As a Catholic here are my reasons regarding the need.
1. The way each on base chapel determines how many masses will be needed at the chapel occurs every Sept. They actually have parishioners fill out questionnaires. From there they(the military) determine how many masses they will have for each religion at the base chapel. Highest amount of parishioners wins!
The religion that has the most parishioners typically also get the prime times. At every base we lived on, there were no less than 3 Catholic Masses. Protestant might have 2 services. There are no Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist only masses, just Protestant. That illustrates how many Catholics attend mass on base.
2. When deployments occur, a Chaplain will rotate in with the service members. That means they need to bring in a Priest from outside, and in the Catholic world, they are fewer and fewer each yr. These priests would be considered contract since they are not military.
~~~ If the chapel is closed where will they get the chaplains for deployments? When not deployed where would their office be if the chapel is closed, would they now be the PA officer unless deployed?
~~~ A few yrs ago our priest was PCS'd and for about a month the on base priest was on loan from the Arch Diocese. That would mean during the shutdown there would be no on base services.
3. As a Catholic, there are what we consider 2 types of Catholics, and no, I am not talking about the Christeaster type
. As an example, I consider myself a Vatican II Catholic. Lack of better words, the liberal Catholic. The other is Vatican I, the conservative Catholic.
~~~ The Church does not recognize that there is a Vatican II type, but they do acknowledge many parishioners believe there is a difference.
At SJAFB, there is only 1 Catholic church off base. It is a town with a ton of Baptist and Methodist churches, basically 1 on every block
The off base church is not my cup of tea....they make Vatican I look like Vatican II. They place up a sign every yr. on their grounds, tallying how many abortions have been performed this past yr. The priest one time thought we did not sing the opening hymn loud enough that when he got up to the altar, he said not good enough, walked back out and made us sing it again! If that wasn't enough he stopped and gently slapped a child in the face when he re-entered and said LOUDER!
We never returned and will never return.
Thus, if the SJAFB priest could not perform mass, than I would be watching mass on tv that Sunday because I would not attend mass there.
4. At some old bases/posts they have Catholic Churches on base. Ft. Leavenworth had 2 (1 burned down in 2001). These churches were built by Grant when he lived there. The Army made a deal with the Arch Diocese that they could have the buildings as long as they remain Catholic only and supply a priest at all times.
~~~~ Thus, there are other reasons that are not necessarily obvious to everyone why they offer the services. So if there is some lovely old, old church on base/post, there maybe a chance that the building is basically on loan to the base/post.
5. As a fliers wife, when you get to any base, one of the 1st things the flier will be asked to do is fill out that lovely questionnaire of what to do if?
~~~~ One question is who would you like to be notified by, and who would you like to be with them, it says chaplain, friends, please name.
Right after that it asks about funeral decisions, such as church.
After that it asks about how family members (parents) should be notified...if military, chaplain to go too...Yes or No.
Another reason why chaplains and churches are needed stateside.
Bullet served 20 yrs., and we lived off base for every tour, but 1, yet we always went to church on base. It was our Sunday ritual. Church, CCD, Commissary, home. We basically spent the day with our friends because that was their ritual too, so we kept bumping into them.
Finally, our DS ADAF O1 will be getting married next May, and the Priest there is contracted. When I heard about this, my heart broke, because can you imagine planning your wedding for a yr., paying for flowers, gown, reception, etc., to find out only 5 days prior you can't get married because as an on base ADAF parishioner the GOVT won't let it occur due to a shutdown? Yep, bet your bottom dollar that occurred. It made talk radio news here. There were brides, grooms, parents calling in saying they were informed the priest was not allowed to perform the ceremony because they were contracted.
