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.” ( )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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