The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), officially the Military Ordinariate of United States of America, is a jurisdiction of the Catholic Church for people serving in the United States Armed Forces and their dependents.
The AMS provides services to Catholics serving in military installations in the United States and overseas, to Catholic staff and patients at Veterans Health Administration facilities, and to Catholics at other federal services located overseas. The AMS does not have a cathedral, nor does it have jurisdiction over any territory; its headquarters are in Washington, D.C.
The AMS is considered a military ordinariate, headed by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio.
Description The AMS was originally established as a military vicariate, with the Archbishop of New York serving as the military vicar. It was reorganized as an archdiocese, with its own archbishop. Its headquarters was relocated from New York City to Washington by Pope John Paul II in 1986.
While the AMS is a Latin Church jurisdiction, clergy from the Eastern Catholic Churches may receive endorsement by the AMS. Eastern Catholic priests must maintain bi-ritual faculties and be able to celebrate the sacraments in the ordinary form of the Roman Rite.
The AMS archbishop is assisted by several auxiliary bishops. Together, they oversee Catholic priests serving as chaplains throughout the world. Each chaplain remains incardinated into the diocese or religious institute in which he was ordained. He has an officer's rank, based on his years of service and promotion selection from among their peers. The chaplain wears the uniform of his respective branch of service, and normally wear clerical attire only during the performance of a religious service. The position of rank and chaplain faith group insignia varies in each military department and may vary significantly from one type of uniform to another within a military department.
The chaplains are organized in the following active duty branches:
U.S. Army Chaplain Corps– for the US Army Navy Chaplain Corps – for the US Navy, the US Marine Corps and the US Coast Guard Air Force Chaplain Corps – for the US Air Force United States Space Command - has a command chaplain
The chaplains also serve in reserve components of the US Army, Navy, and Air Force and are subject to the AMS jurisdiction when deployed and when in training status:
Army National Guard Air National Guard Army Reserve Command US Navy Reserve
The AMS jurisdiction extends to Catholics on all United States government property in the United States and abroad. These include U.S. military installations, embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions.
History
1917 to 1968
During the 19th century, individual Catholic dioceses sent priests to minister to Catholic soldiers and sailors on the battlefield without any central organizational structure. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, it had 25 Catholic military chaplains. By the end of the war, there were over 1,000 catholic chaplains.
To organize these efforts and establish jurisdiction, Pope Benedict XV in November 1917 erected a military diocese of the American armed forces. He appointed Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Hayes of the Archdiocese of New York as bishop of this new diocese. Hayes received the position because New York was the primary port of embarkation for U.S. troops leaving for France and was therefore a convenient contact point for Catholic chaplains accompanying them. During the war, Hayes established four vicariates within the United States and one for troops in Europe.
After Hayes was named archbishop of New York in 1918, he continued to run the military vicariate. When World War I ended in 1919, Hayes dissolved the overseas vicariate, but kept the four American vicariates. Hayes died in 1938. In 1939, Pope Pius XII named Archbishop Francis Spellman of New York to head the military diocese. During World War II and later, Spellman spent many Christmases with American troops in Japan, South Korea and Europe. Spellman died in 1967.
1968 to 2000 In 1968, a month after being named archbishop of New York by Pope Paul VI, Terence Cooke became the next head of the military diocese. To assist Cooke with the military diocese, the pope in 1975 appointed Bishop Joseph T. Ryan from the Archdiocese of Anchorage as a coadjutor bishop. Pope John Paul II in 1979 named a retired military chaplain, Rear Admiral John O'Connor as auxiliary bishop for the military diocese. In 1984, O'Connor became archbishop of New York.
On July 21, 1986, John Paul II decided to remove responsibility for the military services from the archbishop of New York. He instead erected a separate Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS). Ryan became its first archbishop. Ryan retired in 1991. The second archbishop of AMS was Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Dimino, a veteran of the US Navy Chaplain Corps. He was appointed by John Paul II in 1991.
In 1993, Dimino expressed his opposition to allowing LBGTQ persons to serve in the military to President Bill Clinton, saying that admitting gay men would have "disastrous consequences for all concerned." While archbishop, Dimino added his support to a campaign started by John Paul II to eliminate the use of land mines during warfare.
John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Edwin O'Brien of New York, a veteran of the US Army Chaplain Corps, as a coadjutor archbishop in 1997 to assist Dimino. When Dimino retired later in 1997 due to poor health, O'Brien automatically succeeded him as archbishop.
During his ten years as archbishop of the Military Services, O'Brien divided his time between visiting American troops and working with the Pontifical North American College in Rome. In 1993, he initiated the cause of canonization for Emil Kapaun, a US Army chaplain killed during the Korean War.
