California - Navy Cancels Catholic Masses, Continues Other Religious Services At Its Military Bases

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A shortage of Catholic priests within the Navy’s clergy, the Chaplain Corps, necessitated the contracting of non-military Catholic priests to lead religious services on bases.
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The Navy forbade active-duty personnel from attending religious services off base, according to a July-published report in National Review .
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So where do active naval personnel attend mass? Why does that become a problem? Priest travel everywhere. Catholic chaplains have always been a big part of the military.
 
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gam197 said:
Catholic chaplains have always been a big part of the military.
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The navy would love to have more Catholic chaplains. There’s a priest shortage everywhere, unfortunately.
 
RolandThompsonGunner said:
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gam197:
Catholic chaplains have always been a big part of the military.
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The navy would love to have more Catholic chaplains. There’s a priest shortage everywhere, unfortunately.
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They have not allowed their naval personnel to attend mass off base because of the virus yet they chose this time in history to cancel Catholic masses. They can find a priest somewhere who will do masses.
 
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gam197 said:
They have not allowed their naval personnel to attend mass off base because of the virus yet they chose this time in history to cancel Catholic masses. They can find a priest somewhere who will do masses.
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They haven’t “canceled Catholic masses”, they just don’t have enough Catholic chaplains and people can’t attend religious services out in town, which is not usually the case.
 
RolandThompsonGunner said:
They haven’t “canceled Catholic masses”, they just don’t have enough Catholic chaplains and people can’t attend religious services out in town, which is not usually the case.
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They certainly can get a Catholic priest to come in and say masses It has to do with the budget.

From article…
The U.S. Navy will end its provision of Catholic Masses at its bases in San Diego, California, over budgetary restraints —
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Catholic Masses at San Diego-area Navy bases have ended because the Navy, in what it says is a cost-cutting move, has declined to renew its contracts with Catholic priests, and there are not enough Catholic chaplains on active duty to fill the void.
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gam197 said:
They certainly can get a Catholic priest to come in and say masses It has to do with the budget.
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I know. But they’re not specifically cutting the funding for Catholic priests, it’s for all contracted clergy. It just hits us harder because of the priest shortage.
 
RolandThompsonGunner said:
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gam197:
They certainly can get a Catholic priest to come in and say masses It has to do with the budget.
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I know. But they’re not specifically cutting the funding for Catholic priests, it’s for all contracted clergy. It just hits us harder because of the priest shortage
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If there is no shortage of Protestants, Jews or Muslims clergy, then the budget for contracted Pastors, Rabbis and Inmans would seem to be smaller. The budget for Catholic priests would seem to be larger.

At any rate, the Navy has billions in their budget, and San Diego has a large military base so a few priests on contract would not seem like a major budget drain.
 
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gam197 said:
If there is no shortage of Protestants, Jews or Muslims clergy, then the budget for contracted Pastors, Rabbis and Inmans would seem to be smaller. The budget for Catholic priest would seem to be larger.
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Protestants don’t have to contract clergy because they don’t have a shortage of chaplains. I think you’re a little confused about how chaplains work in the military.

Chaplain officers are active duty military officers, just like pilots, submariners, or infantry officers. They might be a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, a Jewish rabbi, etc. Because of the priest shortage, there aren’t enough active duty Catholic chaplains to serve the military population.

The way the Navy has been making up the difference is if there is a shortage of chaplains for some particular denomination (not necessarily Catholic) they’ll pay a civilian cleric to come on base and provide services. Again, this isn’t a Catholic thing. I’ve seen civilian imams paid to conduct Muslim services on the base when there isn’t an active duty Muslim chaplain.

That’s whats going away. It’s not specifically aimed at Catholics; it just hits us harder because we’re one of the biggest users of contracted clergy as opposed to active duty chaplains.
 
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RolandThompsonGunner said:
Protestants don’t have to contract clergy because they don’t have a shortage of chaplains. I think you’re a little confused about how chaplains work in the military.

Chaplain officers are active duty military officers, just like pilots, submariners, or infantry officers. They might be a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, a Jewish rabbi, etc. Because of the priest shortage, there aren’t enough active duty Catholic chaplains to serve the military population.
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Yes I get that there is a shortage of active duty Catholic chaplains and that is why and that they pay a civilian to come onto the base.
RolandThompsonGunner said:
. I’ve seen civilian imams paid to conduct Muslim services on the base when there isn’t an active duty Muslim chaplain.
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So they do it for others just not as often.

San Diego’s Naval base has 20,000 Navy personnel and 6000 civilians living on the base. It would seem a Catholic priest would be essential. This is like a small city.
 
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gam197 said:
San Diego’s Naval base has 20,000 Navy personnel and 6000 civilians living on the base. It would seem a Catholic priest would be essential. This is like a small city.
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I certainly agree more Catholic chaplains would be a good thing; I’m in the military myself and run into way more Protestant chaplains than Catholic.

Keep in mind, though, that this is an unusual time with COVID. Under normal circumstances, it’s really not that dire. Most of the military personnel don’t actually live on the base, so they just attend Sunday mass somewhere in San Diego like anyone else. Obviously with COVID that’s not possible, but under normal circumstances it’s not like a Catholic in the Navy would have no way to get to Mass on Sunday.
 
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RolandThompsonGunner said:
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gam197:
San Diego’s Naval base has 20,000 Navy personnel and 6000 civilians living on the base. It would seem a Catholic priest would be essential. This is like a small city.
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I certainly agree more Catholic chaplains would be a good thing; I’m in the military myself and run into way more Protestant chaplains than Catholic.

Keep in mind, though, that this is an unusual time with COVID. Under normal circumstances, it’s really not that dire. Most of the military personnel don’t actually live on the base, so they just attend Sunday mass somewhere in San Diego like anyone else.
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With Covid, Isn’t that a reason at this time to be even more vigilant in paying a priest to come onto the base - say the mass or talk with military families.
 
gam197 said:
With Covid, Isn’t that a reason at this time to be even more vigilant in paying a priest to come onto the base - say the mass or talk with military families.
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It’s certainly not the time I’d pick to stop funding contracted clergy, I agree.

I just object to Breitbart, as usual, implying something misleading. This isn’t aimed specifically at Catholics. Any religion or denomination without a local active duty chaplain is temporarily screwed.
 
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