• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Merchant Marine Academy cadets pose for a photo during the annual Sea Services Pilgrimage Mass at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Md., Oct. 3, 2021. (CNS photo/Mike Miller, courtesy The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton)

Admiral: By her prayers, example, Mother Seton understood the sea services

October 7, 2021
By Catholic News Service
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Saints, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

EMMITSBURG, Md. (CNS) — For retired U.S. Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, the annual Pilgrimage for the Sea Services Mass at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg is not just a labor of love for himself.

It’s also a labor of love for family — his Navy and the broader U.S. sea services family that is suffering from a critical shortage of Catholic chaplains while serving our country.

Sea service medals are seen after they were blessed during the annual Sea Services Pilgrimage Mass at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Md., Oct. 3, 2021. (CNS photo/Mike Miller, courtesy The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton)

Fallon, chair of the shrine’s Pilgrimage Sponsoring Committee, recently recalled the time his son, a naval aviator who was deploying to Iraq on an aircraft carrier, called him to say there was no priest assigned to serve the nearly 8,000 sailors on the ships preparing to deploy.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,'” Fallon recalled telling his son. “So, I immediately called the CNO, the head of the Navy, who happened to be a Catholic. They quickly reassigned a priest to get out there as the ships were leaving. But it illustrates the problem. They just don’t have enough priests.”

This year’s Pilgrimage for the Sea Services Mass was celebrated Oct. 3 in the basilica at Mother Seton’s shrine.

At the Mass, people from across the country came together to pray for members of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and Public Health Services and to join family and friends in prayer to thank St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for her protection and ask for her continued intercession.

As the patroness of the sea services, Mother Seton, whose two sons served in the Navy, has a strong connection to those who spend their lives at sea — men and women who need both her intercessions and the pastoral care of chaplains more than ever.

The number of Catholic chaplains in the military has dwindled to a little over 200 today. Hardest hit has been the Navy, which has only 41 Catholic priests on active duty for its roughly 120,000 Catholic sailors and Marines.

Fallon served in the Navy for more than 40 years, retiring in 2008 as a four-star admiral. His final assignment was as commander of U.S. Central Command, with responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008.

He recently discussed his involvement with the pilgrimage and his devotion to Mother Seton in a Q-and-A:

Q: How did you get involved with this work at the Seton Shrine?

A: I was aware for many years that the pilgrimage existed, attending a couple of times while on active duty, and saw what a good thing it was. Once during the ’70s when I was on a commercial aircraft flight from Norfolk, Virginia, to Washington and climbing into my seat, I noticed that my seatmate was a Catholic priest. I was in uniform, we introduced ourselves and he identified himself as Rear Adm. John O’Connor, the Navy chief of chaplains at that point (later cardinal-archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York). While chief of chaplains, he advocated for Mother Seton to be designated as patroness of the sea services, collaborating with the late Adm. Jim Watkins, who was chief of Navy personnel at the time, to start the pilgrimage. Adm. Watkins got me to come up to the pilgrimage after I retired and then talked me into relieving him as chair of the Sponsoring Committee. That was about 10 years ago.

Q: How do we get more priests involved as chaplains?

A: As the head of the sponsoring committee and a retired naval officer, I make it a point to talk this up with the hierarchy of the church. Almost all the military chaplains come from dioceses around the country. The Archdiocese for the Military Services works to convince the bishops into springing them, letting them come into the military, knowing that they are short-handed too.

One of the things that we keep telling the bishops is that one of your great sources of new priests is in the armed forces. Those who have been on active duty and end up having a vocation, generally turn out to be very good priests. They know the deal. They’ve been around. They know how the world works. They’re really effective.

What has been encouraging lately is the Archdiocese for the Military Services has been raising money and putting it to work to co-sponsor seminarians. They are asked to sign up and commit to service as military chaplains once they are ordained and do their time in their local dioceses. What has been occurring is that bishops first get three years of work out of them, which is fine because they need the experience, and then they come to the (military) services.

That’s been really helpful. I think there are more than 50 seminarians right now who are earmarked to come into all the services. It’s a step in the right direction.

Q: Were priests important over the arc of your career?

A: Oh, for sure. And there used to be lots more of them.

It’s really necessary. In my experience in Vietnam, we were young and nervous and happy that priests were there to help us. Even when I was leading my air wing into the Gulf War 20 some years later, my men were grateful to have a Catholic chaplain with us.

Having a good chaplain on that ship, I can tell you, was very helpful in putting them at ease. (The chaplain told them) there is a higher meaning here. Put your trust in God and go for it. It was helpful to get guys to calm down.

During the Vietnam War, we had a priest who ended up saving several sailors’ lives on the USS Saratoga when there was an awful fire in the engine room. He led the charge into those spaces to try to rescue people. Three sailors died, but he saved a couple guys. He was injured but didn’t hesitate and brought them out.

And of course, there was Father Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll missionary who came into the Navy as a chaplain during the Vietnam War and was killed in a battle in 1967 for which he received the Medal of Honor for exceptional bravery. He had a terrific reputation among the Marines. They loved him and called him the “Grunt Padre.”

He was killed on the battlefield ministering to some Marines who perished and others that he helped to save. He gave last rites to those who didn’t make it. Although he himself had been wounded several times, he refused to leave the battlefield, and was finally killed as he tried to shield a wounded Marine with his own body. He is now a candidate for sainthood.

Q: What draws you close to Mother Seton?

A: She understood what our sea service people and our families do and go through. By her prayers and example, she tried to help her sons in service to the nation to be better people. She was a model, an example, certainly for me. And today, people can look to her, and they won’t see some abstract thing. She was a real person who was close to God who helped others and her own family in the sea services.

Q: Any memorable stories from the pilgrimage event?

A: Each year, we invite the Naval Academy Catholic choir to join us and sing at the Mass. And they usually come over in large numbers. Some years ago, I was having dinner after Mass at a table in the sisters’ refectory with a couple and their kids. We introduced ourselves. It turned out that the father was in the Navy, and he had met his wife while on a sea services pilgrimage. He was singing that year with the Naval Academy choir. She was attending the pilgrimage with her parents, and they met at the post-Mass dinner. So here they were now, a family, with children and still attending. That one stuck with me.

Read More

The fisherman and the pharisee

Visiting Upstate New York’s National Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs

How a Norbertine nun’s visions led to the feast of Corpus Christi

Fox Nation announces second season for ‘Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints’

Pope sets Sept. 7 for joint canonization of Blesseds Acutis and Frassati

Fathers of the Church: The Greek (or Eastern) Fathers

Copyright © 2021 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Catholic News Service

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

  • DUAL ENROLLMENT Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

  • Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

  • Castel Gandolfo After 12 years, locals welcome pope back to his summer home

| Latest Local News |

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

| Latest World News |

80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons

Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope

Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal

Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • 80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons
  • Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope
  • Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal
  • The virtue of patriotism
  • Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says
  • Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies
  • Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says
  • Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter
  • Jesus did not ignore those in need, and neither should Christians, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en