Catholic Priest Sues Obama After He Was Threatened With Arrest For Performing Mass

Remember that Priest who wasn't allow to volunteer to serve mass or be arrested, but other religions were allowed to hold service?...

He's suing Obama.



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The shutdown is over, but we hope that Americans have long memories when it comes to the Obama administration’s decision to suspend Americans’ First Amendment rights to free speech, free assembly, and freedom of worship. Certainly the strong visuals provided by the administration’s expensive efforts to block Americans from assembling at Open Air monuments and memorials made headlines everywhere, because the cones, yellow tape, and aged veterans should help people remember what their government did to them.

Because it was less visual, the administration’s attack on faith, though arguably more serious, was less remarked upon. This may change, though, thanks to a lawsuit that the Thomas Moore Law Center is bringing on behalf of a Catholic priest who was threatened with arrest if he performed mass at a military base – even if he did so without pay. Fr. Leonard joins Fred Naylor, a retired veteran who is one of Fr. Leonard’s parishioners.

According to the Thomas Moore Law Center, Father Ray Leonard is a Catholic priest who entered into a contract with the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia to serve as the base’s Catholic chaplain. On October 4, when Fr. Leonard went to the base to perform mass, government officials told him that he could not conduct mass, even if he did so on a voluntary basis. Moreover, “He was also told that he could be arrested if he violated that order.” This action against Moore left approximately 300 Catholic families on the base without any access to their religion.

Military authorities, acting on the orders of the Commander In Chief, President Obama, also locked Fr. Leonard out of his on-base office and the chapel. He was not even allowed to get into the chapel to recover the Holy Eucharist and other materials he needs to practice his religion. “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.”

For those wondering why the base families didn’t just find a nearby church, the answer is that they couldn’t. The submarine base is in the middle of nowhere. Although there is a Catholic Church in the nearest town, that town is 16 miles away, and many of the families on the base have no cars or other forms of transportation. In addition, because military bases are run on a very tight clock, many of the sailors could not make the time to go to service.

Fr. Leonard is especially appalled by the administration’s interference with Americans’ constitutional freedom of worship because it reminds him so strongly of another place in which he was barred from practicing his Catholic faith and serving his parishioners. “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.”
Although the shutdown has ended, the Thomas Moore Law Center, Fr. Leonard, and Naylor intend to press on with this suit.

[link to www.mrconservative.com]