Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese of Military Services (AMS) issued an Oct. 17 letter denouncing the Army’s cancellation of a sweeping number of on-base religious education coordinators’ chapel contracts as an intolerable infringement of free exercise of religion for Catholics in the United States Army.
“In canceling these contracts, the Army over-burdens Catholic chaplains, harms chapel communities, and impedes the constitutional guarantee of the free exercise of religion especially for Catholics,” Archbishop Broglio wrote in a letter to the faithful in the AMS. “The cancellation of chapel contracts may appear to be a neutral elimination of chapel support which itself affects the free exercise of religion for all soldiers.”
“However, this action disproportionately harms Catholics,” he continued, “first, because Catholic chaplains are already so low density and in such high demand, and second because the Catholic faith requires continuing religious education and sacramental preparation that can only be accomplished through competent support.”
Archbishop Broglio’s letter is also being sent to every member of Congress, an AMS press release states.
According to the archbishop, beginning Oct. 5, there was a lack of music at Masses on base, and contract services and contractor offices related to faith formation were dark. This was not due to the government shutdown, he wrote, but a memorandum issued in March by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command canceling all chapel contracts for musicians, Coordinators of Religious Education (CRE), and Catholic Pastoral Life Coordinators (CPLC) across the Army.
Archbishop Broglio said he “will pursue all legal options to address this grave misstep.”
He explained that contracted CREs and CPLCs provided essential services such as overseeing religious education and coordinating catechist certification training for thousands of catechist volunteers at military chapels for decades.
The archbishop said he has met with the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Chaplains throughout the past several months to discuss “the severe, negative impact that the cancellation of these chapel contracts will have on Catholic soldiers serving in the U.S. Army and their families entrusted to my care.”
He denounced the Army’s offered solution as impossible and scandalous.
Archbishop Broglio said he has been told that Directors of Religious Education (DREs) and Religious Affairs Specialists (RAS) will “cover down” on the work done by Coordinators of Religious Education and Catholic Pastoral Life Coordinators.
“Obviously, that has not happened, and it is, in fact, impossible,” he wrote. RASs are not required to have any faith, DREs are not required to be Catholic, and only eight DREs across the entire Army are Catholic, he explained. There is also no “specific training for RASs in the Catholic faith, catechesis, or catechetical methodology that would equip them to oversee religious education,” Archbishop Broglio wrote. “Most DREs and RASs do not possess the fundamental qualification of a CRE, CPLC, or catechist, namely, to profess the Catholic faith. To put these individuals in charge of Catholic religious education lacks common sense and is scandalous.”
The archbishop emphasized that working in Catholic catechesis is a divine vocation chosen in love of God and neighbor, and wrote that canceling the contracts “reduces ministry outreach and community life to a programmatic task rather than a spiritual life to accompany and nourish.”
Archbishop Broglio emphasized his gratitude for those serving the Catholic communities in the U.S. army through religious education, writing that “CREs, CPLCs, and catechists experience keenly the truth which Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo and Doctor of the Church, offered in The Confessions, namely, that the restlessness of heart of those in religious education begins to recognize a longing to encounter and know God.”
The number of Catholic military families and soldiers places an expansive pastoral responsibility on Catholic chaplains, he wrote. About 20% of all soldiers are Catholic, and there are 137 Catholic chaplains total serving in the active and reserve components of the Army, according to Archbishop Broglio. He added that Catholic chaplains are typically assigned full-time to units such as brigades and battalions, so meeting the demands of both this role and chapel programs’ daily operations is impossible without professional support from contractors such as CREs and CPCLs.
According to the archbishop, some Army leaders have suggested for Catholics in the AMS to go off-post for Mass and religious education.
“This flimsy offering implicitly acknowledges the harm done to Catholics at military chapels, but it also fails to acknowledge the reality that many soldiers are stationed abroad, in non-Christian countries, where Mass is not available, and religious education is certainly not available in English,” he continued, adding that there are also remote places in the United States where Catholics on base may not have access to faith formation beyond the military chapel.
“The Army’s action intolerably infringes upon the free exercise of religion for Catholics in the U.S. Army, as well as my responsibility as Archbishop, to provide pastoral care to those within my canonical jurisdiction,” he wrote.
The archbishop recalled the words of Pope Leo XIV’s emphasizing the importance of religious education, especially for children, who the Pontiff said “have a right to knowledge as a fundamental requirement for the recognition of human dignity.”
He urged Catholics in the AMS to continue attending Mass on base and offering their time and talents in religious education and sacramental preparation.
“Saint Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12, ‘Now the body is not a single part, but many,’” he concluded. “I depend upon your generosity in serving in military chapels to continue to propagate the Catholic faith throughout this Archdiocese and build the body of Christ’s Church. Your service changes lives and reaches souls.”
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