(LifeSiteNews) — Twenty-six congressmen have written to the U.S. Secretary of Defense demanding to know why the largest Defense Health Agency medical center in the country has ordered Catholic priests to “cease and desist” their pastoral care.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center told the Franciscan Holy Name College Friary community, who have served military members and veterans at the center for over 20 years, to discontinue all Masses, sacraments, and other ministry upon termination of their contract with the center on March 31, just prior to Holy Week.
The center has opted instead to contract with the secular Mack Global, LLC, which supplies industrial machinery, raw materials, and training equipment. “As a result, adequate pastoral care is not available” for patients at the center, the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) noted, particularly since the remaining Catholic chaplain assigned to the center “is in the process of separating from the Army.”
A group of Republican congressmen, led by Republican Mary Miller of Illinois, have since written to President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, slamming the administration’s decision as a violation of the First Amendment rights of the center’s patients and demanding “an immediate explanation from the Biden Administration” for the move.
“It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care was taken away from the sick and the aged at Walter Reed during Holy Week and beyond,” chimed in Virginia Republican co-signer Ben Cline, adding, “worse still” is that their continued spiritual need was ignored in favor of a contract with a secular defense firm.
“Sometimes these priests are the only ones who can reach those struggling with the dark and painful wounds of war,” noted another co-signer, Republican Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who went on to condemn the decision as a “hateful assault on Christianity,” pledging, “We will be investigating this.”
Along with Cline, Miller was joined in her letter to Austin by Congressional co-signers Jim Banks, Paul Gosar, Byron Donalds, Tom Tiffany, Scott Perry, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs, Warren Davidson, Matt Rosendale, Lauren Boebert, Ralph Norman, Bob Good, Keith Self, Debbie Lesko, Andrew Clyde, Josh Brecheen, Brian Babin, Andy Harris, Diana Harshbarger, Michael Cloud, Eli Crane, and Alex X. Mooney.
Republican U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith of New Jersey wrote a separate letter to Austin likewise requesting an explanation for the decision to drop the contract with the Catholic priests in favor of a “for-profit defense contractor.”
Even if Walter Reed’s remaining chaplain, who is in the process of ending his work with the military, is replaced, “to require one chaplain to serve the population at one of the largest military medical centers in the world is burdensome, unreasonable,” and shows “lack of attention to the spiritual needs of our nation’s service members,” Smith said.
He further observed that the Department of Defense’s (DOD) move was part of a larger pattern of the executive branch’s disregard for First Amendment religious rights.
Considering the “large number of denials for religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine,” the FBI’s plans to surveil Virginia Catholics, “and the failure of [the Department of Justice] to prosecute repeated anti-Catholic vandalism at churches,” Smith maintained that the decision to drop the priests “raises serious concerns” about the executive branch’s respect for First Amendment protections and the “religious rights of Catholics” in the U.S.
Walter Reed Medical Center issued a statement after the decision that failed to address whether the needs of its Catholic patients would be met through other priests.
“Currently a review of the pastoral care contract is under review to ensure it adequately supports the religious needs of our patients and beneficiaries,” said the hospital statement, noting that a Catholic priest would remain at the hospital for Easter Sunday Mass. “Although at this time the Franciscan Diocese will not be hosting services on Sunday parishioners of the Diocese while patients at our facilities may still seek their services,” the statement continued.
The AMS issued a scathing response to the removal of the priests, which they also characterized as unconstitutional.
“The refusal to provide adequate pastoral care while awarding a contract for Catholic ministry to a for-profit company that has no way of providing Catholic priests to the medical center is a glaring violation of service members’ and veterans’ Right to the Free Exercise of Religion,” AMS stated.
“Especially during Holy Week, the lack of adequate Catholic pastoral care causes untold and irreparable harm to Catholics who are hospitalized and therefore a captive population whose religious rights the government has a constitutional duty to provide for and protect,” the statement continued.
Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., condemned the move in a statement shared by the AMS.
“It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care is taken away from the sick and the aged when it was so readily available … I earnestly hope that this disdain for the sick will be remedied at once and their First Amendment rights will be respected,” Broglio wrote.