As a Catholic, and a retired member of the Armed Forces, I agree with the decision. You can flame if you like. Politics from the pulpit in the Armed Forces, is akin to politics in uniform. A big no no. We are not expected to reject our faith, and can freely discuss these matters in private, and agree with the Church. We simply can’t do it publicly. That is what our service and our oath requires.
Chaplains in the military are required, too not only administer to their own faithful, but to hold non-denominational services as well. They are required to minister to all Soldiers under their command. They can certainly seek out members of their Church, and impart the contents of the letter, in private fashion.
I had a Baptist Chaplain while serving in Iraq. I attended both non-denominational, and Baptist services. At no time did he impart Church position on political issues. He sinply dealt with scripture, sermon, and lecture. he would apply all three to the issues of faith, family, and Soldiering. As it should be.
As a retired military chaplain (Army), that simply isn't the case. Protestant chaplains are not permitted to conduct Catholic services, and Catholic chaplains cannot conduct Protestant services. A Methodist cannot do a baptist service, and etc.
Non-denominational in the military is never Catholic and is really just a heinz variety of protestant.
Perhaps the Army is different than the AF, but in no case should denominational services be led by any chaplain not a part of that denomination.
But you contradict yourself.
Kudos to those Chaplains with spines.
This act by Soetoro and HHS, which is unconstitutional, deals with immorality. The steps taken by the Archbishop and these Chaplains wasn't done in public.
Your argument was tried at Nuremburg and it failed.
However, I do disagree that this situation can accurately be described as "politics from the pulpit."
This "politics from the pulpit" jive is precisely the kind of intellectual legerdemain that statists perform in order to confuse religious moral issues and politics with a view to making further encroachments into the religious sphere....as they have done in places like China and elsewhere.
It is because Catholics have done little or nothing to curb these encroachments that the statists have come this far.
The Catholic chaplains were going to read a letter from their Catholic bishop to inform the people in the pews that their Church was about to be forced by the government to do something that violated their Catholic religious beliefs.
Caesar is demanding something that belongs to God!
Hardly "politics from the pulpit" unless you have no problem with the idea of burning a pinch of incense to Caesar.
As for "Soldiering," the way I learned it, the oath of a member of the armed forces includes a promise to defend the Constitution.
For the Army, it reads thus:
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
When the "orders of the President of the United States" violate the Constitution, then those "orders" are invalid.