And upon all those who are serving now, especially those serving in harm's way, we ask God's blessing, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Okay. Thank you for joining us. Please subscribe, comment, and leave a positive rating. Get to know us better by following Beyond the Beacon on Facebook or Instagram. Email questions and podcast topic ideas to beyond at patternsdiocese.org. Discover our other podcasts, Coffee with Cupkey and the Paul Street Journal. See you next time.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

Thanks, everybody. God bless. Happy Memorial Day.