Parsons in Uniform

When the Nazis rolled into France, the U.S. Army had only 137 chaplains. How many it has now is a military secret, but at least 4,000 ministers are already in uniform. This is nearly twice the peak total of U.S. chaplains in World War I. The 7,500,000-man Army forecast for the end of 1943 will require over 6,000 chaplains. Last week a survey of Army chaplains suggested that the Army's need for chaplains is causing something of a ministerial manpower shortage:

> Methodists and Baptists, the two largest Protestant denominations, have lagged badly in filling their quotas. This is partly because Army educational standards for chaplains are very high (many Baptist and Methodist ministers have not had four years of college plus three of seminary training) and in the case of the Methodists, partly because they were so pacifistic between wars that many ministers still refuse to volunteer as chaplains.

> Episcopalians have gone 30% over their quota. Lutherans and the Presbyterian Church U.S. (Southern) have supplied all their chaplains for 1942. The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (Northern), whose educational standards are also high, is somewhat less militant than these other three and is running slightly behind its quota.

> Roman Catholics are still well below their quota. Some bishops are short of secular clergy and so are not assigning enough priests for Army work. To ease the shortage, monks are being used. But Catholics have 200 applications on hand, expect to make up their deficit by Christmas. > There is a desperate shortage of Negro chaplains. The Army needs 70 as soon as it can get them, can use many more in 1943.

Clergymen entering the Army must be between 24 and 50, have the endorsement of their denomination. No man over 40 can be assigned to an Army Air Forces unit, none over 45 for duty overseas. Despite every precaution, a certain number of chaplains do turn out to be misfits. Customary Army method for getting rid of them is quick, quiet and effective: get the denomination to withdraw its sanction. The minute this is done, the chaplain takes the hint and resigns.

The quality of Army chaplains is definitely higher than in World War I. The Army gives them better facilities for their work, higher rank (Pershing's Chief of Chaplains was a major, Marshall's is a brigadier general), has relieved them of their World War I odd jobs such as supervision of post exchanges, mail and recreation, so that they can concentrate on religious work.

All chaplains on joining the Army undergo a jampacked four weeks' indoctrination course at the Army Chaplains School at Harvard. Last month this school graduated a class of 381, including 264 Protestants, 105 Roman Catholics, twelve Jews. During the course, chaplain candidates live six and eight to a suite in Harvard dormitories, have a stiff regimen of Army drill and exercise, cram such subjects as discipline, military law, hygiene and first aid, topography, field service regulations, Army morale, music, and defense against poison gas.

Chaplains claim that church attendance per capita in the Army is substantially higher than church attendance in civilian life, and that "the Army is the most churchgoing group in the nation." Figures for July 1942 (latest month available) show that with 211 reports missing (mostly from chaplains overseas, where Army churchgoing is even better than in the U.S.), chaplains held 52,758 services with a total attendance of 2,667,793, administered the sacraments to 321,759 soldiers, held 316,103 personal conferences, made 40,690 visits to hospitals and guardhouses and had 5,359 professions of religion and adult baptisms.

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