Army admits mistake in blocking chaplain’s statement on HHS and contraception
The Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains subsequently sent an email to senior chaplains advising them that the Archbishop’s letter was not coordinated with that office and asked that it not be read from the pulpit. The Chief’s office directed that the letter was to be mentioned in the Mass announcements and distributed in printed form in the back of the chapel.
Archbishop Broglio and the Archdiocese stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his Constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants.
Following a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and the Secretary of the Army, The Honorable John McHugh, it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the Archbishop’s letter. Additionally, the line: “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law” was removed by Archbishop Broglio at the suggestion of Secretary McHugh over the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
PROTIP: If you only engage in civil disobedience when the government allows you to do so, then it’s not really disobedience. Archbishop Broglio is to the Obama administration what the Washington Generals are to the Harlem Globetrotters.
Fabozz on February 7, 2012 at 2:25 PM
And we can’t have that /lemmings
SirGawain on February 7, 2012 at 2:29 PM
Its just a tactic. It goes like this:
After doing something outrageous, reply with “That was probably a mistake…we’ll try to do better later…..so you might as well stfu about it, or we’ll point our finger at YOU for whining about it.”
Mimzey on February 7, 2012 at 2:33 PM
The Army got caught making war on the United States Constitution.
RasThavas on February 7, 2012 at 2:46 PM
What a bunch of peckerwoods. They claimed a couple of days ago that it was sedition against Obama. How does one even commit sedition against an American President? Sedition, when committed, is against the nation, the state, not a President. Unless the U.S. Army now considers Obama, like King Louie, to be the state. They are suppose to have taken an oath to the United States Constitution, not to a head of state like Hitler’s officers did. The U.S. Army is now more an enemy to America than a friend. We need to go back to a draft, rather than having a strictly career (too often career uber alles like politicians) army, for the sake of the nation.
VorDaj on February 7, 2012 at 2:54 PM
Uhm… that wasn’t a misunderstanding. That’s what it is. Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, specifically said during his program on Sirius XM, that they were going to engage in civil disobedience over this law if it came to that.
Shump on February 7, 2012 at 2:58 PM
The Obama administration edited a letter from a bishop to be read to congregants from the pulpit. That would seem to violate both the establishment and free exercise clauses of the first amendment.
dczombie on February 7, 2012 at 2:59 PM