Catholic military chaplains could soon become outlaws

The Geneva Convention’s classification of military chaplains as noncombatants has traditionally been interpreted in the United States to mean that chaplains normally do not carry weapons. This often puts them in precarious positions when they are in war zones. Over four hundred chaplains have been killed in the line of duty. Catholic chaplains are especially exposed to dangerous situations by their obligation to administer Absolution and Anointing. They have received every kind of decoration for valor, and seven have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

All four chaplains awarded the Medal since the Civil War have been Catholic. Among them, Lieutenant Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll priest and Navy chaplain, who served with the Marine Corps and was killed while aiding the second Platoon of M Company at the battle of Dong Son in Vietnam, has been proposed for heaven’s highest honor, canonization as a saint.

The military chaplaincy is under threat by our own government as part of its social agenda. One year ago, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains tried to forbid Catholic chaplains from reading a statement from the Military Ordinary, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees all priests in the Catholic Ordinariate for the Armed Forces, in which he objected to federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception in violation of the right to religious freedom. Now the government would compel chaplains to acquiesce in “same-sex” simulations of marriage. The Army’s deputy chief of staff in charge of personnel has said that military members who dissent from this agenda are “bigoted” and “need to get out.”

As behavior contrary to Christian morality becomes a civil right, Catholics in particular could soon become, quite literally, outlaws. Our current President recently announced that he will disobey a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by his own hand, which states that chaplains cannot be forced “to perform any rite, ritual or ceremony that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles or religious beliefs of the chaplain.”

I am always edified by the sacrificing spirit of good soldiers, and as a chaplain to West Point alumni here in New York, I am pleased when cadets serve at Mass. Governments that have tried to manipulate soldiers and doctors and teachers in perverse ways have always had a short shelf life. The nineteenth-century French political philosopher Frédéric Bastiat warned: “When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.”

Military chaplains do not bear arms, but they have recourse to another arsenal: “Therefore take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect” (Ephesians 6:11).

That may be true. I wish i knew what Mr. holder had in mind other than mere group identity. If that is his meaning than he is no different than many white Southerners whose unofficial but real mantra was ‘the white boys all stick together’. Unfortunately I think the meaning is much more profound than just some jejune ethnic cliquishness. Most black people of Gen. Bostick’s generation had a pretty heavy dose of black church evangelical religion. Whatever messages of economic liberalism and state-ism these churches promulgated there was a lot of standard evangelical personal morality based on Biblical principles taught. Bostick specifically rejects these moral teachings in his abrasive dismissal of the profound ethical dilemma the official norming of homosexuality by the armed forces presents any serious Christian in uniform and more especially so those who are chaplains. that leads me back to the beginning. I fear ‘Holder's people’ are not just all people of color but only those who can only relate to statesim, moral relativism, and perpetual agitational anger. All of these things are implicit or explicit rejections of fundamental moral tenets of Christianity.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

The future of the chaplaincy should this Obama term be replaced with another liberal?? I think the chaplaincy will be terminated as part of the military and replaced with psychology degreed political officers in each battalion, as was the old soviet army.

When my daughter recently faced the decision of whether to do the right thing even though it would likely result in her losing her job (which it did) and possibly her career - her response was "My God died for me, what's a job compared to that?"

I suspect many Christian Chaplains will have a similar "red sea moment" during the term of this presidency - and I pray their response will be like hers. Better to be a nomad in a wilderness following God's leading than to rest in a land controlled by people who do not care Who He IS or What He wants.

Better to be a nomad in a wilderness following God's leading than to rest in a land controlled by people who do not care Who He IS or What He wants.

Or worse, controlled people who are satanically adverse to God, who loathe Him and all His Works and seek to enslave His people.

These are trying times, testing times: Endure by faith in the Word of the Lord thy God and all will be well.

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