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<\/a>Former vocations director Father Michael T. Butler may be answering the call of the military, but while serving he plans to do a little calling of his own, too.<\/p>\nAfter about 14 years with the archdiocesan Office of Vocations \u2014 11 of those years as director \u2014 the St. Louis native was released from duty this June by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke to serve with the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA.<\/p>\n
Father Butler will join the U.S. Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Sept. 25 as deputy wing chaplain.<\/p>\n
The military, he says, is ripe for vocations. His new assignment “will be a good opportunity for me to challenge our young people in the military to think about serving as priests and religious.”<\/p>\n
Father Butler said jokingly, “You can take the priest out of the vocation office, but you can\u2019t take the vocation director out of the priest.”<\/p>\n
In his new position, he will assist his commander in the training of chaplains and chaplain assistants.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m going to be mentoring chaplains to make sure they\u2019re doing their job,” he said.<\/p>\n
The post of military chaplain is not an unfamiliar one for him. In 1990, only one year after being ordained by Archbishop John L. May, Father Butler was permitted to serve as chaplain for the 131st Fighter Wing of the Missouri Air National Guard. The unit is based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.<\/p>\n
Since then the 46-year-old has been on active duty about two months out of every year. The first time he was sent overseas was 10 days after the attack on the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001. He now has seven trips abroad under his belt as chaplain with the National Guard. Several of his assignments have taken him to the Middle East. He also has comforted U.S. soldiers at a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where the seriously wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq are taken.<\/p>\n
Father Butler in an interview last week said that each time he has been deployed, he has made it a point to talk to young people about a vocation.<\/p>\n
“And it\u2019s amazing how many of them really do think about it,” he said. For example, one young man he spoke with attended the archbishop\u2019s retreat at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary last year, while another has just entered the seminary. “So I do know there are guys who have really thought about it, and I\u2019ve encouraged them. I know there are vocations out there, too, even in the military.”<\/p>\n
Among his accomplishments with the Office of Vocations, Father Butler was instrumental in starting the annual archbishop\u2019s retreat and the various vocation camps at the seminary. But what he is most proud of is his work in helping young men and women discern what God has called them to do.<\/p>\n
Said the priest, “I hope that\u2019s the legacy more than anything, that I\u2019ve hopefully made a difference in their lives.” He expects his work to continue to grow and prosper under the capable leadership of new directer Father Edward M. Rice.<\/p>\n
On loan to the Military Archdiocese initially for three years, Father Butler said his assignment could be extended. He hopes to return to St. Louis to serve again as a priest, but doesn\u2019t know when.<\/p>\n
“A lot depends on the future archbishop and the military and myself,” he said.<\/p>\n
He leaves behind his parents, Deacon James Russell (Russ) and Betty Butler, a sister, two brothers, and lots of nieces and nephews. They are all supportive of his efforts, he said, because they understand his calling as a priest and know the military needs him desperately. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Archdiocese of St. Louis has a high-profile priest (who is also the son of a deacon) who is planning to do a little field work in the months ahead. But his field will be an airfield. This comes to us from St. Louis Review: Former vocations director Father Michael T. Butler may be answering…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\n
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But his field will be an airfield. This comes to us from St. Louis Review: Former vocations director Father Michael T. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}