Catholic Priests Risk Arrest If They Voluntarily Perform Mass on Base During Shutdown
Shutdown Impacts Chapel Services
…There is a chronic shortage of active duty Catholic chaplains. While roughly 25% of the military is Catholic, Catholic priests make up only about 8% of the chaplain corps. That means approximately 275,000 men and women in uniform, and their families, are served by only 234 active-duty priests. The temporary solution to this shortage is to provide GS and contract priests. These men are employed by the government to ensure that a priest is available when an active duty Catholic Chaplain is not present. With the government shutdown, many GS and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer.
During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.
Is he Obama or Oliver Cromwell?
ths update: More news types have gotten on this since Ebola let me know about it. Todd Starnes at Fox has more:
The U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass. At least one chaplain was told that if he engaged in any ministry activity, he would be subjected to disciplinary action.
“In very practical terms it means Sunday Mass won’t be offered,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services told me. “If someone has a baptism scheduled, it won’t be celebrated.”
…the military installations impacted are served by non-active-duty priests who were hired as government contractors.
…“Catholic military personnel should not have their religious liberties held hostage by this funding crisis,” Crews told me. “I find it alarming that these priests cannot even volunteer to provide services without threat of arrest.”
The archbishop said a priest at Joint Base Langley-Eustis was banned from officiating at the wedding of a couple he’d been counseling.
“The wedding could be on the base, but the priest can’t do the wedding,” Broglio told me.
Humanity...or the Lack Thereof, Littrachure, Military Thingies, Morality, Nanny State, People, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
October 4, 2013 2:15 pm
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Welcome to Amerika. The land that was once free.
Yet the police that killed the deranged woman in DC were working without pay.
Yes but they were shooting souls, not saving them.
That’s an important difference for the tyrannical Leviathan our government has become.
Can’t find anyone reporting this (wonder why?).
A commenter at JustOneMinute notes:
So it wasn’t enough to force Catholic hospitals to provide abortions (in the guise of “healthcare”), now we have this. It’s one of the Ten Commandments to keep holy the Lord’s Day (Mass on Sunday) and they are withholding the sacraments from countless Catholic military personnel. I’m outraged.