LOS ANGELES – The Reverend Mr. Paul Collins, LT, USNR, a candidate for Catholic priesthood and United States Military chaplaincy, was ordained a transitional deacon on Saturday, Nov. 23, in his home Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA. The new deacon is on track to be ordained a priest next year and hopes eventually to serve as a Catholic chaplain in the United States Navy, providing pastoral care to Catholic sailors, U.S. Marines, Coast Guard members, and their families, with endorsement and faculties from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS).
The Rev. Mr. Collins celebrated his diaconal ordination at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels through the laying of hands and the prayer of consecration invoking the Holy Spirit by L.A. Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes. His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, concelebrated the 9:00 a.m. ordination Mass. Among those in attendance were the new deacon’s entire immediate family.
The Rev. Mr. Collins, 32, is a 2016 graduate of California State University, Northridge, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Degree in Psychology. He is now pursuing a Master of Divinity (MDiv) at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, CA, where he is in priestly formation. Upon presbyteral ordination next year he will invest three years in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, gaining priestly experience before acceding to active duty under his Co-sponsored Seminarian Agreement with that archdiocese and the AMS.
The Rev. Mr. Collins says he began to realize his calling to be a priest when he was 21 years old while serving as a missionary in Peru. “After returning to the States,” he says, “it became very clear over time that nothing was going to be fulfilling to me outside of responding to my vocation.” He looks forward to serving Catholics in the sea services, particularly “hearing confessions and forming people in the faith.”
The Rev. Mr. Collins is among 35 Catholic U.S. Military chaplain candidates currently enrolled in the Co-Sponsored Seminarian Program, a vocations partnership between the AMS and cooperating U.S. dioceses and religious communities. This year alone, nine acceded to active duty as chaplains.Young men interested in discerning a priestly vocation, and the vocation within a vocation to serve those who serve in the U.S. military, can find more information at www.milarch.org/vocations, or may contact AMS Vocations Director Father Marcel Taillon at vocations@milarch.org or (202) 719-3600.
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