Father Mark Bristol

The process of becoming a Catholic U.S. Military chaplain is a spiritual journey that typically takes eight or more years to complete. Not only does the chaplain candidate spend five years in seminary. The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, (AMS) requires him to spend three years in his home diocese doing pastoral work and gaining valuable experience as a priest before it will endorse him for active-duty chaplaincy. Father Mark Bristol, LT, USNR, who was ordained in 2016 for the Diocese of Brooklyn, NY, is currently in the third year of his civilian pastoral assignment at Saint Anastasia Catholic Church in Douglastown, Queens, New York. Father Bristol, who served in the Navy for five years before entering the seminary, hopes to go back on active duty next summer. In this edition of Catholic Military Life, the only official podcast of the AMS, Father Bristol shares his thoughts on going back on active duty in the Navy, where currently, only 33 priests serve more than 80,000 Catholic sailors and their families. With so few chaplains to provide pastoral care for so many people, Father Bristol knows he has his work cut out for him.