Saturday, March 11, 2017

A Man Cannot Have Two Masters: Catholics in the Military, Catholic Chaplains in the Military

             Can a faithful Catholic laymen or priest dutifully serve in the Military? I am reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” In the military we take an oath before God to protect the country against enemies. We also affirm to follow the orders from our officers above us. It is like how priests, then bishops, then the bishop of Rome have authority over us as Catholics even when we disagree with their decisions. In the same manner, all officers and those of higher rank have authority over us.
Jesus says that we can’t serve two masters, but is serving our country contrary to serving God? I believe we can secondarily serve our country while primarily serving Christ and his Church. I believe this is evident by the fact that we have a Chaplain’s Corp of priests who belong to the bishop of the Military Arch-Diocese. The Church wouldn’t have set up this program to reach out to military members if it wasn’t possible to serve our country while serving God without breaking this command.
The crux of the issue I believe is that there have been changes in the military doctrine and with political correctness making it more and more difficult for military Christians to serve faithfully.[ii] Specifically I would like to address the difficulty with homosexuality in America and how America doesn’t divorce actions from personhood. When Catholics affirm that the bible doesn’t believe homosexual acts are moral or natural, modern America hears that Catholics teach that homosexuals are immoral and unnatural. As a sergeant I can’t tell those under my command that they as a person are unnatural or immoral and so there appears to be a problem. While I haven’t experienced this problem with any homosexual airmen I have encountered even after explaining my beliefs accurately, I think that Chaplains could have a difficult time teaching without offending someone and receiving punishment for it.
Does the limiting of what a priest preaches do more harm than the Military Arch-Diocese helps? I think the benefits of having Military priests far outweigh the negatives, but not everyone thinks so. Tom Cornell wrote in America magazine,

“Priests enlist in the military as chaplains with the best of intentions: to serve pastoral needs. But this is not why they are commissioned as officers or what they are paid for. According to their employers, the chaplaincy’s purpose is to contribute to the military success of the unit to which the chaplain is attached. This purpose may cause cognitive dissonance for some chaplains. It is not unreasonable to assume that many, however, will resolve their distress in favor of the presuppositions of the officer corps of which they are a part and into which they have been socialized.”[iii]
Cornell believes that the influence of the interdenominational officer corps in which the priests are taught will bias the priests towards being military first and Catholic second. Cornell’s general opinion seems to be against military influence at all in the Middle Eastern wars. He writes in this piece about the difficulties chaplains could have in putting the Christian first when problems arise between conscience and duty. I won’t get into the justness or unjustness of the Middle Eastern wars, but I will say that I have seen firsthand tension between protestant pastor’s authority over Catholic priests. Decisions on how to run a parish must be run through those in authority over you, and this is not directly the bishop in the chaplain’s corps but might be a Baptist, Pentecostal or Lutheran. Questions on how to pray through lent or what to decorate the chapel in at Christmas are not solely the priest’s call but the officer above him.
In the end I believe that a juggling act between serving God first and through serving your country can be reached by priests and laymen alike. If we put God first then we will do what is best for our country and rather than serving two master’s we will realize that the authority of one is derived from the other and not contrary to. The possibility every day for us in the military is an order that will be immoral for Catholics. I hope that day doesn’t come for any of us, but if it does that we will all have the courage to stand for God.


[i] Accessed at https://www.pinterest.com/irishkathy1/keep-our-military-and-chaplains-in-prayer/on March 11, 2017.
[ii]  Jordan, Bryant.Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal for Gay Military Couples in All 50 States.” ( 26 Jun 2015 )Accessed at http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/06/26/same-sex-marriage-now-legal-for-gay-military-couples-in-all-50.html on March 11, 2017.
[iii] Cornell, Tom. 2008. “The Chaplain’s Dilemma.” America 199, no. 16:12-14. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 11, 2017).

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