Army restarts religious support staff hiring following criticism

The U.S. Army is resuming the hiring of religious support workers for the chaplain corps after backlash from last year’s move to cancel contracts.

The scrapping of contracted support positions, such as religious education coordinators, Catholic pastoral life coordinators and musicians, by the Army Installation Management Command left some Catholic leaders, including Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio, condemning the lack of proper assistance for their roles.

On Tuesday, the Army posted position openings for a Catholic administrative religious education coordinator and a Catholic administrative pastoral life coordinator, both for the U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria in Germany, on SAM.gov, a federal contracting website.

In March 2025, the Army Installation Management Command issued an order to cancel religious support contracts for chaplain service, like religious educators, administrators and musicians, Broglio said in an Oct. 17, 2025 letter to the members of the Archdiocese for the Military Services and members of Congress.

The cancellations were set to take effect in October 2025.

The move stemmed from concerns in the Army amid a financial review that the job descriptions were too closely related to that of chaplains or other staff, according to Stars & Stripes reporting, but it drew criticism from military and religious leaders who said the roles were still necessary.

Army Installation Management Command didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Broglio denounced the move in his letter, calling it an “insurmountable restriction on the free exercise of religion.”

Broglio said in the statement that beginning Oct. 5, 2025, contract services and offices were dark and music during Mass was absent.

“In canceling these contracts, the Army over-burdens Catholic chaplains, harms chapel communities, and impedes the constitutional guarantee of the free exercise of religion especially for Catholics,” Broglio wrote.

Even though the cancellation wasn’t for a specific faith, Broglio argued that the cancellation disproportionately affected Catholics because there are already few Catholic chaplains amid high demand and the Catholic faith requires religious education and sacramental preparation that can only be done with sufficient support.

Currently, there are over 2,500 chaplains in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps, according to the Army.

But only 137 in the active and reserve duty are Catholic chaplains, per Broglio’s letter, meaning less than 5.5% of the Chaplain Corps is Catholic, even though about 20% of soldiers are Catholic.

“Paired with tremendous gratitude for [coordinators of religious education], [Catholic pastoral life coordinators], and musicians, I also express deep lament that the Army’s actions have proven so injurious to the practice of the Catholic faith on Army installations,” Broglio wrote.

Days after Broglio issued his letter, the Army assured that it would reexamine the contract cuts, the Catholic News Agency reported in October.