One for the History Books

By: Eleanor Gentilini, Historian

The Early History

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The Military Ordinariate or Vicariate was established in 1917 when Bishop Patrick Hayes, then Auxiliary Bishop of New York, was appointed as the Bishop or Ordinary for all Catholics serving in the Army and the Navy in World War I.  When Bishop Hayes later became the Archbishop of New York and a cardinal, he also retained his authority as Vicar for the Military Services. The vicariate continued to function under the Archbishop of New York until 1985, at which time, it was separated from the Archdiocese of New York and created as the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

Pope John Paul II appointed Archbishop Joseph T. Ryan as the first archbishop for this new archdiocese, and he was installed as the Archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services on April 30, 1985, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He oversaw the transition of the vicariate to an archdiocese and the move of the offices from New York City to the Washington area.  The Archdiocese for the Military Services is responsible for the pastoral care of Catholic men and women of the United States military services and their family members, the residents of the Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, and the civilian employees of the U.S. Government living abroad. 

Our First Archbishop

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Archbishop Ryan was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Albany, NY, in 1939.  He began his priestly service as an assistant pastor and later became a Catholic high school instructor.  During World War II, he served in the Navy Chaplain Corps (1943-1946), in Camp Lejeune, NC, Okinawa, China, and New London, CT.  He was cited twice for bravery.  After his military service, he returned to the Diocese of Albany, my home diocese, and was a close friend of a priest who would later become pastor of my parish.  In 1957, he was appointed Chancellor of the Military Ordinariate under Cardinal Francis Spellman, the Military Vicar and Archbishop of New York.  The following year, he began serving the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the Pontifical Mission for Palestine. 

Archbishop Ryan was consecrated a bishop and became the first Archbishop of Anchorage, Alaska, in 1966.  He remained in this new and remote diocese for almost a decade.  Then in 1975, Pope Paul VI appointed Archbishop Ryan as Coadjutor Archbishop to the Military Vicar, Cardinal Terence Cooke, Archbishop of New York. He was installed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.  A coadjutor bishop is appointed to assist another bishop in the governing of a diocese.  A decade later, the Archdiocese for the Military Services was created, and he became our first archbishop.  He maintained this position until his retirement in 1991.  Archbishop Ryan passed away in Albany, NY, in 2000 at the age of almost 87.

A Special Memory

While I had met him as Father Ryan and Msgr Ryan on a few previous occasions through the pastor of my home parish, a special memory of Archbishop Ryan was at an MCCW conference in Germany where he offered Mass for my parents who had passed away earlier that year.

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A footnote to a previous article on Our Lady of Fort Carson – In July we lost another “vintage” member.  Piera Aaron served as a Red Cross volunteer for many years.  She had grown up in an orphanage in Italy and was handicapped, but it never kept her from carrying on God’s work.                                                

Also, I had not included Mary Ann Ernst who served as President in the early 2000s but did not retire here.   She moved to Germany where she spent five years and became European Regional Coordinator.  She had to return to the US unexpectedly due to illness during her second term.  She was able to attend the 2010 MCCW Conference in Baltimore but passed away the following April.