What makes a man want to become a military chaplain?

A Wisconsin paper has one moving answer:

Capt. Matt Foley hasn’t presided over any weddings or christenings since he arrived here in April – not much call for those services in a war zone.

But the Army chaplain and Catholic priest who spent much of his childhood in Wauwatosa stays very busy ministering to nine companies in the 82nd Airborne Divisional Special Troops Battalion, delivering care packages, checking on soldiers’ welfare, presiding over Catholic Masses as well as handling any calls for a priest.

And like all military chaplains, he cares for all service members regardless of their religion.

His job is very rewarding though he says the toughest part is getting to know people and sharing in sacred moments with them such as funerals and prayers and then seeing them leave when their unit returns home.

“You’d be amazed how much support we get here,” said Foley, 47. “It’s been eight years (since the war began in Afghanistan) and people are still sending packages which is very gracious.”

Foley’s journey to Afghanistan was circuitous, starting with his decision to become a priest. While attending Marquette University in the early ’80s, Foley had a nice girlfriend and was majoring in political science with an eye toward law school. But he felt himself drawn to the priesthood and left Marquette in 1983, enrolling at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Chicago, where his morals and canon law classes were taught by Milwaukee’s new archbishop Jerome Listecki.

Foley keeps tabs on news from Wisconsin via the Internet in Afghanistan and was happy to learn Listecki was named to head the Milwaukee archdiocese.
“He was very personable, very gracious, very challenging to students,” Foley recalled. “I think he’ll be good for Milwaukee.”

He was ordained in 1989 and spent five years at a parish on Chicago’s west side and then six years in Mexico. He returned to the west side of Chicago in 2000 where, in 2006, he presided over the funeral of Pfc. Daniel Zizumbo, a soldier killed by a makeshift bomb in Afghanistan whose parents were Foley’s parishioners.

Zizumbo’s death was motivational for Foley, whose brother and college roommate served in the Army and whose uncle was an Army chaplain in Vietnam. On the second anniversary of Zizumbo’s death, Feb. 27, 2008, Foley was sworn in as an Army officer by his brother Michael, a lieutenant colonel.

“I’m a Catholic priest and I know there’s a shortage of Catholic priests in the Army. I thought it was my time to serve,” Foley said in his office at Enduring Faith Chapel at this large air base north of Kabul.

There’s much more at the link — including Foley’s surprising connection to the late comedian Chris Farley.