Lauren Justice
Tim Mergen chats with Charlotte Donahue at Heritage Senior Living in Monona while on break from the seminary.
Tim Mergen visits with his friend Charlotte Donahue, who is in her 90s, at a senior living community near his church in Monona, Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The two chat about sports and the weather before coming around to a more somber topic. “I look back at my life when I’m alone here and think, ‘Why did I do this or that?’” she says. “All you can do is ask for forgiveness.”
Mergen nods in agreement. And then they say a prayer together. Offering spiritual solace is a new type of mission for Mergen, who until recently had been flying some of the world’s most advanced aircraft as part of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command.
He surrendered his wings in hopes of becoming a Catholic priest. “I signed a piece of paper that said, ‘I resign my aeronautical rating in the military, and I no longer am able to fly with the Air Force,’” Mergen says.
Mergen, 27, will soon head back to Emmitsburg, Md., for his second year at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. Originally from McFarland, he’s back for the summer, living and working at his home parish. His duties include trips to hospitals and nursing homes to give the Eucharist to the sick and elderly.
Mergen sees similarities between the seminary and the Air Force Academy, where he graduated near the top of his class in 2010. “Both are very structured and committed to discipline,” he says. “In the military, it’s marching, cleaning and training. At the seminary, it’s prayer, spiritual reading and faith enrichment.”
Around three years ago, Mergen started to pray more and got involved with his church in Clovis, N.M., where he flew out of nearby Cannon Air Force Base. Life was good: He was well-stationed in the Air Force hierarchy, living in a nice house in a quiet neighborhood and dating a former cheerleader for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder. But, he says, “I knew there was something missing.”
Mergen decided to give up flying after a gradual process of “discernment,” he says. A weekend retreat sponsored by the military archdiocese forced a decision.
“I thought going into that retreat that it might be confirmation that God was leading me toward marriage,” he says. “But it became abundantly clear after this two-year struggle that God wanted me to go to seminary to discern the priesthood further.”
In the Air Force, Mergen piloted fighter jets like the T-38 Talon II, which he flew at supersonic speeds and in formation with other planes, at times separated by only three feet, wingtip-to-wingtip.
He also transported troops and cargo. When a typhoon hit the Philippines in 2013, American troops delivered food, water and medicine, he says. “We were one of the first planes on the ground.”
If he’s ordained after five more years of school, Mergen will likely return to the Madison area and serve as an associate priest for three years. Then, because he still owes the Air Force seven years of a 10-year contract he signed in 2011, he’d serve as a chaplain at an Air Force base.
After that, when Mergen would be in his 40s, “it’s anyone’s guess,” he says. “It’s between me and the bishop of Madison because [he’s] the one who loans me to the military.”
But Mergen doesn’t seem to be thinking that far ahead. He’s in the moment, laughing and smiling with Charlotte. “You have so much joy,” he tells her. “God bless.”
Tim Mergen
Total hours of flight time: over 800
Air Force Academy classmates who finished ahead of him (out of 1,000+): 37
Training needed to become an Air Force pilot: 4 years of academy training, followed by 2 years of flight training.
Training to become a priest: 2 years of philosophy studies, followed by 4 years of theology studies.
