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Our Mission
ComPadres is a volunteer-based "U.S. Army chaplain support group". Its mission is "to support Father John Barkemeyer - and, with his help, other chaplains - in their sacred mission of service to U.S. armed forces, by providing whatever financial and material support will enable them to perform most effectively in that role."
From the time of its establishment, ComPadres has been built on two core beliefs:
- A chaplain serving our combat troops could be much more effective - and better able to respond to whatever needs he saw the troops encountering - if he had a strong support network back home, providing whatever financial, material and promotional support he required.
- The needs, and therefore the responses, would change dramatically from one stage, one situation or one area of deployment to another. We at ComPadres leave the specific identifying of needs to Father John and his chaplain colleagues. We simply commit to staying flexible and responding to whatever pressing needs are deemed most urgent.
Etymology of "ComPadres"
com-PA-dres
- Spanish, of course
- Originally meant "godfather."
- Colloquially has come to mean "friend", as in, "Hey, compadre!"
- Chaplains in the service have long been informally referred to as "padre", from the Spanish "father". Capitalizing the "p" in the middle of "ComPadre" helps ensure that meaning doesn't get lost.
- "Com" as a prefix in Spanish means "with."
- So we are friends, and we are "with the padre" or "with the father." And maybe we can be godparents, in a way, to the chaplain's spiritual charges.
- So... we hope it works on a lot of levels.
ComPadres Organization
For the first two years of its existence, ComPadres was organizationally an arm of St. Cajetan Parish in Chicago where Father John served as pastor. With Father John no longer serving in the parish, we have moved on to a new addresses and developed a new organization structure.
Our mailing address is at St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago, where our Spiritual Director, Father Tom McCarthy, OSA, serves as the school's principal and president.
ComPadres
c/o St. Rita of Cascia High School
7740 S. Western Avenue
Chicago IL 60620
Our e-mail address is maildesk@thecompadres.org
We have established ComPadres as a stand-alone corporation with a charter and by-laws specific to our special mission. Our corporate status is in place, we have our Tax ID Number, and now we are officially a 501(c)(3) organization -- all contributions are now tax deductible.
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