GOP Demands Pentagon Answers on Ending Catholic Priest Contract

One day after the House GOP has subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray over a scheme to infiltrate and spy on Catholic Americans, GOP senators and House members are now asking the Pentagon why it terminated its pastoral care contract at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The Pentagon’s “cease and desist order” came during Holy Week of all times, which a bicameral group of GOP lawmakers denounced as “utterly unconscionable.”

“Depriving service members and veterans, who are receiving care, of the ability to enter into the Paschal Mystery with priests is utterly unconscionable,” the GOP letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin read. “Doctors are advocating for minors to receive experimental gender transition procedures, but no one seems to be advocating for the right of our service members and veterans to receive the most important sacraments during this most sacred time of year.”

The letter was signed by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Roger Marshall, R-Kan.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; and Reps. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.; Michael Waltz, R-Fla.; Cory Mills, R-Fla.; Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.; Jim Banks, R-Ind.; Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa; and Carlos Giménez, R-Fla.

The GOP lawmakers noted the Biden administration terminated the contract of the Holy Name College Friary and then awarded it to a secular contractor.

“We understand that the new contract was awarded to a for-profit secular defense contracting firm that is unable to fill the needs assigned,” the letter continued. “Specifically, the firm has no way of providing Catholic priests to Walter Reed, which would deny service members and veterans the rights and abilities to practice their religion and participate in certain practices such as pastoral care and the sacraments which can only be carried out by an ordained Catholic priest, including celebrating Holy Mass and hearing Confessions.

“We have made promises to our service members and veterans that if they take care of us, we will take care of them. This extends to not just providing quality healthcare at our nation’s military medical facilities, but by also providing the ability to freely practice their religion to those under the care at these facilities.

“It is a tenet engrained in the very fabric of who we are as a country, and the DoD’s actions to deny Catholic Pastoral Care from service members and veterans at Walter Reed goes against the morals, way of life, and rights that make up the fabric of our great nation.”