Extension magazine - Spring 2024

42
IGNITE
Feature Story
Extension | Spring 2024 43
Priest
named
general in
US military
Florida pastor is
the highest-ranking
Catholic clergyman in
the armed forces
If you were to visit Father
Peter Zalewski at his parish
in Tallahassee, Florida,
you would find a busy and
beloved pastor, tending to
the activities of his church
community and the local
Catholic school—the largest primary
school in the diocese.
One might not realize that this
pastor with many responsibilities
also serves as a general in the Air
Force chaplain corps. On his one
day off a week, he won’t be playing
golf under the Florida sun or
resting in the rectory. Instead, he’ll
be tending to meetings at the Pentagon
or elsewhere in Washington,
D.C., because he now serves as the
primary advisor to the chief of the
National Guard Bureau on religious,
ethical and moral issues.
Father Zalewski’s recent promotion
to one-star general will
have him serving members of
both the Air and Army National
Guard. The promotion ceremony
on December 14, 2023, was the
culmination of his nearly 40-year
life in the military, which began
In 2023, Father Peter Zalewski was promoted to one-star general in the U.S. Armed Services.
in 1984 as a cadet at the U.S. Air
Force Academy.
In the early 1990s he deployed
in major military operations,
including serving as an intelligence
officer in Operation Desert
Storm in the First Gulf War.
Not only did he follow in the footsteps
of his father who served two
tours in Vietnam, but he also followed
the encouragement of his
mother who helped him appreciate
the meaning of service in the
armed forces.
Dual vocation
The Florida native eventually
heard the call to pursue priesthood
instead of Air Force pilot
training, so in 1992, he became a
seminarian of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.
During that
Father Peter Zalewski’s military career spans
nearly 40 years.
Catholic Extension Society supported Father Peter Zalewski’s seminarian education in
the 1990s, and today he is a member of our mission committee.
period, Catholic Extension Society
funded his education. But even
as he was being led to serve God,
the call to serve his country never
went away. As a new seminarian,
he became an Air Force chaplain
candidate.
After ordination in 1997, he
began serving as a parish priest
in his diocese and as a military
reserve chaplain at bases in the
Florida Panhandle. He was eventually
deployed again in 2008 as a
“wing chaplain” to Al-Dhafra Air
Base in Abu Dhabi, serving military
personnel supporting our country’s
difficult operations in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
In his remarks at his promotion
ceremony, Father Zalewski
thanked his parishioners at
Blessed Sacrament in Tallahassee,
where he is currently pastor, as
well as St. Dominic in Panama City,
Florida, where he was previously
pastor, for always supporting his
dual responsibilities.
“Thank you for your support,”
he said. “We have to protect those
who protect us. So thank you for
allowing me to do that. That means
a lot to me.”
As a general, Father Zalewski
will provide guidance and programs
directing guard chaplain
personnel and supporting Army
and Air guardsmen.
The past 20 years of U.S. history
have been marked by long wars
abroad and many natural disasters
in our homeland, which have
demanded a great deal of sacrifice
from military personnel and their
families. While many of us can too
easily forget their sacrifices, Father
Zalewski cannot.
He knows that the many sacrifices
of our service members
have created a toll—physical, mental
and spiritual. Father Zalewski
recalled his visits to military bases
over these past years where he
would encounter young soldiers
wearing prosthetics, reminding
him of what they gave on the battlefield.
More troublesome, still,
are the wounds that are not visible.
Father Zalewski lamented
that despite many efforts within
the services, suicides among military
personnel are not decreasing,
and more efforts must be made to
stem this tide.
Giving back
Father Zalewski feels that he
has been given so much in life
through the generosity of others,
and he wants to spend his life paying
forward those blessings. For
example, when he was born at a
Navy hospital, he urgently needed
multiple blood transfusions to
survive. He said that the young
enlisted servicemen at the hospital
literally gave him their blood so
that he might have life.
He is also mindful of the Catholic
Extension Society donors who
supported his seminarian education
all those years ago. For
the past 10 years he has served
on Catholic Extension Society’s
mission committee, an advisory
committee to our board that
helps Catholic Extension Society
increase its impact and awareness
around the country.
He has also involved his parish
in raising financial support for various
Extension initiatives over the
years. He said, “It’s been an honor
to serve my country in the military
and an honor to serve the Catholic
Church in America through Catholic
Extension Society’s mission
committee. I see that many of our
service members come from rural
communities—so Extension is a
direct contributor to their spiritual
well-being and strength.”
While Father Zalewski now
possesses the highest rank in the
military of any Catholic priest,
he is not driven by the title or the
power, but by duty. As a general,
he will serve people regardless
of their religious affiliation, being
mindful that roughly a quarter of
all active-duty military personnel
are Catholic. His job will be to
ensure that these young, self-sacrificing
men and women, who have
given so much to our country, have
the spiritual care they need.
Hopefully, Father Zalewski’s
own life story and example will be
an inspiration to them as much as
it is to us.