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 boroughs 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. Mouchettes warning read, in part, Never conduct personal business on Middletown Police Department time.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
Hovan said he kept his radio with him and that he had never missed a call while attending church on duty in uniform.
If he can go an entire Mass without a call being dispatched to him, the police in the town are being scheduled too many hours.
Go to work and do your job.
He’d have to be able to leave it on a moment’s notice. Like a donut shop.
If he and the priest are copacetic with that here, fine.
I recall from my days on the other side of the Tiber/Bosporus that Catholics are exempt from their obligation to attend Mass if there were compelling reasons. I would certainly consider being a police officer on duty as falling under that heading. The sanction seems a bit harsh though. I’d have given him a reprimand and a two day suspension w/o pay.
Im blessed to be equidistant from 5 places I can go to Mass. I would say that the chief has to adjust his schedule so he can go to Mass on Sundays and Holy days and if they dont adjust his schedule and no other mass is within 20 miles, then he has a case.
God put him on duty to take care of us. He can’t do it in the church. God also put Kapernick on this earth to play football, not kneel. Same thing.
Seesh, you are the ONLY person to have a rational observation on this entire thread?
I won't bother to say 'shame' on the others, they obviously have none.
1) he disobeyed a direct order.
2) he said he didn’t have time to go to church on his time off.
He is trying to make a point, like the homosexual who drives 36 miles to a Christian bakery, etc.
I have mixed feelings to. What will they do with Muslim police who pray 6 times a day?
If he is available for 911 calls he is working as required.
As long as he answers radio and is in his beat he is doing his job.....mkat likely lroblem is he is the union head and the chief is measin woth him.
Dunnkin donuts is okay, church is not.
If he skipped lunch and had his supervisors approval to use his lunch break as such, then ok. Otherwise its time theft if he was on the clock.
This isnt a religion issue.
He is in the right place if someone attacks the church.
Typical union featherbedding. Stay on the clock while not working.
Not really any different than spending time with his wife while on the clock.
I don’t blame him. Donuts were being served at the church.
So every working Catholic in the Country should be able to stop his work and head to church during his/her work shift...
Or just cops, you say???
So every Catholic cop in the Country should be able to head for a Mass during his/her work shift...
Doesn’t sound reasonable to me...
Churches these days seem to benefit from some active patrolling.
How long was the church service?
The quick-stop into donut shops and back out (with coffee, etc.,) became something of a tradition due to brevity of the visit?
The news article linked to from what was posted from 'LifesiteNews' article at heading of this thread;
has additional info.
It would be difficult for me to single out only a few paragraphs to re-tell the story as it's laid out in that article.
But after reading it, I can see better how the suspension came about.
The details, for me, raise this question;
How to open things up where an officer could attend a few(?) masses a year without opening a door that would be used, then eventually abused (by other officers doing whatever -- "hey-- I had to go home and mow my yard" etc.,) ?
How to keep from paying an officer to attend church (any church, anywhere) for that matter?
For religious purposes, could there be a carve-out? A way for say, an officer to pre-declare days and times when he would be officially "off" duty for around an hour, or a little more -- while stipulating too where he would be --- and be still fully available to respond to official calls of duty at a moment's notice? Perhaps an officer's pay could be officially adjusted to reflect the time spent "off" being more fully "on duty" compared to being in effect, possibly "on-call" and available for duty?
If that could be worked out )shssh( quietly now... how to keep muslims from making that kind of thing into a great big pain in the neck?
The officer was probably in the back pew, radio on but volume turned down, mike/speaker clipped to his shoulder so not to be disruptive. If the priest has no problem with him leaving in the event of an urgent call (when I was Catholic, I was on the volunteer fire department and the monsignor was one of the chaplains for the department), then I see no problem.
Considering all the crazy anti-christian violence that exists, I think a cop with a gun in church is being on duty.
The Cop could’a been there to insure compliance to the separation of Church and State rules (preaching) and to surveill potential domestic terrorists...
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