Is the Navy discriminating against Catholic priests?
As our readers now know, there are 11 holy priests saying TLMs either weekly or monthly for the relief of the enrolled souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. One of those priests -- who says the Traditional Mass for the Society every Friday -- is an American military chaplain.
As a military chaplain, he's always concerned about the lack of priests in the military, and the chance that Catholic servicemen will be wooed to heresy by Protestant ministers looking for converts. Now, however, he's alerted me that the Navy is forcing Catholic priests out at the age of 62, while Protestants are allowed to stay. What is more troubling is that he is hearing high-ranking Navy officials basically saying, "Who cares, we have plenty of other chaplains who can 'minister' to the Catholics. They can do whatever priests can do."
Below, you'll find a column penned by His Excellency Edwin O'Brien, current Archbishop of Baltimore and former Military Archbishop. He certainly calls the Navy out for discrimination and urges everyone to contact their elected officials in Washington and ask them to change the age ban on chaplains so that priests can serve as long as their minds, bodies and God allow.
CLICK HERE to read H.E. O'Brien's column.
CLICK HERE to write your member of Congress.
CLICK HERE to write your senator.
After you do all that, there's another message that needs to be sent.
This one is for H.E. O'Brien who, while we certainly support his effort to protect Catholic priests, we need to send a gentle, respectful reminder. The reminder is, if you want the military officials to know why Catholic priests are so special, and why a Protestant can't simply do what a Catholic priest can do, then maybe it's time our Masses stop resembling their services and we drop the false ecumenism nonsense that blends the true Faith together with false religions.
Maybe, just maybe, if the Protestant officials would see a daily Traditional Low Mass and a Missa Cantata on Sundays, with lines to confessions a mile long as their are before Mass at all traditional churches, then just maybe they'd see the difference between their false sects and the Catholic Faith. Maybe you'd even convert some well-minded young Protestants over to the true Faith.
So,
CLICK HERE to write to H.E. O'Brien. Ask him to, one, actually begin the process of implementing
Summorum Pontificum in his Archdiocese after three years. He will claim he has a priest shortage. Yet, he won't allow the
FSSP or anyone else into the Archdiocese to attend to traditional Catholics. And, except for one long-standing Mass in downtown Baltimore that
precedes his becoming Archbishop, those an hour away in Annapolis have not a single Mass even once a year, even though they have over 150 names on a petition.
Also ask him to dedicate his next column to tradition and how Catholics acting like Catholics in public, and the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments, can help bring new priests into the military and truly distinguish themselves from the Protestant ministers. I'm told H.E. O'Brien, when he headed the Military Archdiocese, allowed the TLM. And he should be thanked for that. Now, maybe, he should urge the TLM to be said for our troops daily and help get every single chaplain trained to say it.
And please remember to follow @RorateCaeli on Twitter.
