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 ...
I don’t know how it works but LEO have been doing other things on duty for a long time. When I was in college in the 1970s I had several Police Science (as it was called then) classes with LEO in them. They would attend in uniform with their radios. One night there was a murder and it just about cleared the class. The LEOs often got radio calls during class and would leave to respond.
As a Christian thing, one might try to avoid looking questionable if a choice exists.
In Catholic tradition the mass is considered to be the peak remembrance of Christ. Other Christian traditions don’t always point up the communion in that manner, especially when using a bible interpretation of the elements as symbolic. I’ve seen an exception and it was in a black Missionary Baptist church. They proclaimed the elements as an emblem of Christ and they were picked up by communicants in a combined package. The excitement was tangible. And that’s how it ought to be. If one is being Protestant about it, don’t make it lukewarm too.
Anyhow it’s an appearance thing here. Jesus said go into all the world. If this can be done without looking like it has to be interrupted — it should. This frames Jesus in the best light.
We crazy evangelicals can be crazy about Christ.
The humility of the Lord is startling to those who expect pomp and circumstance. The story is so familiar that the sheer grodiness of the circumstances is misunderestimated, to use the Bushism.
Anyhow there’s nothing more unseemly about a cop showing up here than to show up at a donut shop. The problem if any comes in causing the world to needlessly stumble. If everybody were Christian they’d understand. Unbelievers need a more scrupulous witness.
Ok another painting with only white folk in it. And why is the “Son” unable to extend all four fingers on each hand? I’ve seen that before in artist efforts to portray the Son of God. Is there a scripture that is used for the two finger wave?
OK got an opinion from a few of the guys.They do it all the time and the churches are happy to have them and they don’t miss calls.The first reprimand was for wearing his uniform at Mass= Ridiculous.The 2nd was for being at Mass on duty which he had done on occasion for 20 years.We knew the former Chief and he would have never have done this.Expensive to sue,he needs an advocate.
We’re brain washed. We are barely recognizable as the faithful of centuries ago. Beard pullers are always with us, but we have lost our way when we live to work, at the loss of an obligatory mass.
An honor and privilege to be harassed by an anti-Christ heathen, who is your boss and the new Chief of Police, who whipped up a suspicious *rules* change that 100% affected only the Catholic cops. To be suspended by a heathen is a greater sacrifice, exchanged for a state of grace to be kept.
Not in a million would we even be discussing our pointy head ideas on this travesty, were the officer a Muslim.
Chiefy would have never made that rule in the first place, and certainly would not dare enforce it against a Muslim if one were on the force. Bank that.
It’s not like Catholicism requires no obligation to participate in certain masses because it’s inconvenient, or because you don’t feel like it, or because you have a J O B.
(Yes, there are extenuating circumstances, for surgeons and nurses, etc.)
The West has gotten entirely carried away about what trumps the practices of faith and obligation.
This Catholic cop determined it was not inconvenient to attend, nor was attending any infringement on his duty or his readiness to meet a call, and lastly he wanted to be in an obligatory Holy Mass and chose the better of two places to be. The coffee shop, driving out the gas tank, or Holy Mass.
Should the Lord have come an hour later, the cop would have been in a state of grace and the Chiefy would not.
Freedom of Religion is not a suggestion. Sorry to see comments that consider worldly work to be more dutiful than Catholic practices/ Thought we got past the value of placing thirty pieces of silver over betraying our Lord centuries ago.
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