Priest shares experience of serving pastoral needs of troops in Iraq

Published: 2007-12-12

OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) -- When Father Mark Beran was ordained an Omaha archdiocesan priest in 2002, he expected to be assigned as a parish priest and to spend his days serving parishioners in the archdiocese. He didn't expect that one day his parishioners would be 25,000-30,000 military personnel on a base 40 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq. "I guess the Nebraska Army National Guard had been hounding (Omaha) Archbishop (Elden F.) Curtiss for a priest for years, and apparently he thought I was the only one who could pass the physical fitness test," Father Beran said with a laugh. Father Beran said he spent four days discerning whether to become a military chaplain. "I always told myself that I was not going to let fear stop me from doing what God wanted me to do in my life," he told more than 100 people gathered at a recent Omaha Theology on Tap event.

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