A chaplain is a priest, pastor, or other religious minister whose job is not the church on the corner, but a place or a group: a hospital, a prison, a school, a club, a university, or the army. They visit, listen, hold services, and sit with people in fear or grief — including people who may not share their faith. In the army they may wear a uniform, but they are there for the soul, not for the fighting. The word is still ordinary and respectful. Though actually, “priest” is too narrow: a chaplain may be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or from another tradition, depending on the place. Do not mix it up with Chaplin, as in Charlie Chaplin the film actor; that surname grew from the same old word. English once had its own word, handpriest, but this French one won.