Pizza and the Padre<br>Keesler program now available Air Force-wide

Published July 22, 2010
By Steve Hoffmann
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Nearly two years in development, the program that discusses different world religions each week known as "Pizza and the Padre" is now available online for chaplains throughout the Air Force.

The program that started in September 2008 was designed by Chaplain (Capt.) Charles Mallory and meets 6-7 p.m. Thursdays at the Fishbowl Student Center in the Levitow Training Support Facility. The classes average in size from 12-15 students per week and provide them with an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the beliefs, practices, customs and history of other world religions. It also provides an opportunity to eat free pizza.

In 2008, when the program was being birthed, Chaplain (Maj.) Randall Groves, who was then Chaplain Mallory's commander, gave Chaplain Mallory the green light to go ahead and develop his idea for developing a program to expose his students to various world religions. Soon after the program began, it just so happened that Chaplain Groves became the Air Force's director of strategic resources responsible for shaping chaplain corps curriculum.

"It has always been a core value of the Chaplaincy Corps to not promote one religion over another but to help Airmen, spiritually and emotionally, to be the best they can be, whatever their faith." said Chaplain Mallory.

It is within this context that Chaplain Groves was having a conversation with Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Cecil Richardson, Air Force chief of chaplains, about how to make world religions more accessible to students online.

"While the two were talking, Chaplain Groves was thinking of Pizza and the Padre," Chaplain Mallory recalled in an e-mail he received from Chaplain Richardson. "It just so happened that Pizza and the Padre fits perfectly with Chaplain Richardson's vision."

With 35 world religion briefs already available to chaplains online, Chaplain Mallory's goal is to have 50 available by the end of the year.