So you can’t volunteer on your own time?
So you can’t volunteer on your own time?
*********
Only if it directly benefits the regime.
Apparently not. The article said:
According the Archdiocese for Military Services, GS and contract priests (who are paid by the federal government as independent contractors in places where there aren’t enough active-duty priests to meet the needs of Catholics in military service) are being forbidden from celebrating Mass, even on a volunteer basis.
I have a copy of the special regulations issued to deal with this shutdown. Volunteering for work — any work — is specifically forbidden.
I understand the labor law issues behind that rule. I don't agree, but some of those laws date back to the Depression and are nothing new.
What **IS** new is that they are being applied to clergy working as Department of Defense civilian employees. Since most chaplains have been uniformed military personnel for most of our history, there isn't a lot of precedent here, certainly not in recent history, though I can think of some potential precedents during World War I.
There are significant issues of freedom of religion here — both the government's obligations toward providing free exercise of religion for servicemembers in foreign countries and the obligations of these civilian clergy to follow the dictates of their own faith.
It may not be a huge issue in the United States where Roman Catholics can go off-post to Mass, but the Archdiocese for the Military Services says this will be a major issue in South Korea and Japan where servicemembers may not be able to attend Mass at all.
I think there's a good chance that a frustrated Roman Catholic servicemember can win a lawsuit here which may have the side benefit of getting a Supreme Court rule reaffirming the obligation of the government to provide chaplains to military personnel since it is the only way to provide for their free exercise of religion under some circumstances.
What President Obama meant for evil may still turn out for good contrary to his intent.