'Commando crawl' and all, priests train to be military chaplains

Published: 2007-04-11

FORT JACKSON, S.C. (CNS) -- As the soldier leaned out over a length of rope stretched 20 feet in the air over a net, he began the "commando crawl," a careful, hand-over-hand movement across the rope to a wooden platform on the other side. The other men and women in his platoon waited on the ground below and cheered him as he slowly made progress. The casual observer would never guess the man on the rope, a first lieutenant, was also a Catholic priest, Father Mario Rosario, studying to become a chaplain in the U.S. Army. He and eight other Catholic priests were among approximately 130 students in late March at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, near Columbia. Father Rosario, a native of the Philippines, and three other priests were enrolled in the Chaplain Basic Officer Leadership Course, the initial three-month course to become a chaplain. They graduated April 5. Five other priests, already chaplains, are taking the Chaplain Captain Career Course, or C-4.

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