After a series of legal reversals this week, the permanent status of
the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy on homosexuality remains
unresolved.
On Oct. 22, Military Archbishop Timothy Broglio explained to
CNA why he believes the government must maintain the policy.
U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips ruled that “Don't Ask,
Don't Tell” was “unconstitutional”-- prompting criticism from those who
see the Constitution as silent on the matter, and opposition from the
Obama administration which prefers its legislative repeal.
While a
Justice Department order temporarily kept Phillips' ruling from taking
effect, the Pentagon also issued new rules on Oct. 22, limiting military
officials' authority to discharge open homosexuals.
Archbishop Broglio explained to CNA what he sees as the basic flaw in
Judge Phillips' ruling, which declared that “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”
denied homosexual soldiers their rights to freedom of speech and due
process.
The archbishop explained that while individuals may have a
legal right to declare their sexual preferences, they have no comparable
“right” to serve in the military at the same time.
Rather, he said, the military reserves to itself the right to deny
individuals that privilege-- just as soldiers may forfeit the privilege
of military service in many other ways, through their speech and
behavior.
“While I presume that Judge Phillips has a better preparation in
Constitutional law than I do,” the prelate reflected, “it seems to me
that there is no blanket 'right' in the Constitution to serve in the
Armed Forces.”
He posed a question to critics of the ban on open
homosexuality: “Does the military not have the right to choose who will
serve?” In virtually all capacities, he observed, officials makes such
choices rigorously.
“As the Shepherd for Catholics in the military,” he recounted, “I am
continually faced by the fact that priests can be excluded from military
service, because of health or weight problems or because of their
age. Are those distinctions discriminatory?”
Archbishop Broglio also detailed his concern that Christian
chaplains, and those of several other religions, might lose the right to
proclaim teachings that oppose homosexual behavior.
The danger to
religious liberty, he said, “is latent in the agenda being advanced by
many” under the guise of mere tolerance. In reality, he said, “there is
an agenda to force everyone to accept as normal and positive behavior
that is contrary to the moral norms of many religions, including the
Catholic Church.”
“While the Armed Forces will never oblige a priest or minister to act
in an official capacity contrary to his or her religious beliefs,” he
noted, “there is the danger that teaching objective moral precepts or
seeking to form youngsters in the faith could be misconstrued as
intolerance. Then indeed, freedom of religion would be compromised.”
The archbishop also articulated the crucial difference between
constitutionally guaranteed “free exercise of religion,” and the much
more limited idea of a mere “freedom of worship.”
If the military opts
to silence many faiths' opposition to homosexuality, he said, their
religious liberty would suffer.
“As Catholics,” he warned, “we must be attentive to the protection of
our freedom of religion”-- neither subordinating it to the idea of
tolerance, nor trading it for the mere “freedom of worship.”
If members
of the Church do not defend this freedom in the public square, he said,
“we may well lose it.”
SIC: CNA/INT'L