In the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our Military Act, Catholics at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia are being denied religious services. The Catholic priest who serves this community has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay, and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest. Protestant services continue to take place.  Only Catholic services have been shutdown.

This is an astonishing attack on religious freedom by the federal government, and the latest affront towards the military since the beginning of the shutdown. 

As a result, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, today, filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Father Ray Leonard, a Catholic priest contracted to serve as base chaplain and Fred Naylor, one of Father Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with over 22 years of service. Fr. Leonard is a civilian Catholic Pastor contracted by the Department of Defense (DoD) to serve as a military chaplain at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia.

Fr. Leonard who served Tibetan populations in China for 10 years, informed the court in an affidavit; “In China, I was disallowed from performing public religious services due to the lack of religious freedom in China. I never imagined that when I returned home to the United States, that I would be forbidden from practicing my religious beliefs as I am called to do, and would be forbidden from helping and serving my faith community.”

On October 4, 2013, Fr. Leonard was ordered to stop performing all of his duties as the base’s Catholic Chaplain, even on a voluntary basis. He was also told that he could be arrested if he violated that order. The approximately 300 Catholic families, including Fred Naylor’s, served by Fr. Leonard at Kings Bay have been unable to attend Mass on base since the beginning of the shutdown.

Additionally, Fr. Leonard was locked out of his on-base office and the chapel. Fr. Leonard was also denied access to the Holy Eucharist and other articles of his Catholic faith. The order has caused the cancellation of daily and weekend mass, confession, marriage preparation classes and baptisms as well as prevented Fr. Leonard from providing the spiritual guidance he was called by his faith to provide.

The submarine base is remotely located.  It consists of roughly 16,000 acres, with 4,000 acres comprised of protected wetlands.  There are approximately 10,000 total people on the base. 

A Catholic Church is located off base in the town of St. Mary’s.  However, many of the parishioners both live and work on base and do not own a car and cannot otherwise access transportation.  Therefore a sixteen (16) mile journey to and from the off-base church is simply not possible.  Moreover, many of the sailors have an extremely limited amount of time off.  With their time highly regimented, they are not given a long enough break time for this exceptionally long walk and the Mass service.

Defendants in the lawsuit are the Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Department of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Department of the Navy, Ray Mabus.  

Currently, about 25% of the US Armed Forces is Catholic and due to a shortage of active duty Catholic Priests, the DoD contracts Catholic Priests to provide religious services, sacraments and support for other religious practices for military base communities. Catholic Priests serve the Military Archdiocese.

For active duty service members, on base religious services are extremely important given issues associated with off base transportation, extremely limited time off and the highly scheduled lifestyle of active military duty. Additionally, as service members tend to have high rates of divorce, depression and suicide, the need for readily available spiritual encouragement and guidance is critical.

The Pay Our Military Act, which was enacted before the beginning of the government shutdown, provides provisions for the funding of employees whose responsibilities contribute to the morale and well-being of the military. The government has previously been criticized for interpreting the Act to not include military death benefits. Now, in yet another bizarre interpretation of the Act, some chaplains are not considered covered by these provisions, leaving Catholic members of some military facilities without spiritual guidance.

In one of the most despicable and immoral acts of any president in the history of the United States, President Obama, the Commander in Chief, is playing politics over the dead bodies of American soldiers killed in action during the government shutdown. These soldiers were killed following his orders.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, “I cannot conceive of any other president in our history doing what Obama is doing in this situation.  As Commander in Chief, he signed the orders sending these young men into harm’s way.  They died following his orders.  Now he is denying their families the military’s “death gratuity” normally given within 3 days of the death, which covers funeral expenses and travel to Dover Air Force Base to receive the flag draped casket that holds their fallen hero. President Obama is callously adding to the unimaginable grief and the heavy burden these surviving loved ones carrying just to score some political points.”

Thompson continued, “The generals in the Pentagon and the combat general in the field also share in the moral responsibility to our troops. How could they allow this to happen?”

The recently passed Pay Our Military Act should allow for these death gratuity payments.  If the lawyers in the Obama administration say otherwise, Congress must act to quickly overturn this outrageous injustice to our fallen warriors. See if he will veto the bill.  Or he could issue his oft-used Executive Order as Commander in Chief to allow those payments.”

This is the latest optic in the “make it painful policy” his administration is using in his battle with Republicans over the government shutdown.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time the Obama Administration has played politics with the lives of those serving our Nation. Obama and his administration already showed total disregard for the WWII Veterans attempting to visit the WWII Memorial.

In Benghazi, for the sake of Obama’s re-election rhetoric, the Obama Administration issued “stand down” orders, offered no intervention and no reinforcements; actions that resulted in the death of 4 Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens and 2 former Navy SEALS. A year later, the administration is still wrapped up in the politics of that incident.

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ANN ARBOR, MI – A letter dated October 19, 2011 signed by 57 Muslim organizations, was sent to the White House with copies to other federal officials responsible for national security, including Secretary of the Department of Defense, Leon Panetta.  The letter demanded that all training materials that they judge to be offensive to Islam be “purged” and instructors “are effectively disciplined.”   

Because many reporters and citizens have asked for a copy of the letter, TMLC is linking to the 7-page letter here, and attaching it to this press release as well.  You may also view it by going to the TMLC website at: www.thomasmore.org.  Note the highlighted areas on page 5 of the letter.

This letter was referred to in a previous Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) press release. Click here. 

Following that letter, in April 2012, Army Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Matthew Dooley, a highly decorated combat veteran, was publically condemned by General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and relieved of his teaching assignment at the Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC).  The reason: the negative way Islam was portrayed in his elective course entitled, Perspectiveson Islam and Islamic Radicalism.

On May 10,2012,duringaPentagonpress conference with Defense Secretary Panetta seated next to him, General Martin Dempsey expressed negative opinions regarding the Perspectiveson Islam and Islamic Radicalism course, characterizing it as "totally objectionable" and "against our values."  General Dempsey personally committed to removing any similar curriculum from military professional education within the JFSC and elsewhere. 

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, now represents LTC Dooley, a 1994 Graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. 

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, observed, “In order to appease Muslims and the White House, General Dempsey and the Department of Defense rushed to punish LTC Dooley.  In the process, they violated not only our Nation’s core principles of free speech and academic freedom guaranteed by our Constitution, but also, a number of the military’s own regulations dealing with academic freedom and non-attribution policies of the National Defense University (NDU)  to which LTC Dooley was assigned.  They violated the right to due process of law and even by-passed the University’s Provost, who under NDU’s own rules has primary responsibility for adjudication of this matter.”

Click here for a Summary of NDU regulations on Free Speech and Academic Freedom

Claire M. Lopez, a former CIA agent and strategic policy and intelligence expert, recently commented on General Dempsey’s order:

“The final bastion of America's defense against Islamic jihad and sharia, the Pentagon, fell to the enemy in April 2012, with the issuance of a letter from General Martin E. Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, re-issuing his earlier order that all Department of Defense (DoD) course content be scrubbed to ensure no lingering remnant of disrespect to Islam.”

The administrative disciplinary procedures against LTC Dooley included removal from his teaching             assignment and withdrawal of an outstanding Officer Evaluation Report (OER) concerning the elective course, Perspectiveson Islam and Islamic Radicalism,he had been teaching at JFSC.   

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