My mantra, the soft tyranny of big government turned hard.
Military Chaplains are being forbidden from reading the letter from the bishops protesting the HHS mandate. If they do, they are considered seditious. ht Gateway.
The emerging conflict between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration may have a new front: in the U.S. military itself.
The Catholic Church is fighting mad about an HHS ruling that would have them buy insurance for things they consider sinful–contraception, sterilization and abortion.
All the bishops in the country sent out a letter to be read in their parishes promising that the Church “cannot-and will not-comply with this unjust law.”
Even Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who is in charge of Catholic military chaplains sent out the same letter.
But after he did, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out another communication forbidding Catholic priests to read the letter, in part because it seemed to encourage civil disobedience, and could be read as seditious against the Commander-in-Chief.
More than one Catholic chaplain who spoke to us off the record confirmed that many chaplains disobeyed this instruction and read the letter anyway. Others sought further instructions from their Archbishop.
February 4, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Just to clarify, this order applied ONLY to Army chaplains, NOT to those in the other service branches.
Elaine
February 4, 2012 at 1:53 pm
What, exactly, is worth civil disobedience if the defense of the unborn isn't??
MAJOR, IRR
married to Army Officer
daughter of retired Army Officer
sister of an Army Officer
granddaughter of an Army Officer
niece of an Army Officer
February 4, 2012 at 2:26 pm
This is an example of how Obama has unofficially declared himself head of the Catholic Church in America. He's giving most things that Catholics want anyway, contraception, sterlization services and that sort of thing.
February 4, 2012 at 2:36 pm
Exactly why our tax dollars should not fund Chaplains in the military. State sponsored religion should be banned. If solders want chaplains, they should pay for them just like those on the outside. The constitiution doesn't require giving people ministers.
February 4, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Serving two masters, the Church and the Military, is biblically impossible. You can't be an officer in the military following lawful orders, and dictates of your God. Conflicts will occur.
February 4, 2012 at 2:47 pm
95% of Roman Catholics (of age) practice or practiced birth control proving that the RCC's position on birth control is outdated, impractical and useless, and a position that only old men who will never know the love of a child, the risk of having a child, the risk of losing a child or the responsibility to care for a child. Yet you scream bloody murder when the things don't believe in are questioned. Right now you have a supreme court with a majority of RC justices who just made corporations humans. When will Catholics themselves stand up to a church that needs a second reformation?
February 4, 2012 at 3:35 pm
@mysterios: "He's giving most things that Catholics want anyway, contraception, sterlization services and that sort of thing." Please know that when a person consents to commit sin he self-excommunicates himself. Faithful Catholics do not use contraception and are the only persons allowed to call themselves CATHOLIC.
February 4, 2012 at 3:37 pm
This is insanity. Maybe our Commander in Chief has forgotten that it goes GOD, country, family. If the priests still decide to read it and are court marshalled for it, this will be one of the biggest acts of persecution our faith has seen in this country…well, other than the HHS mandate itself. People of all faiths should be very afraid that our administration thinks it is ok to deny us our religious freedom. So, in light of recent events, I'm looking for a new continent and a big boat (the Mayflower 2) in order to start a new colony free of tyranny. Who's with me?? The Catholic Church will NEVER change it's position…rocks are solid my friend, and I for one am thankful. Catholic did stand up, divorced the church and now there are over 23,000 different Protestant denominations all believing different things…the division Christ warned us of. Birth control goes against scripture, God's purpose for his greatest creations, and ALL of the teachings of the early Church fathers…and I do mean EARLY. The Church should not bend to our culture, our culture should bend to the Church. So you think that if the majority wants it, then let it be done? Truth is not subjective. Christ was a single man who never knew marital love or the love of a biological child but I'd like to think He knew what he was talking about.
February 4, 2012 at 3:43 pm
95%? Where did you get that fact? I wish people would stop spewing numbers without backing them up with a study or official report.
As for the order. The chaplains are allowed to read the letter this Sunday. However, the bishop had to remove the "cannot and will not comply" statement.
Pay for chaplains themselves like other people? Really? So when we send these soldiers to war, they should pay a chaplain to come along? So stupid and ridiculous. As it is, many soldiers go without basic things like Sunday mass while deployed. Such a ridiculous statement.
My husband is a soldier. He just returned from his 3rd deployment; a second to Afghanistan. We have sacrificed so much as an Army family. It was written all over my daughter's face when I told her her father was finally coming home. There was suffering in it. Suffering that she's hidden deep inside. So, for the government to put a gag order effectively going against the first amendment, makes me mad. Soldiers fight for the government; for freedom.
February 4, 2012 at 3:48 pm
@Anonymous 9:47 AM Again: Faithful Catholics do not use contraception and are the only persons allowed to call themselves CATHOLIC. God, WHO is generosity, and charity will not be outdone in generosity and charity. If you choose to forfeit the generosity and charity of God, speak only for yourself. As far as corporations being artificial and legal persons, made in the image of man, as man is made in the image of God with free will, to hold a person responsible for their deeds and accomplishments. Would you want to buy stocks in a company run by a monkey? I think not. As government is constituted by its constituents to protect and defend virginity, innocence and our constitutional posterity, so are legal corporations established. Only when man rejects God and loses the image of God in TRUTH, is his mind darkened so that he stumbles and falls (into HELL).
