By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Marine Corps generals understand more about Jesus, sacrifice, and the Cross than some priests and bishops.
It was a generally acknowledged fact, and confirmed by my experience serving across several Marine Corps commands, that generals, and other officers at lower levels, would request priests when the subject of chaplains came up. As confirmed by their experience coming up as officers through the ranks, priests could be packed up and ready to go without any strings attached, such as family crises, when it came time to shove off for deployments or field exercises. Because priests were married to the Church only, they could be prepared at a moment’s notice to be ready to move out, a basic expectation of every Marine and Sailor.
The priest was more quickly prepared than some poor PFC Shmuckatelli, whose wife wasn’t coping with his absence well and beseeching him to call in sick or otherwise get permission to stay back while the unit moved out. Often it was the chaplain called in by a frustrated command to work with the family to get the Marine back into deployable status. Undeployable Marines eventually wash out and are sent home.
I first served as an officer in combat arms Armor branch in a tank battalion. There is no more pressured position in the Army as a whole at “the tip of the spear,” where “everyone else is support.” There I witnessed up close and personally the issues that affect families and that sometimes rightly pull the soldier or military member away from active service in order to properly care for his or her loved ones. It is a delicate balance between two worlds. The mantra “the mission comes first” must at times yield to the needs of those closest in the bonds of affection and duty under God.
Thus, the attraction for commanders of all kinds to know that, when “the balloon goes up,” the chaplain will be ready to go and support all of the command personnel assets as part of the general effort to keep the troops fit for duty.
The Church has given, through the synods, a microphone to some priests, bishops, and cardinals who seem to no longer grasp the nature of the Lord’s Cross, as the essence of our faith and fight against evil. They have given into the delusion that the Church must now change her mission to serve some this-worldly agenda rather than salvation.
Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/the-world-understands-the-cross-when-synods-dont/
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