AMS provides pastoral care for more than 1.8 million Catholics and their families in the US Military. http://www.milarch.org The Archdiocese for the Military Services was created by Pope John Paul II to provide the Catholic Church's full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces. This includes more than 220 installations in 29 countries, patients in 153 V.A. Medical Centers, and federal employees serving outside the boundaries of the USA in 134 countries. Numerically, the AMS is responsible for more than 1.8 million men, women, and children.Because military service requires extraordinary sacrifices of those who serve and their families, chaplains strive to make themselves available and present, day or night, to offer guidance, education, and direction on Church doctrine or simply to listen.