Posted on 04/08/2023 9:35:44 AM PDT by John W
WASHINGTON, DC – Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has issued a “cease and desist order” to Holy Name College, a community of Franciscan Catholic priests and brothers, who have provided pastoral care to service members and veterans at Walter Reed for nearly two decades.
The government’s cease and desist order directed the Catholic priests to cease any religious services at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. This order was issued as Catholics entered Holy Week, the most sacred of days in the Christian faith, in which they participate in liturgies remembering Jesus’ passion, and leading the Church to celebrate the Resurrection on Easter morning.
The Franciscans’ contract for Catholic Pastoral Care was terminated on March 31, 2023, and awarded to a secular defense contracting firm that cannot fulfill the statement of work in the contract. As a result, adequate pastoral care is not available for service members and veterans in the United States’ largest Defense Health Agency medical center either during Holy Week or beyond. There is one Catholic Army chaplain assigned to Walter Reed Medical Center, but he is in the process of separating from the Army.
His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, condemned the move as an encroachment on the First Amendment guarantee of the Free Exercise of Religion. Archbishop Broglio said: “It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care is taken away from the sick and the aged when it was so readily available. This is a classic case where the adage ‘if it is not broken, do not fix it’ applies. I fear that giving a contract to the lowest bidder overlooked the fact that the bidder cannot provide the necessary service. I earnestly hope that this disdain for the sick will be remedied at once and their First Amendment rights will be respected.”
Ms. Elizabeth A. Tomlin, Esq., General Counsel of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), has reached out to the contracting officers at Walter Reed numerous times throughout Holy Week asking for the Franciscans’ Catholic ministry to be reinstated at least through Easter. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has not responded to these requests from the Archdiocese.
While Walter Reed’s chaplain office claims Catholic care is being provided during Holy Week, the AMS maintains that without Catholic priests present at the medical center, service members and veterans are being denied the constitutional right to practice their religion.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is one of many medical centers within the Department of Defense and Defense Health Agency whose pastoral care lies within AMS jurisdiction. The refusal to provide adequate pastoral care while awarding a contract for Catholic ministry to a for-profit company that has no way of providing Catholic priests to the medical center is a glaring violation of service members’ and veterans’ Right to the Free Exercise of Religion. Especially, during Holy Week, the lack of adequate Catholic pastoral care causes untold and irreparable harm to Catholics who are hospitalized and therefore a captive population whose religious rights the government has a constitutional duty to provide for and protect.
What a disgrace.
They will probably have Drag Queen Story Hour performances instead.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?' Watch Matt Gaetz SNAPS At Lloyd Autisn Over 'Drag Story Time' In Military Base
I would like to know more about the outfit that got the contract. What exactly are they doing?
Archbishop should sue, service members should sue.
This has the stink of “Freedom From Religion” group all over it. It is so obviously an infringement of 1st Amendment rights I can’t see how it will stand.
FFR’s probably argued with a threat of a lawsuit that having the services provided by a religious order was an establishment of religion. That is a stretch but one too many government institutions cower to. Think prayer after high school football games or crosses on state park land.
Walter Reed has tried similar bans regarding religious practice before,
https://www.syracuse.com/news/2011/12/military_backs_off_on_bible_ba.html
Looks like one of biden’s promises that he made in order to be made president is the one that de-Christianizes the military.
He has already turned the military into an instrument for spreading American decadence, so this is no surprise.
What in the world is going on? This is so heinous, it seems there is more to the story than written.
What a disgrace.
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Waler Reed is not alone. United Health Care had lay offs on Holy Thrusday. I suppose they didn’t want to sh.it can people on Good Friday.
Nice.
Indeed.
EVERY Christian should be disgusted, by this.
Hardly surprising ... back around Easter time in 2020, the CDC “recommendations” led to widespread closing of churches and prohibiting priests and ministers access to critically ill patients in hospitals.
“I would like to know more about the outfit that got the contract. ..”
To which Biden family member are they connected????
Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
Man’s governments dropped the ball.
Maybe an organization or church can get an Easter Service going.
Confessions will be outsourced to a call center in India.
Or an AI chatbot.
you can’t be a communist and a Christian. in this case the communists win, at least for now.
In 2011 some activists banned Bibles from WR, and Congress (of that time) had to intervene.
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