This might as well be an article from the height of the USSR.
The Daily Caller – by Alex Pappas
In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown.
“With the government shutdown, many [government service] and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer,” wrote John Schlageter, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, in an op-ed this week. “During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”
According to its website, the Archdiocese for the Military Services “provides the Catholic Church’s full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces.”
In his piece, Schlageter worries about this restriction as Sunday nears. “If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors,” he wrote.
Because of the lack of active-duty Catholic chaplains, the military relies on hiring civilian priests to serve as government service and contract ministers. Those civilian priests are not allowed on the bases during a shutdown, Schlageter wrote.
One Republican lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee told The Daily Caller on Friday that this “crosses a constitutional line.”
“The constitutional rights of those who put their lives on the line for this nation do not end with a government slowdown,” Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, a graduate of West Point and an Army veteran, said in a Friday statement. ”It is completely irresponsible for the president to turn his back on every American’s First Amendment rights by furloughing military contract clergy.”
Added Pompeo: “The President’s strategy during the slowdown, just as during the sequestration, is to create as much pain as possible. However, this action crosses a constitutional line of obstructing every U.S. service member’s ability to practice his or her religion.”
UPDATE: A number of politicians have weighed in on the matter after this story was published:
The House will vote tomorrow morning to affirm the right of all military chaplains to conduct services during the shutdown.
— Eric Cantor (@EricCantor) October 5, 2013
These priests have 1st Amendment right to practice faith. Hope POTUS takes possible criminal penalties off the table http://t.co/aMqy2zhZgn
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) October 4, 2013
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Sent to us by a reader.
Just wondering if we are still arming Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood during the shutdown? The war must go on, but we can’t allow the chaplains in the military??
TIME TO REMOVE THE TYRANTS
Well now you know what an alleged “government shutdown” looks like.
The government keep stealing, steps up the tyrannizing, and does all they can to hurt the population until they agree to keep traitors on the payroll.
It’s not a “shutdown”. It’s extortion that demands you give them more money so they can continue killing you. A real government shutdown involves a lot of heads rolling through the streets.
lol Damn right…
So let me get this straight. The DC cops are not getting paid. They kill an unarmed woman with a child a foot away from her and receive a standing ovation, but a priest will be arrested for reading the bible in a room on a government facility? Time is near.
Not the least surprising.
Foretold long ago.