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Reid Wiseman had never met him and would never know his name. But after the Artemis II commander splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 and was flown to the USS John P. Murtha, he asked the ship’s senior medical officer to send for the chaplain.
“I’m not really a religious person, but there was just no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything, so I just asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to come visit us for a minute,” Wiseman said later at a press conference. “When that man walked in — I’d never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar, and I just broke down in tears.”
That man was Eliseo Morales Jr., MDiv ’16, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary who has served in the Navy Chaplain Corps on active duty since 2021. While his ministry is consistent with his Presbyterian Church (USA) tradition, he counsels and cares for sailors regardless of what they believe, and for some who believe in nothing at all.
We walk with sailors through moral, spiritual, personal, and family challenges, often during some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
Morales greeted Wiseman with the words he had been repeating all week: “Praise God, we have been praying for you all every night this week.” Then he embraced the astronaut and began crying himself. He estimates he spent fewer than three minutes with the crew, but in that time, his simple presence touched those who were struggling to process their own experiences.
Such a ministry mostly happens out of sight, adjacent to the disciplined operational work aboard the ship. In preparing for the recovery of the Artemis II crew, for example, Morales had little role beyond praying and listening. About 700 people were aboard the USS John P. Murtha, an amphibious transport dock, that day. Before and after delivering an evening prayer, Morales found himself drawn into conversations with sailors, Marines, NASA employees, and others. The mood was tense. The world was watching the return of a crew whose nearly 10-day lunar flyby was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, and errors could not be tolerated.
“Every night I was reminded that my calling was not to hoist the colors, heave the lines, land the helicopters, or navigate the ship,” Morales said. “My purpose on this mission, and every time we go underway, was ‘to bring the presence of Christ to the people,’ as recently retired U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Hall often stated.”
Whether his ship is in port or at sea, Morales is on call around the clock, answering emergencies on weekends and in the middle of the night. Many days follow a rhythm any pastor would recognize: scheduled meetings, counseling hours, Bible studies, preparation for Sunday services.
“If a sailor needs help, I answer the phone and provide support,” he said.
Because chaplains operate under a confidentiality privilege, sailors bring them concerns they cannot raise elsewhere, knowing that what they discuss is not reportable to the chain of command, unit commanders, law enforcement, or investigators. Chaplains also advise commanders on matters affecting the welfare, morale, and climate of a crew and facilitate the religious needs of sailors from their faith traditions, including baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
“We are here to care for people,” Morales said. “We walk with sailors through moral, spiritual, personal, and family challenges, often during some of the most difficult moments of their lives.”
He grew up in a religious family — his father is an ordained PCUSA minister — and felt called to ministry early. Military chaplaincy was not part of the plan until he came across a pamphlet about it during graduate studies. Intrigued, he applied for the Chaplain Candidate Program while finishing his Master of Divinity at Princeton Seminary. Five years passed between graduation and active duty, during which he served three congregations in his home state of California, ending as pastor and head of staff at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Fullerton.
Those years taught him plenty, he said, but he credits his seminary education with giving him the “pastoral confidence and theological depth” to meet situations like the one waiting for him on April 10.
“People would stop me, pull me aside, and ask for prayer or thank me for words of encouragement,” Morales recalled. “Some would tell me what they haven’t prayed in a long time, years even, and ask how they can begin to pray again. My calling was to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”
Morales feels the essential aspect of his job is not to resolve every question those he cares for ask; it is to hold the space open for reflection and discovery, no matter their personal beliefs.
“As a chaplain, I do not need everyone to use the same language or arrive at the same conclusion in order to take their experience seriously,” he said. “My job is to create space for meaningful conversations about faith, spirituality, purpose, and life’s biggest questions.”
