What Is the Duty of a Naval Chaplain?
By W. N. G.
Certainly the New York Christian Advocate (Methodist) does not deem it a religious duty, or it would not say of the Catholic chaplain of the lost battle-ship Maine that he was “admirably fitted for the place, as the other Roman Catholic chaplains most certainly are.” As a Protestant journal, enlightened as to what the Roman Catholic religion really is, can it truly believe the chaplain’s duty to be a religious duty, and express the opinion that “there is no reason why there should not be more Roman Catholic chaplains in the navy”? The Protestant who can publish such a sentiment to the world, with the idea that the position is a religious one, is certainly of a very compromising variety. When a leading Protestant journal, the leading organ of the largest Protestant denomination, can give place to such adulation of the Roman priesthood, it must look upon the naval chaplaincy as a mere militant position. That being the case, why should the chaplain be a priest or religious functionary at all? As true Protestantism is the very antipode of Roman Catholicism, a true Protestant would see a great many reasons why a Roman priest could not be a profitable religious teacher anywhere.