Priests recruits military

METHUEN, Mass.

The Boston street after being stabbed from behind. The prayer-filled moments that followed, when Father McLaughlin believed he might die, changed his life and ultimately led him to God. Now, in a newly created job, he’ll be trying to recruit military personnel to the Roman Catholic priesthood.

He believes that service members, who confront death as part of their jobs, could have a similar openness to religious service.

“You start realizing how fragile life is,” Father McLaughlin said. “And when people start thinking in those terms, they eventually start thinking about helping people in life.”

This month, Father McLaughlin left his parish north of Boston and became the first national vocations director at the Washington. He will travel the country, speaking to troops about following a commitment to their country with commitment to their religion.

The clergy shortage in the Catholic Church is well documented, and officials see the military as potentially rich ground to find future priests and nuns.

Besides having faced questions of life and death, military men and women tend to have traits necessary for religious life, including self-discipline and a willingness to sacrifice, said Monsignor James Dixon of the Archdiocese of the Military.

Church officials estimate 11 percent of seminary students during the last three years served in the military or had a parent who served. The archdiocese has long reached out to service members, but never had the money to hire someone dedicated to that job, Father Dixon said.

“We finally got to the point where we think it’s become an absolute necessity,” he said.

The Rev. Paul Hurley, an Army chaplain who attended seminary with Father McLaughlin in the early 1990s, advocated for his friend to get the job without Father McLaughlin’s knowledge.

Father Hurley said Father McLaughlin has an authenticity and a knack for getting young people to talk about what’s important to them. Those characteristics are crucial when someone is deciding if life as a priest or nun is right.

“He’s got that special touch,” Father Hurley said. “He finds a way of connecting with people where they’re at.”

Father McLaughlin’s casual manner went with his unbuttoned clerical collar during a recent interview in his former office at St. Monica’s Church in Methuen. A solid build reflects his past as wrestler at Woburn.

Father McLaughlin, 50, the oldest of four brothers, said his first major encounter with God came when he was stabbed in the liver at age 20 while walking near Boston’s Faneuil Hall marketplace. He and his brother were jumped without provocation, he said. As he lay on the street, Father McLaughlin prayed for forgiveness, and for his family.

“Even when I faced the worst hardship I turned to God,” Father McLaughlin said.

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