Fr. Tim Mergen, a diocesan priest, has returned to active duty in the Air Force, assigned as a chaplain to an embedded special operations unit at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.
In order to enter the seminary, Father Mergen was formally released from the Air Force 10 years ago, and this past July, he completed three years as a parochial vicar of Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center in Madison, located on the UW-Madison campus.
Discernment and formation
After growing up in McFarland and graduating from high school, Father Mergen attended the Air Force Academy located near Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2006.
It was there where he gained a college degree, an officer commissioning, and, upon seeing priests serve as chaplains to fellow service men and women, where he felt a soft call to the priesthood, he explained.
Seeing priests serve as chaplains in basic cadet training, “opened up my mind” to the same call, he continued, but, before formally discerning a vocation to the priesthood, Father Mergen went on to graduate from the Air Force Academy.
That was in 2010, and after graduation from the academy, he attended flight school in northern Texas as an officer.
Father Mergen continued to climb in rank and responsibility, next moving to New Mexico for training as a special operations pilot — an elite role, operating some of the most advanced aircraft in the world.
And while training for special operations, Father Mergen said, “It was out of New Mexico that about a two-year process [began, where I] dove in and discerned that God was calling me to be a priest.”
Simultaneously discerning the priesthood, Father Mergen was “doing very well in my squadron, and just upgraded to aircraft commander,” he recalled.
But Father Mergen knew where the Lord was calling him and after lengthy discernment, in 2014, “I approached my commander out of the blue — he had no idea I was even thinking about this — and told him that I thought God was asking me to do this, [to be a priest,]” Father Mergen continued.
While the change in direction was “out of the blue,” ultimately, Father Mergen was able to convince his commanding officer “that there’s a great need in the military [for chaplains]” and was approved to attend seminary in a co-sponsorship agreement between the Diocese of Madison and the Archdiocese of the Military Services.
In what should have taken eight months to a year, Father Mergen was formally released from service in the Air Force in less than two months, and upon his release in August of 2014, Father Mergen attended seminary at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., and later at the Pontifical North American College in Rome for additional formation and licensing.
When he returned home, Father Mergen’s first assignment was at St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Monroe, which was during his year as a transitional deacon.
Then, because military chaplains are required to have three years of parish pastoral experience before reentry to active duty, Father Mergen spent three years at Saint Paul’s once ordained to the priesthood.
It’s been 10 years since he first approached his commander.
Father Mergen described his time away from the Air Force — studying for the priesthood and serving in a parish — as “clearly God’s will”.
“As I look back a decade later, it’s easy to see. Things have continually fallen into place,” Father Mergen said.
Parallels amid immense change
An argument could be made that there isn’t much in common between university ministry and where he’s going.
For one, Father Mergen for the past three years has served at “a beautiful student center with tons of excitement, zeal, and energy,” where “everything was already running and it was very easy to dive right in,” he said.
Looking ahead to his ministry in an embedded unit, he admitted that “I’ll have to temper that energy a lot,” and “be creative in how I provide for these men and women”.
Additionally, instead of wearing clerics each day of the week, an outward sign of a Catholic priest, Father Mergen will wear a uniform almost identical to his fellow service men and women, the exception being that his uniform name tag will display a cross, symbolizing his role as a Christian chaplain. He will wear a collar on Sundays.
He added “I’m not even sure where I’ll celebrate Mass yet,” due to the nature of the special operations unit.
But even with a ministry role that will “change immensely,” Father Mergen was quick to identify some of the “beautiful parallels” between the two roles.
One is the parallel between the communities themselves.
He said, “I think that was part of the reason I was sent here [to Saint Paul’s], because a university is a transient, young community, where in the military, I’ll be ministering to young, largely individuals and families that are also transient.”
“They’re usually at a base for no more than three years,” he continued, and added that “18- to 24-year-olds are a big bulk of the military”.
Father Mergen also pointed out that his “role is to be there for them in every capacity that is asked of me,” adding that “I’ll be living their life, I’ll be working their life. I imagine I would go on certain flights with them, missions, things of that nature,” which is verbiage that might also describe aspects of a more dynamic college ministry.
But, more seriously, Father Mergen drew a comparison between the Seal of Confession and a military chaplain’s privilege of “Confidentiality”.
Because “anything shared with the chaplain is 100 percent confidential, many people come to chat with you,” he said and added that “building natural human relationships” will be the main way he pastorally cares for his flock, allowing his ministry to flow from those friendships.
Reflecting on St. Maximilian Kolbe, a source of inspiration for Father Mergen, he said, “My ministry will just simply be: I am a priest for others; I will be a chaplain for others.
“I don’t know exactly who those people are, what that will even look like until I get there, but I’m excited for this, in terms of the challenges and opportunities it’ll bring,” Father Mergen continued.
And while Saint Paul’s’ students, staff, and alum will dearly miss Father Mergen’s hard work and dedication — most tangibly felt through his guidance, last year leading 72 individuals to receive Sacraments of Initiation at Easter — Father Mergen seemingly always knew about his return to the Kadena Air Base.
Father Mergen shared a story, reminiscing about “a particularly beautiful evening” in November of 2013 when he first visited the base.
He said, “We landed in the evening at Okinawa — it was just a particularly beautiful evening — and we took it all in.
“We’re driving to the hotel, and I told my crew, I said, ‘I have a feeling I’m going to be back here someday.’
“Eleven years ago, I had this sense that I would be back there someday, and so when I got the phone call, I laughed out loud, that this is where I’m being sent,” Father Mergen chuckled.
He continued, saying, “Providence continues to show itself. I don’t know what the assignment will be, in terms of the day-to-day, I don’t know some of the practicals, but I am very confident that this is where God wants me, where His Providence is leading me.”