Travel Starts to Pickup BY BISHOP JOSEPH COFFEY
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s the Vicar for Veterans Affairs for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, it is a great honor and joy to travel to our Nation’s 153 Medical Centers of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VAMC). Representing Archbishop Broglio, I make pastoral visits to our priests who serve with great dedication as Catholic priest-chaplains. Many bring years of pastoral experience in civilian parishes with them to this vital ministry. The majority have served as military chaplains in one of the five branches of the military. We are still waiting for our first VA chaplain from the Space Force. Whether from the United States or another Country, all bring a missionary spirit of service. On a recent trip to Chicago I visited the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Center near the Navy Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois. All our Navy enlisted sailors do their basic training (boot camp) at Great Lakes. The health center is a unique facility which just marked its 10th birthday. Military active-duty personnel and civilian employees staff this combination of the Departments of Defense and of Veterans Affairs. I celebrated Mass with the two full-time Catholic chaplains: Father Anthony Rajayan, originally from India, and Father Alexander Inke, originally from Uganda. Father Inke hosted me in his home with wonderful meals and hospitality. It was a welcome change from hotels, and I always try to be a good steward of the gifts given so generously by our benefactors to cover our travel expenses. Then I made a pastoral visit to the Chicago Hines VAMC and visited Father Christopher P. Meyers. Father Meyer’s dad had been in the Air Force as a pilot and told his son years after he retired that he had also flown missions for the CIA. The other Chicago VAMC is named for Jesse Brown, a Marine Corps Veteran and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 1993 to 1997. This large facility serves many Catholic Veterans in the greater Chicago area. It has two part-time priest- chaplains: Father Robert Borre and Father Ed McKenzie, and two full-time priests: Father Hippolytus Njoku and Father Randall Roberts, OFM. Father Roberts served as a full-time Air
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