February 4, 2012 at 3:56 pm
@aVirtuous Wife:. "Christ was a single man who never knew marital love or the love of a biological child but I'd like to think He knew what he was talking about." Christ is a virgin, the rock and foundation of Christian faithfulness: sacrifice. Do you not know that Christ willingly suffered the absence of wife and children because the Catholic Church and all of God's children are his wife and his children. On the otherhand, Christ cound not have sexual relations with one of his brothers or sisters or children, for this would be incest. Christ profoundly, intimately and purely loved each and every one of us and called us to "follow me" so said Jesus.
February 4, 2012 at 4:07 pm
And for the government, constituted by constituents, to forbid human beings from following in Jesus Christ's footsteps, and deforming man to commit abortion, human sacrifice and chief form of worship of Satan and fornication, the second form of worship of the devil and other abominations confoming us to the establishment of a religion based on lies of the not so great LIAR, is the establishment of a religion (ESTABLISHMENT OF A RELIGION)prohibited by our First Constitutional Amendment. Silencing opposition to the establishment of an unconstitutional satanic religion must be accomplished for the proliferation of evil in our midst. Every free man made in the image and likeness of almighty God, must cry out from the dungeon of his imprisonment for the free air of FREEDOM, to speak with God in the public forum. He who refuses must be silenced. Let Obama speak to our founding principles or get off the podium. FREEDOM
February 4, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Ironically the senior commander of the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains which issued the gag order is a Catholic priest, Major-General Donald Rutherford of the Diocese of Albany, New York.
February 4, 2012 at 5:50 pm
The Church doesn't need "reform", anonymous, at least, not on account of its supposedly "outdated" teaching on artificial contraception. As I mentioned in a blog post of my own, show me where Paul VI was wrong in Humanae vitae #17, where he outlined the grave consequences of a resort to artificial contraceptives. Here's a link to the encyclical: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html . Skip ahead to #17. Now show me where he was wrong. Because THOSE are the reasons the Church has continued to resist this headlong rush to "free love" that Protestant denominations have pretty uniformly made.
God help us!
February 4, 2012 at 6:25 pm
KC
I think the most accurate statistic for Catholics using artificial birth control is 98%, not 95%. I hate to be the bringer of joy, as usual, but for your viewing displeasure.
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2011/04/13/index.html
Abortion statistics among Catholics are similar to the general population as well. Why? It's because the Church is silent. People like Nancy Pelosi advocate the right to abort and contracept in the clear light of day and remain Catholics in good standing. So, why should the average Joe Six Pack give one damn about it? He'll lumber up to communion three times a year, get his crumb of bread, and think he's going straight to the bosom of Jesus when he dies.
February 4, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Blackrep, it would be good to remember that the Alan Guttmacher Institute is a very deeply liberal outfit, not that they wold ever shade the data, of course. 😉
As I have written elsewhere on this issue:
I can appreciate the problems with “will not comply” and the UCMJ. I can appreciate, as well, that the Army Chief of Chaplains felt bound to intercede. However, the issues I see are a) the archbishop, as I understand it is the ordinary for the diocese of the military, which comprises all branches of service, and b) at a point of conflict, the Army Chief of Chaplains chose obedience to military (secular) law over obedience to his ordinary. One must assume that the archbishop, having been given the military diocese, would have acquainted himself with the UCMJ. One might therefore infer that he was not ignorant, but issued his letter with full intent, and thorough understanding of the conflict.
It may even be that the archbishop is satisfied with the action of the Army Chief, which may have served, and may continue to serve, to focus much more attention on the issue than his obedience might have done. After all, we are hearing of the other branches only in the context of the order by the Army Chief of Chaplains.
There are many issues with the HHS ruling which are straightforward–I suggest this is not among them.
February 4, 2012 at 7:21 pm
"Faithful Catholics do not use contraception and are the only persons allowed to call themselves CATHOLIC". Really? I want to see you try to enforce that one. Start tomorrow as the NOT Catholics try getting into the pews.
A friend of mine's sister is in Opus Dei. 2 kids, evenly spaced and using birth control (not needed now, so she is adamant against contraception NOW).
The Catholic church would consist of 30 people if the Cafeteria was closed.
February 4, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Some things to know: The Archdiocese of the Military is self-funded, not funded by the US military. Unlike other military officers, the chaplains of all denominations serve their church first, and the military second. They are chaplains first, not soldiers first. They serve at the pleasure of their religious superiors. This was Church business, not Army business so Army brass should have kept their nose out of it.
February 4, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Denise,
Wearing the uniform of an Officer in the military makes them the superior to EVERY enlisted man. They are paid BY TAXPAYERS their money, not the church. They are approved by their denominations to be in the military.
I would be intrigued where it is stated, in writing, their alegance is to the church before the US Constitution.
This is precisely why I could never vote for a Catholic president. Alegance to the church first, Constitution second.
February 4, 2012 at 7:54 pm
"…marital love or the love of a biological child but I'd like to think He knew what he was talking about." Christ is a virgin, the rock and foundation of Christian faithfulness: sacrifice…"
Christ is the Triune God.
He is not in the lineage of Adam… He created Adam.
He is not of the Levitical Priesthood… He is a Priest in the Order of Melchizedek.
He is not a Virgin. Only women are Virgins; thus the hymen.
Marital love of a biological child?
He created everyone, including you.
Heresy is a good name for convoluted Catholic thought.
*