God and Country

Marine Corps Base Hawaii recently named its chapel for US Navy Chaplain (CAPT) Joseph Estabrook, a Catholic chaplain who had championed the creation of a chapel to house the “roving congregation” on the base:  Read more…

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the archbishop of the military, has said one of the unintended consequences of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the resulting annihilation of the already-minority Christian community:

You can say in a certain sense that the invasion of Iraq did provoke this tremendous diminution of the Christian population in Read more…

Update: The Army defended its actions, with FoxNews saying it was a “cautionary move to preserve “military order and discipline,”" not censorship.

In a surprisingly underreported story, the US Army reportedly censored — and then admitted the wrong of censoring — US military Catholic chaplains during their performance of their Catholic Mass.  Catholic priests were apparently given letters to read to their parishes explaining the Catholic opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance coverage for things that violate Catholic beliefs.

On Thursday, January 26, Archbishop Broglio emailed a pastoral letter to Catholic military chaplains with instructions that it be read from the pulpit at Sunday Masses the following weekend in all military chapels. The letter calls on Catholics to resist the policy initiative, recently affirmed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception, because it represents a violation of the freedom of religion recognized by the U.S. Constitution.

The US Army’s Chaplaincy office responded:  Read more…

The Catholic archbishop for the military Chaplaincy, Timothy Broglio, responded to the recent NYT article about “atheist Chaplains” by wondering aloud if such a position would be an oxymoron.  Importantly, since atheists can already meet as any other secular group does (like any sports, academic, or other social group), he questioned whether atheists might actually be after a “counter-Chaplaincy” within the Chaplaincy, rather than a positive representation:

“The idea of a ‘chaplaincy’ for atheists seems contradictory,” U.S. Military Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio told CNA. Under present conditions, he said, “it would seem that they could meet and sponsor activities just as many other groups do on installations. Or is the issue here the desire to set up a structure in direct opposition to the chaplaincy?”

He brings up an interesting point.  As noted elsewhere, for atheists to meet the intent of the concept of the Chaplaincy, they would essentially need to acknowledge Read more…

The shortage of military Catholic Chaplains has been noted here repeatedly.  Now, military Archbishop Timothy Broglio has said the shortage is causing Catholic military personnel to seek help from Protestant Chaplains.

Because many in the armed services often face grave situations, [Broglio] said, questions about the meaning of life and the existence of God often surface.

“They are at great risk because there are not nearly enough priests to meet their needs,” he said. Read more…

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo is chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the US Bishop’s conference has asked Congress not to approve language in the Defense Authorization Act that would permit US military facilities to conduct abortions.

The Cardinal noted that federal policies have prohibited military facilities from performing abortions since 1988, with the exception of 1993-1995 when Clinton overturned the policy (it was later re-instituted by Congress).

The Cardinal joined with military diocese Archbishop Broglio Read more…

Timothy Broglio, Archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, recently joined a group of Catholic priests for a recruiting visit at Peterson AFB, CO.  Broglio was most recently in the news for his statement against the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

During the visit, the 8 Roman Catholic priests observed military members in action and got a C-21 ride to view Pike’s Peak from the air.

The military objective of the visit was to recruit more Catholic priests to the military Chaplaincy.  While the Air Force is cutting Chaplains this year, Catholic Chaplains are the one group who are not being reduced.