2000 to present In 2006, O'Brien noted that declining public support in the United States for the Iraq War was hurting morale among the troops, adding, "The news only shows cars being blown up, but the soldiers see hospitals being built and schools opening." By 2007, he believed that the status of US operations in Iraq "compels an assessment of our current circumstances and the continuing obligation of the Church to provide a moral framework for public discussion." In 2007, O'Brien became archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Timothy Broglio as head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA in 2007. During his tenure, Broglio voiced opposition to the 2008 Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate and the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy regarding LGBTQ individuals in the military.
In 2012, Catholic Extension approved a $56,000 two-year grant to AMS to support faith-formation programs for Catholics serving in the military. As of April 2013, about 25% of the U.S. armed forces were Catholic. As of 2017, the AMS had 208 priests on active duty serving approximately 1.8 million service members, family and others. In 2019, Broglio expressed his support for the Trump Administration's ban on transgender individuals serving in the military.
The Trump Administration in 2020 announced the termination of a contract to provide Catholic ministry to three naval stations in the San Diego areas of California as a cost-cutting measure. The contract was originally created because the Navy lacked sufficient chaplains to staff the installations. This move left them without any Catholic priests. However, after pushback from the AMS, the administration in September 2020 reinstated the contract.
Bishops Apostolic Vicar of the United States Armed Forces Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes (1917–1938), concurrently served as Auxiliary Bishop of New York and later Archbishop of New York Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman (1939–1967), concurrently served as Archbishop of New York Cardinal Terence James Cooke (1968–1983), concurrently served as Archbishop of New York
Apostolic Delegate for the United States Armed Forces John Francis O'Hara (1939–1945), appointed Bishop of Buffalo and later Archbishop of Philadelphia (elevated to Cardinal in 1958) William Richard Arnold (1945–1965)
Archbishop for the Military Services, USA John Joseph Thomas Ryan (1985–1991) Joseph Thomas Dimino (1991–1997) Edwin Frederick O'Brien (1997–2007), appointed Archbishop of Baltimore and later pro-grand master and grand master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (elevated to cardinal in 2012) Timothy P. Broglio (2008–present)
Coadjutor Archbishops John Joseph Thomas Ryan (1975–1985) Edwin Frederick O'Brien (1997)
Auxiliary Bishops
William Tibertus McCarty (1943–1947), appointed Bishop of Rapid City James Henry Ambrose Griffiths (1949–1955), concurrently served as Auxiliary Bishop of New York Philip Joseph Furlong (1955–1971) William Joseph Moran (1965–1981) James Jerome Killeen (1975–1978) John Joseph O'Connor (1979–1983), appointed Bishop of Scranton and later Archbishop of New York (elevated to Cardinal in 1985) Lawrence Joyce Kenney (1983–1990) Angelo Thomas Acerra (1983–1990) Joseph Thomas Dimino (1983–1991), appointed Archbishop for the Military Services, USA Francis Xavier Roque (1983–2004) John Gavin Nolan (1987–1997) John Joseph Glynn (1991–2002) José de Jesús Madera Uribe (1991–2004) John Joseph Kaising (2000–2007) Joseph W. Estabrook (2004–2012) Richard Brendan Higgins (2004–2020) F. Richard Spencer (2010–2026) Neal James Buckon (2011–present) Robert J. Coyle (2013–2018), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre Joseph L. Coffey (2019–present) William Muhm (2019–present) Gregg M. Caggianelli (2025–present)
Seat
The AMS chancery is located in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C., at 1025 Michigan Avenue Northeast. The AMS is the only U.S. diocese without a cathedral; it celebrates its major functions at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Noncombatant status
The Geneva Conventions state that chaplains are noncombatants: they do not have the right to participate directly in hostilities. They also state that captured chaplains are not considered prisoners of war and must be returned to their home nation unless retained to minister to prisoners of war.
Reports of sexual abuse Army In 1985, Alvin L. Campbell from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois plead guilty to sexual abuse of minor. A former military chaplain, Campbell had been reprimanded by the Army for committing "indecent homosexual acts with a child". After leaving the Army, he was allowed to transfer to the Diocese of Springfield, where he committed his charged crimes. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Campbell served seven years and was removed from public ministry by the AMS.
In 2000, Mark Matson was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy while serving at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Matson received 20 years in prison.
In 2005, Gregory Arflack was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting three Marines in Qatar.
Air Force In 1991, Thomas Chleboski pled guilty to five counts of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1989 and received a 20-year prison sentence.
Barry Ryan, a chaplain who served two years in prison for separate acts of sex abuse he committed in 2003, was removed from the AMS in 1995 after allegations surfaced that he committed acts of sexual abuse against a minor in 1994.