Between a lieutenant giving orders and a sergeant shouting in the barracks, there was him in Piazza d'Armi: Don Franco, in my case, at the Voloire peresso the Santa Barbara barracks. Military chaplain with the rank of captain, but with a look more similar to that of a seasoned and understanding educator, rather than that of a rigid officer, as they were then. A gentle anomaly in the well-oiled mechanism of military discipline in the days of the draft.
Those who did military service between the 80s and 90s remember it well: the chaplain did not only bring the host, but a little respite and the small church was an “inviolable” place, like the infirmary. He knew where to turn a blind eye, intercepting a discomfort, in short he was not a “military priest”, but a soldier who was a bit of a priest.
Today, when military service is a memory from a photo album, military chaplains have remained, but their face has changed, as has Italy. With just over 150 units currently in active service and specialized, they also operate abroad, in humanitarian missions, in theaters of operation and in military hospitals.
Their hierarchy has been recently reformed: the maximum rank achievable is that of Second Chief Military Chaplain, equivalent to lieutenant colonel. By law, there cannot be more than ten of them in all of Italy. A choice that reflects the desire to "streamline" the ecclesiastical chain of command in the Armed Forces. In fact, the higher ranks have been abolished, including that of colonel (which would have been the third chief military chaplain) and any further rank similar to general officers.
Today the only exception is represented by theMilitary Ordinary for Italy, a figure assimilated to the rank of lieutenant general, and his military vicar general, with a rank equivalent to major general. In practice: the "soldier priest" has lost some stars, but has gained in pastoral mission.
The chaplain today is a moral, cultural and human reference in departments and missions abroad, where he is often closer to the soldiers than other superiors can be, empathetically. This is also in light of a changed and more comprehensive relationship - formal and informal - with the military leaders, which I have been able to personally observe in several recalls to service.
In an era in which the sense of duty and the collective dimension seem to be in trouble, the figure of the military chaplain retains its usefulness. It is a silent job, made of listening, comfort, celebrations, but also of presence in moments of crisis. Therefore, an unarmed and neutral figure within the Armed Forces, and not only with a religious function, but also of humanity in uniform.
They are recognizable by the five-pointed stars on their cassock lapels and tunic. Pope Francis recalled that the mission of the chaplain is, first of all, that of closeness, not of command. And if the Italian Armed Forces maintain Catholic spiritual assistance as a tradition, they are now more open to the presence of personnel of other confessions: Muslims, Evangelicals, Orthodox, Buddhists.
There are still no officially registered non-Catholic chaplains, but freedom of worship, as well as equality for other orientations, is guaranteed and, in specific cases, the assistance of ministers of other faiths may be requested.
The military chaplain is present in many countries of the world: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel and South Korea, where there are multi-denominational structures with Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other chaplains.
In Russia and several Islamic countries, religious assistance is present but not always formalized. In authoritarian regimes – such as China, North Korea and Iran – the figure of the chaplain is absent or severely limited.
As we prepare for the Republic Day and at its parades – today the Alpini are parading in Biella – it would be worthwhile, between a parade step and a flight of the Acrobatic Patrol, remember them too, the chaplains. And I write this as a layman. Because between a colonel and a rifleman, in the heart of the Institution, there is also room for a human anomaly, that is, for those who, despite having the ranks, do not want to command, but to accompany, a concept that the Chief of Staff Gen. Masiello, seems to have cleared in many of his speeches.
Photo: US Army
