Sen. Levin: Military Chaplains Shouldn’t ‘Violate the Tenets of their Troops’

Sen. Carl Levin (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that he was not informed enough to make a definitive statement on whether the Army’s Office of Chief of Chaplains was right when it ordered Catholic chaplains not to read a Jan. 26 letter from the Catholic Archdiocese of the Military Services during Mass.
“As soon as I get the information, we’ll get back to you with a comment,” he said. “Until I see exactly what the facts are, I can’t comment fairly or accurately on that because I need to know all the facts, I want to see the letter, I want to hear the arguments for it.”
The Archbishop’s letter condemns the recent regulation issued by the Health and Human Services Department, which mandates that all health-care plans cover contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion inducing “emergency contraceptives.”

The letter said the Obama administration’s requirement under Obamacare that all insurance plan cover contraceptives and sterilizations was “a blow” to the very freedom that U.S. troops have not only fought to defend but for which some have recently died in battle.