You’re right about the reason. When I worked for the government the rule was nobody works overtime without prior authorization and funding. When I was a manager, people would sometimes stay late and say they had to wait for a ride and wanted to finish up a few things. I tried to send them home, but couldn’t just physically kick them out of the building. Yet, if anyone from upper management had seen them still at work past quitting time, even voluntarily, I could have been fired or disciplined.Honestly, this sounds mostly like government rule-following gone awry.
The general principle is that a contracted or wage employee may not perform work without pay. These laws were meant to protect employees from being coerced into “volunteering”, but they are often followed to stupid extremes. (For example, at a department store we were legally prohibited from telling a customer where to find something while on break.) So the base could get in serious trouble for allowing the priest to say Mass.
The easy way around this would be just to move priests around until the shutdown is over. The rules only apply to people who work for the government, not to people who are pure volunteers. Send in priests from the local diocese to say Mass as volunteers on the base, and ask the chaplains to fill in at the local parishes.
The rules are stupid, but sometimes it’s easier to work around them. I doubt there’s any malice here so much as people trying to follow all the regulations to the letter.
Rep. William Enyart, D-Illinois, according to CNNI wonder who the lone person was that voted against this?
patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2013/10/house-approves-resolution-to-allow-mass-on-military-installations-during-shutdown/
Thanks. I would love to know what his reason was to vote no.Rep. William Enyart, D-Illinois, according to CNN
I seriously doubt that the Church would throw away a priest just because he happened to get arrested in a situation like this.Well, yeah, arrest and imprisonment might be an honorable martyrdom, but when you face losing your career, it becomes increasingly thorny. Is a young priest going to throw away 30-40 years of future Masses just for one week while Congress gets her act together?
More to the point, there’s enough other options (other priests volunteering or masses just off-base) that such a move would be pointless. It does not violate our faith if people don’t have the priest or location they desire.Well, yeah, arrest and imprisonment might be an honorable martyrdom, but when you face losing your career, it becomes increasingly thorny. Is a young priest going to throw away 30-40 years of future Masses just for one week while Congress gets her act together?
Exactly what I was thinking. Concentrate on getting Mass happening, off base if necessary, rather than scoring a political point with unnecessary protest.Also, this could have something to do with an earlier article about security clearances. With the shutdown anyone not cleared won’t be any time soon.
The priests can celebrate Mass OFF BASE without facing any consequences until the government is back up and running.
Military career, not Church ministry.I seriously doubt that the Church would throw away a priest just because he happened to get arrested in a situation like this.
These are not, repeat, NOT uniformed military chaplains. These are civilian, repeat, CIVILIAN contractors who have been hired to perform duties on military bases. This fact has been known from the beginning to people who actually read the articles.Military career, not Church ministry.
Yes, I know. Is a priest who was arrested for disobeying regs and superiors going to have a future career with the military in any form? Especially if he’s not commissioned but a contractor?!
I think Dave’s point is that a civilian contractor priest will have many other places to go other than the military. More than likely he can’t even expect to be assigned to the military for very long.These are not, repeat, NOT uniformed military chaplains. These are civilian, repeat, CIVILIAN contractors who have been hired to perform duties on military bases. This fact has been known from the beginning to people who actually read the articles.