“IN RESPONSE TO AN ORDER,” INDEED!
By Editor
The relation of the army and navy of the United States to the government is so intimate and important that officers in these departments of service must needs be careful how they act toward the various religious denominations as such. Chaplains are chosen from Catholic and Protestant bodies according to the discretion of the President, who is at the head of the army and navy. But all movements which look toward preferring one denomination above another are supposed to be scrupulously avoided. The Army and Navy Journal of May 18 contains the following:— “Cardinal Gibbons, of Baltimore, now on his way to Rome to visit his holiness Pope Leo XIII, paid a visit to the Brooklyn Navy-yard, May 10, in response to an invitation from Captain W. Reaney, of the receiving-ship Vermont. In response to an order from Rear Admiral Barker all the heads of the various departments of the yard assembled at the commandant’s office to greet his eminence and his party, and a general reception was held, during which Mrs. Barker was presented to the cardinal.” The paper from which this paragraph is taken is the official gazette of the regular and volunteer forces of the United States, reporting from time to time whatever of public interest transpires in military and naval circles. The fact referred to above is reported without comment or criticism. It seems to us to be worthy of the widest publicity and the most careful attention. For a chaplain to invite a brother minister, bishop, or high official of his own or any other denomination, to pay him a visit, is certainly proper. If the officers and heads of departments at any post or station shall, of their own motion or in response to personal invitations from an equal or superior officer, show particular respect to a clergyman who may happen among them, no one has a right to complain. But when the commandant of a navy-yard or army post, orders officers and men under his command to assemble for the purpose of greeting a minister, bishop, or cardinal, however eminent, many inquiries are started in the minds of loyal Americans. By what authority was such order issued? Is it not directly contrary to the spirit of the Constitution of the republic and the institutions of our country? Does it not tend toward an alliance of Church and State, which is positively prohibited by the Constitution? Must not such an official transaction create the impression that the official representative of the government who has taken it upon himself to do this thing, seeks to enthrone one particular denomination in the favor of the government? Was it because Cardinal Gibbons is a distinguished American citizen, or because he is the official representative of one particular denomination, that this public and conspicuous recognition was accorded him by the commandant of the Brooklyn Navy-yard in his official capacity? Is it just and right that “the heads of the various departments of the yard” who may happen to be Protestants should be compelled by an order from9a superior officer to pay special court to the leading prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in America? Who will answer?—Christian Advocate (New York).