So, how far is too far?
I realize that in many ways the military is "different" when it comes to some basic rights and liberties, but I am also confident that our troops are capable of disagreeing with their Commander in Chief politically and still following his military orders. In fact, I would expect them to follow these orders as they have vowed to do.
But by ordering Catholic chaplains to be silent on an issue that directly impacts the relationship btw a Catholic soldier's conscience and his/her pastor. . .that's too far. If a Catholic military chaplain can be ordered not to read aloud a letter from his bishop, can he be legitimately ordered to read a letter aloud from the CIC attacking the Church?
This President seems hell-bent on pushing the Church out of the public square. Fortunately, we have the means of pushing him out of the White House.
Can November come fast enough?
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The Army was not ordering them to be silent. The Chief of Chaplains said there were problematic points in the letter as written. Chaplains are Army officers, with an obligation to obey the commander in chief. It is a federal offense for officers to speak with "contempt" of the President, state governors, or some other officials. I think the Archdiocese, upon agreeing to edit the letter, realized it had not thought through some of the implications. Many years ago, when the bishops were passing out pro-life postcards, there was some military objection, and the freedom of chaplains on that point was affirmed by the courts. The Archdiocese just needs to realize that it can't use the same boilerplate in parishes and in military chapels, when the letters are read by military officers.
ReplyDeleteAnon., a fair assessment. Unfortunately for B.O., anything he does now with regard to the Church will look like an attack. Even his left-Catholic supporters have said that the HHS decision didn't have to be made. Whether he or someone in his admin. is intending to attack the Church or not, he's set things up in such a way that the presumption will be against him.
ReplyDeleteHe can easily remedy this: rescind the HHS order. He won't do that though. . .
The Chief of Chaplains is himself a Catholic priest. This was an internal Catholic issue. The President or Army leaders did not try and countermand the Archbishop. Continuing this bogus line of information will only hurt the cause in the long run.
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