Posted on 12/17/2017 7:09:48 PM PST by marshmallow
MIDDLETOWN, Pennsylvania, December 15, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – A Pennsylvania police officer has been suspended for ten days for going to Catholic Mass on a day of obligation while on duty and in uniform.
Officer Mark Hovan, a 20- year veteran of the Middletown, Pa., police department, attended Mass in uniform on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation for Catholics.
“Hovan, who said he is a devout Catholic, said it was necessary at times because of shift changes for him to go to church while on duty on occasion,” reports the Press & Journal, a local news outlet. “Hovan said he kept his radio with him and that he had never missed a call while attending church on duty in uniform.”
The officer also said that attending Church while in uniform had never been an issue over his two decades of service, until a new Chief of Police took over at the beginning of this year.
According to an earlier report in the Press & Journal, Officer Hovan said, “his constitutional right to practice freedom of religion was being ‘infringed upon’ by the chief, adding ‘they (the department) made no accommodation at all for me.’”
Hovan said he believes this constitutes a violation of his religious freedom, and so he is considering taking legal action.
He also suggested the punishment may be related to his current position as president of the borough’s police association.
Contention regarding church attendance while in uniform evidently began shortly after the new department head, Chief George Mouchette, took over.
Hovan received his first formal reprimand from Mouchette in January for attending Mass on a Sunday morning in uniform. Mouchette’s warning read, in part, “Never conduct personal business on Middletown Police Department time.”
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
Checked Middletown, PA on masstimes... There are plenty of options ranging from 4pm Saturday evening, through 7am Sunday morning to 7pm Sunday evening. He could have made it unless he has 14 hour shifts.
Hmmm...
There are pro’s and con’s.
In general though I say fie on union tomfoolery. Which it looks like if there are many scheduled services on the days of obligation. Circumstances say a lot.
It’s one of those maybe things.
Context is king. We can have both-and.
I’m Catholic, and I agree with the Chief. When you are on duty, you are on duty. Cop should have scheduled his lunch break around Mass.
If the chief allows this, any Muslim cop on the force will abuse the precedent.
on duty? unless he was assigned to be there by boss, he should not have been there while on duty. Plenty of other times to go to church, mass time or not, when off duty.
I agree - if he’s on duty, he’s stealing from those who pay his wages - the article doesn’t say how his claim of them not making accommodations for him is true or what he asked for/was denied.
I agree with you.
Most Catholics have access to several mass times on days of obligation and we can go to any Catholic Church to meet those obligations.
Some of our Churches locally do coordinate mass times such that one can attend several early morning times and/or evening masses through one of the “sister” parishes.
http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/canon-law/complementary-norms/canon-1246.cfm
Too bad for him it fell on Tuesday.
In either case, the day is "celebrating" something not supported by Scripture.
It's more evidence of the Roman Catholic worship of Mary.
As a young cop in a Brooklyn ghetto precinct whenever we worked Sunday day tours with a particular sgt. we knew we would be going to mass with him in a small and failing parish. It was an unspoken rule that we - about 6 young Catholic cops - would put $5.00 in the basket which was big money then. Most of the time we were more than half of those hearing mass. None of us ever complained and no one else did either. A 10 day rip is very heavy in this case so there is something else going on,- more to the story.
So he coerced you into giving money??
As a Catholic, I don’t think you should go to mass when on tax payer dime. He basically stole from the government. Wearing a uniform should not be an issue though. They have quite a few masses throughout the day where he could attend.
Sounds like more than one idiot here
I see nothing wrong with attending church
as long as he is still on the job.
But if he was a believer he would take
take the bad medicine and thank God he
was not fired or sent to prison.
No, the officer needs a stern lecture regarding his duty time and performance while on the clock, just like anyone else.
Serving means sacrifice, and if the church cannot accept that, then the church is the entity with the problem. For eons, serving meant sacrifice, God understands.
Snowflakes notwithstanding.
This isn’t a religious issue..,.............
..............
Well I am not sure, it is certainly not an issue concerning
faith but religion?, It seems religion has control of every
every thing, from every branch of government down to the
smallest church.
But I guess it depends on how we view religion.
Must’ve been back in the day because that would never happen now. Enjoy your retirement!
If he never missed a call, he's doing better than some of the guys "on the beat."
How about walking through the park -— if he was on that beat-— for 45 minutes? And aren’t there more people to protect in a church, than in a park?
If the higher-ups let him do it, and even (as the story says) encouraged him to do it for 20 years, there must have been a strong policing-related rationale.
If this Mass did not compromise his readiness and he never missed a call, I'm calling this cop OK.
Weekday Mass, half an hour if you leave during the closing hymn :o)
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