Tag Archives: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC)

Reviewing A Violation Of The First Amendment

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On April 10, I posted an article about Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) terminating a Catholic pastoral care contract with a community of Franciscan Catholic priests and friars during Holy Week. Evidently I was not the only one concerned about this move.

On April 12, The Daily Caller reported the following:

The Pentagon’s health agency said Tuesday it is reviewing a contract for chaplaincy services at Walter Reed Military Medical Center after facing backlash for sending a “cease and desist” letter to the Franciscan Friars at Holy Name College Friary in Silver Spring, Maryland, according to the Washington Times.

The Defense Health Agency (DHA) terminated a 20-year relationship with the Friars on March 31, just before Easter Sunday, instead awarding a contract to a private firm that Catholic authorities say cannot provide chaplain services according to their religious tradition, because chaplains must work for a bishop, not a private company.  Congressional Republicans sent a letter Tuesday to DHA calling the decision “unconscionable,” prompting a promise from Walter Reed to reevaluate the contract, the Washington Times reported.

The contract “is under review to ensure it adequately supports the religious needs of our patients and beneficiaries,” Walter Reed told the outlet in a statement Tuesday.

The article notes:

Senate and House GOP lawmakers, led by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said Mack Global LLC, the secular professional services company receiving the contract, lacks the ability to provide appropriate religious services to veterans and service members. Allowing Mack Global to proceed with the contract “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,” the letter stated.

This was an attack on the religious freedom of the military members who were at Walter Reed Hospital. Hopefully, the reaction will be strong enough to end the contract of Mack Global, LLC, and give it back to the Catholic Church.

Religious Freedom?

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On Saturday, American Greatness reported the following:

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) terminated a Catholic pastoral care contract with a community of Franciscan Catholic priests and friars during Holy Week, barring them from providing religious services to the faithful throughout the most sacred days of the Christian calendar.  In a statement Friday, the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) decried the move as a violation of First Amendment Right to Free Exercise of Religion.

The naval hospital has issued a “cease and desist order” to Holy Name College, directing their Catholic priests and brothers to cease any religious services at Walter Reed Bethesda. Holy Name College has provided pastoral care to service members and veterans at Walter Reed for nearly two decades.

Below is part of the statement released by the Archdiocese for the Military Services:

The Franciscans’ contract for Catholic Pastoral Care was terminated on March 31, 2023, and awarded to a secular defense contracting firm that cannot fulfill the statement of work in the contract. As a result, adequate pastoral care is not available for service members and veterans in the United States’ largest Defense Health Agency medical center either during Holy Week or beyond. There is one Catholic Army chaplain assigned to Walter Reed Medical Center, but he is in the process of separating from the Army.

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, condemned the move as an encroachment on the First Amendment guarantee of the Free Exercise of Religion. Archbishop Broglio said: “It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care is taken away from the sick and the aged when it was so readily available. This is a classic case where the adage ‘if it is not broken, do not fix it’ applies. I fear that giving a contract to the lowest bidder overlooked the fact that the bidder cannot provide the necessary service. I earnestly hope that this disdain for the sick will be remedied at once and their First Amendment rights will be respected.”

Ms. Elizabeth A. Tomlin, Esq., General Counsel of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), has reached out to the contracting officers at Walter Reed numerous times throughout Holy Week asking for the Franciscans’ Catholic ministry to be reinstated at least through Easter. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has not responded to these requests from the Archdiocese.

While Walter Reed’s chaplain office claims Catholic care is being provided during Holy Week, the AMS maintains that without Catholic priests present at the medical center, service members and veterans are being denied the constitutional right to practice their religion.

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is one of many medical centers within the Department of Defense and Defense Health Agency whose pastoral care lies within AMS jurisdiction. The refusal to provide adequate pastoral care while awarding a contract for Catholic ministry to a for-profit company that has no way of providing Catholic priests to the medical center is a glaring violation of service members’ and veterans’ Right to the Free Exercise of Religion. Especially, during Holy Week, the lack of adequate Catholic pastoral care causes untold and irreparable harm to Catholics who are hospitalized and therefore a captive population whose religious rights the government has a constitutional duty to provide for and protect.

This is an obvious violation of both the First Amendment and of basic American customs. The North Carolina legislature passed a law that prevented hospitals from prohibiting pastors and priests from ministering to patients in the hospital (even during the pandemic). This should NOT stand.