Is Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Violating Free Exercise of Religion?

Is Walter Reed violating free exercise of religion? The short answer to this question appears to be “Yes!”  Two days before the beginning of Holy Week, the most important date on the calendar of Christians worldwide, the historic Walter Reed National Military Medical Center issued a cease-and-desist order against a Catholic group that had been providing religious ministries for over two decades to U.S. service members, their families, and the staff at the hospital.

This baffling decision by the military medical center left thousands of injured and recovering service members, veterans, and their families without crucial spiritual care for Holy Week. Remember, as a medical center, these individuals often can’t leave to attend a nearby church. They are receiving critical medical care.

On the Friday before Palm Sunday, Franciscans from nearby Holy Name College were told they were no longer welcome on the medical campus; their contract with the facility had expired.  Further, there was no plan in place to provide mass or to hear confessions.  The one Catholic army chaplain was about to retire, and there was no way he could perform all the religious ministrations that are part of Holy Week anyway.

The timing of this decision is suspect at best. To make matters worse, the contract for the religious services at Walter Reed was given to a secular, for-profit company, Mack Global.  Oddly enough, this corporation does not even employ a Catholic priest to assign to the medical center.  Religious support is apparently not Mack Global’s primary mission, as the company website emphasizes telework consulting services, transportation and roadway services, and professional development and training.  The website also states they offer administrative and religious staffing, but apparently, they do not provide chaplains or other civilian clergy.

An iconic medical center for the care of wounded soldiers and veterans, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center was the Army’s flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011, when it was combined with Bethesda Naval Medical Center to form the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC).  It has a patient capacity of over 5,000 rooms.  It is a military post, or base—run by and for the U.S. Armed Forces and their family members.

The removal of the clergy from the military hospital is unconscionable on multiple levels, not the least of which is the critical importance of the free exercise of religion, which is not only a constitutional principle but also foundational to our men and women in uniform.  Military regulations, such as Army Regulation 165-1, are clear as to the necessity of providing for the religious needs of those in uniform.  The service-specific regulations make clear that the religious program on any military installation belongs to the commander. Chaplains and other religious professionals do their work on behalf of each commander.

The director (i.e. commander) of Walter Reed is Navy Captain Felix Bigby.  He either knew—or should have known—that the Mack Global contract would not meet the religious requirements of the facility that he commands.  As far as the civilian priests who served Walter Reed and then were dismissed just before Palm Sunday, it is quite common for military installations to use civilian clergy to take care of service members and their families when a chaplain cannot do so.  In my 26 years of service, every installation on which I served used civilian contract clergy, especially for groups experiencing a shortage of uniformed chaplains—such as Jews, Muslims, and Catholics.  Catholics, in particular, have specific religious needs that only a priest or bishop can perform.  Awarding a religious support contract to a secular company that does not employ a priest is the theological equivalent of hiring a surgeon who did not go to medical school.

According to the Catholic Review, Mack Global bid slightly lower than the Franciscan clergy in the new contract.  However, Catholic ministry at a military facility involves specific ministry requirements and details that a secular contractor might not understand. The contract includes not only priests but also musicians and other support personnel. Additionally, the archbishop for armed forces is required to give official permission for any Catholic sacramental ministry in a military facility.  The Military Archdiocese was left completely out of the loop on this decision at Walter Reed.

This dustup at the largest military medical facility in the United States comes on the heels of other questionable actions by the federal government under the Biden Administration.  Just a couple of months ago, an FBI whistleblower produced an internal FBI memo with instructions for agents to infiltrate the Catholic Church to spy on “radical traditionalist Catholics and their ideology.”  The Biden Administration is so committed to the right to abort children that it has filed lawsuits against states that limit abortion, and it has spoken out against Christians merely because they are pro-life.  Armed FBI agents even raided the home of a pro-life activist and terrified his wife and children.  The Department of Justice expressed concerns over parents at school board meetings who wanted a say in the education of their children—suspecting that the parents might be domestic terrorists.

The Wall Street Journal recently listed several policy changes by the Biden Administration that target Christians and other people of faith.  For example, new regulations that govern programs in nine federal agencies rescind rules that allow faith-based organizations to participate in federal programs while adhering to the principles of their faith. The Department of Education is trying to end the Religious Liberty and Free Inquiry rule that protects student organizations from being targeted because administrators disagree with their beliefs.  The Health and Human Services Department seeks to require religious hospitals and doctors to perform procedures to which they object—including abortions and gender-transition surgeries on minors.  Such examples of federal attacks on religion could go on and on.

Lawmakers are demanding answers from the Department of Defense regarding the priests being banned from Walter Reed Medical Center.  The decision to order the clergy out of the hospital left our troops and their families with very limited options for religious services in the week leading up to Easter—or for Catholics confined to the hospital, no options at all.  But this action is indicative of a Department of Defense that is obsessed with woke ideology and does not understand the significance of religious freedom at one of its major installations.  It also points to an Administration that is no friend to religion—unless you happen to agree with its policies.