Business Insider is reporting that Timothy Broglio, Archbishop of the Military, sent out a letter protesting the HHS mandate to his chaplains and instructed his priests to read it at all Masses. However, shortly after issuing the letter, the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out another communication forbidding the priests to read it because it seemed to encourage civil disobedience and could be seen as seditious against the Commander-in-Chief. Specifically, this charge was due to the sentence claiming that the Church "cannot and will not comply with this unjust law."
Several Catholic chaplains who spoke to the Insider off the record confirmed that many of their colleagues disobeyed the Army's instruction and read the letter anyway while others sought further instructions from their Archbishop.
Not long after sending the missive, Army officials realized that attempting to tell a chaplain what he can or cannot say about the Obama Administration is a clear violation of religious freedom, a stumble that was clarified in a new statement by the Archdiocese.
"Archbishop Broglio and the Archdiocese stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his Constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants," the statement said.
"Following a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and the Secretary of the Army, The Honorable John McHugh, it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the Archbishop's letter. Additionally, the line: 'We cannot-we will not-comply with this unjust law' was removed by Archbishop Broglio at the suggestion of Secretary McHugh over the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience."
The Insider said Catholic chaplains also received a confidential letter from the Archdiocese instructing them to contact the Military Archdiocesan lawyer in case of any more interference or punishment.
"The Archdiocese believes that any attempt to keep a chaplain from freely teaching and preaching the Catholic faith, for which you were endorsed, is a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. If any of you are in any way punished or slated for punitive action, I ask that you kindly call our Archdiocesan Attorney, John L. Schlageter, Esq. . . . and he will immediately place you into contact with a Religious Freedom Law Firm that will be most willing to take your case free of charge."
The letter also clarifies that the Archbishop's letter "concerns a moral, not a political issue."
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