As an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of the Military in charge of maintaining the spiritual well-being of 90 military bases in the eastern United States, Robert Coyle travels a lot, from the Dakotas down to Missouri and over to Washington, D.C., where the archdiocese is based.
Earlier this month, the archbishop returned home to Long Island and walked the halls of St. Mary’s High School where he was once a student in the early 1980s.
Coyle toured the school and met with its Campus Ministry students, even visiting with a few teachers and administrators who had once taught him at St. Mary’s, before it became a co-ed school.
“I wanted to get back and thank everybody for the great education I received,” Coyle said by phone from Washington. “I’ve had to become used to planes, trains and automobiles, so I live a pretty nomadic existence at this point. It’s good to get back and visit.”
On April 25, Coyle was ordained a bishop during a ceremony at the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. after spending the last three years as a pastor at Corpus Christi parish in Mineloa.
“The average person who didn’t serve or doesn’t know anyone or have family in the military only knows what they know about war through what they see in movies and in the media,” Coyle said. “Those serving form a very special bond and very fervently pray for peace because nobody wants to get in harm’s way. Seeing the ugly side of the world is very challenging.”
Coyle said he was always called to military service, participating in the University of Fordham’s naval ROTC program as an undergraduate student and enlisting in the reserve even as a seminarian at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, where his parents reside.
As a priest, Coyle became a naval chaplain, first in the reserve and then when he went on to active duty, where he’d serve for 10 years in various parts of the world.
From 2000-2003, Coyle was deployed to the Middle East, serving in Operation Southern Watch and Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was embedded with troops in the same way medical personnel are.
“They have a lot of questions about things like the just war theory or the moral implications of war and you try to give them guidance and information to balance it all out, and it’s something we all take very seriously,” Coyle said. “It’s a dangerous business that they’re in. My role of the chaplain is really to provide that connection to home and help them recognize the humanity in the middle of very difficult circumstances.”
Following his stint in Iraq, Coyle served at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point until 2007, before he was promoted to a Commander in the Navy and was called to serve on the USS Dwight Eisenhower Aircraft Carrier in the Middle East as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
“Losing somebody or seeing somebody suffer and die is very emotional, especially for young sailors and marines,” Coyle said. It’s very hard losing a close friend who’s so close in age, so to be there to give them hope and strength in the midst of all that is going on is a great honor and a very emotional thing too, because you’d have to be the one to bless them or give them their funeral after being right there with them.”
Coyle’s combat duties have long since subsided, though now he’s on the road most of the time, visiting bases across the country, providing the sacrament of confirmation and helping those of different religions better understand their faith and the world around them.
“I help it function just like any other diocese,” Coyle said. “Each base has a chapel and program, it’s just the distance is a major challenge. It’s not like getting in your car and going from Rockville Centre to Manhasset.”
