Army Attempts to Silence Chaplains

.... Archbishop Broglio defends his rights.

Mission Capodanno salutes the United States Catholic Bishops who issued a strong and unequivocal response to the recent Obama Administration decision mandating that religious institutions provide and pay for access to birth control for its employees.

As of today, 171 Catholic Bishops (more than 90%) have spoken out against the Obama mandate with most of them asking that this letter be read by all their priests at all Masses the weekend of Feb 4/5 2012. This immoral and unconstitutional Obama mandate is a clear and present danger to religious liberty and the First Amendment rights of people of conscience.

His Excellency, Timothy P. Broglio, Archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA also issued this same request to his priest/chaplains. The Army Chief of Chaplains office apparently showed some concerns over a certain phrase contained in the letter and asked that the letter not be read by Catholic chaplains publicly at Mass.

Archbishop Broglio, invoking his First Amendments rights and reminding the Army of past legal precedence, insisted that the letter be distributed and read at Masses. In the end, after the Army agreed that censoring the letter was inappropriate, Archbishop Broglio negotiated a compromise with the Secretary of the Army John McHugh that the controversial words ... "We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law" ... would not be read from the pulpit. However, Archbishop Broglio insisted that the letter be distributed in bulletins and the letter remains on the AMS website. No other branch of the military had issues with the letter.

In effect, the diplomatic solution may have actually drawn much more attention to the very words the Army wanted to censor, giving the ultimate victory to Archbishop Broglio and his Catholic chaplains stationed at military bases around the world. In addition, the firestorm over the mandate has continued to spread to institutions outside the Catholic Church and a lawsuit, the first of many, has already been filed by Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the worlds largest religious broadcaster.

Mission Capodanno commends the actions taken by Catholic bishops, priests and military chaplains, Protestant and Jewish clergy, various think thanks, universities, heath care institutions, schools, and those in Congress who have vowed to reverse this decision.

The ultimate outcome remains up to us as American citizens. Will we fight here at home for all that we fight for on foreign soil including freedom of religion and freedom of conscience? Will we exercise our right to be represented?

Time to rally the troops, move into position, and make some noise. If you're currently serving overseas right now, then please forward this to your family and friends back home.

Tell them this is their opportunity to join you in defending America.