By Anthony Barich
A US priest visiting Perth has described his time as a Catholic chaplain in Iraq as like “living in a frat house” on a US installation.
Fr Van Constant, of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in New Orleans, studied with Claremont parish priest Fr Charles Waddell at the Angelicum in Rome. He told The Record while visiting his old friend in Perth in August of life as a chaplain, which includes dealing with soldiers’ deaths, family crises and their college-like behaviour.
For a priest used to living solo, it takes some adjustment to get used to “a somewhat at-times Spartan expression of living”, which includes the cleanliness of latrines and the behaviour of men who are on assignment a long way from home.
“It’s like living in a frat house,” Fr Constant, 47, said of his time as part of the Light Infantry Battalion where he spent 10 months at a US base in Iraq as the only Catholic chaplain on a base with 2,500 people, including locals, US military, civilian contractors and ‘third-country nationals’ who work for companies who provide support for the US military.
“You’re living with a bunch of guys who aren’t always conscientious of their neighbour, so you’re constantly reminding them of being on their best behaviour to keep the latrines at a certain dignity, etc. “Using public facilities with other men is the biggest thing to get used to as priests live solitary lives, and there’s nothing solitary about this – we might be in a tent with 100 guys and one toilet.”
While he celebrates Mass up to three times a week for up to 300 people on the base, “the vast majority” of his work involves helping US men and women struggling with their family situation back home while in combat situations, which causes stress.
“I help them work out in their minds solutions they can set in place now as they’re in a foreign environment, to discuss with their family in civil tones, while thousands of miles away, and help them to understand that their time in Iraq is coming to an end, and to help mothers, fathers, etc with family difficulties,” he said.
“They see me as a neutral person who can keep a secret so they can have the personal release to get things off their chest.”
While the military has had some accidental deaths due to wheels getting caught in a rut while going at speed and the vehicle turns over, (the most vulnerable position is at the gun turret) and it has also had its share of broken ankles and legs (someone jumps from vehicle four feet down onto loose gravel), he only deals with those who come into US military installations, including Iraqis.
Almost all of these Iraqis have dual citizenship with the US, and those who are Christian have told him that “it’s a dangerous situation for Christians” in the country, but he adds that “no one to this point has elaborated as to what it means now or in the future”.
He has only experienced one death, which “everyone on the base was broken up about”. In April, a man was riding in a convoy – always a dangerous proposition – that was hit by an explosive device; and it was a death that was totally avoidable. The man was merely riding the convoy seeking information as an expert on how vehicles were performing.
Riding by convoy is a rare experience for chaplains, who mainly travel between bases by helicopter, preferably Black Hawks.
Chaplains are non-combatants, are not allowed to carry weapons but are assigned assistants who are trained soldiers to be their bodyguards.
Fr Constant is a Captain due to his age and will progress to Major next year.
Despite the emotional journey of dealing with troops in combat, he says life as a parish priest is much more demanding, meeting the needs of so many parishioners over a much larger space.
In Iraq, he’s mainly stuck in one installation and everyone knows where he is.
People just approach him as they please.The most he’ll travel is a helicopter ride maybe twice a week.
His journey to the army was providential. Having befriended US military personnel assisting with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they asked him to join as Catholic chaplains were few. At 41 he thought he was too old, but the limit entry age was 45, so his Bishop agreed he could serve the National Guard every five years and the diocese the rest of the time.