Afghanistan: Marines and Holy Mass

On Weasle Zippers, one of the best names eh-vur, have a look at some photos of US Marines on the job.  Scroll down to find a photo of …

Navy priest Lt. Carlos Davantes holds up a communion wafer as he delivers a Catholic Mass for several U.S. Marines from the 3/4 Infantry Battalion, at a small outpost in the Gereshk Valley, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. Davantes travels constantly, as do U.S. military clergy of all major faiths, to serve the faithful in remote parts of the Afghan war zone, where military access to places of worship is nonexistent.

Pray for chaplains and those they serve.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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8 Comments

  1. cgvnau says:

    Its really great when the priest arrives. I am in the Army and I remember when I deployed it could be weeks or months before the Catholic Chaplain for our brigade could come back to visit us and celebrate the Mass.

  2. Denise says:

    Interestingly, my son is in the Army and stationed in Afghanistan, but is stationed with a Polish unit. He attends Mass every Sunday because they always have 2-3 Polish priests available. The Polish American Liturgical Association graciously sent him a Polish-English Missal. The Polish soldiers often wear a Rosary wrapped around one of their epaulets. The Tabernacle in the chapel (Chapel of Divine Mercy) is protected by a bunker. My son knows such accessibility to the Sacraments is a luxury and is making good use of it this deployment because it most likely will not be there on the next deployment. Pray for all our troops and all the chaplains who serve them.

  3. Phil_NL says:

    where military access to places of worship is nonexistent.

    Well, those places of worship tend to be nonexistent, period; acces is not the issue. For all our efforts in Afghanistan, it looks like we’re not making progress on any front there except keeping the enemy busy. (In no way do I want to detract from the importance of that, by the way). It remains a pretty barbaric place, where freedom of religion is still very much absent – unless you’re a muslim, of course.

    I hope the Padres can count on a decent escort when moving around.

  4. Luvadoxi says:

    Beautiful photo!

  5. ContraMundum says:

    I’m not military, but I have had to spend significant time overseas, where I would listen mostly to the broadcasts of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS). The morning “thot for the day” by the Protestant chaplain always seemed to line up with what I came to call “the gospel according to AFRTS”: “Obey your superiors and have a nice day.” Anything more specific, anything that might hint of a God Who is like this and not like that, was pretty clearly verboten.

    Military chaplains are in an incredibly difficult position, particularly given the schizofrenic attitude of the US government to religion in general and to Christianity in particular.

  6. mrsmontoya says:

    The Retreat Center where I work has a prayer ministry, where each week we pick a parish or organization in our Archdiocese to pray for. The week of September 11 we will be praying for all emergency response Chaplains.

    We post the information on our Notice Board in the lobby and invite our guests to include the designated group in their prayers as well.

  7. aquinasnmore says:

    At Aquinas and More we have been keeping Catholic military gift registries for the chaplains for years. There are still requests coming in and the chaplains that are in the field can still use your help! Thank you for bringing this up, Fr. Z.

  8. irishgirl says:

    ‘Weasel Zippers’-yes, Father Z, that IS one of the ‘best names eh-ver’!
    Saw the picture of the chaplain raising the Host. Great one!
    Denise, how cool is it that your son is with a Polish unit with THREE CHAPLAINS! And the Poles are not ashamed to show their faith in the field of battle! May he and his ‘band of brothers’ be safe and come home soon!

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