A two-month impasse over providing Catholic chaplain services to patients and staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ended Wednesday, the Archdiocese for the Military Services said.
Franciscan priests and friars of the Holy Name College Friary in Silver Spring, Maryland, returned to the facility under a new, five-year contract, the archdiocese said.
A 20-year contracting relationship with the Franciscans abruptly ended on March 31, when the Defense Health Agency awarded the contract for Catholic chaplain services to a secular firm.
Critics said the contraawardedard to Mack Global LLC, a company in Richmond, was invalid because Catholic priests serving as chaplains must work for a bishop, not a private organization.
The cancellation came just before Holy Week and Easter celebrations. Military Services Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio and several members of Congress, led by Sen. Marco Rubio, protested the move as a violation of religious free exercise.
The Defense Health Agency placed the contract under review in early April after news of the switch became public, and bidding was reopened in May. The Archdiocese for the Military Services said the contract was awarded to the Franciscans on June 8; five days later, the friars returned to the facility.
“It is a source of great joy that the Franciscans have returned to the medical center and care for patients and staff there,” Archbishop Broglio said in a statement.
The archbishop thanked Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Solhjem, the Army chief of chaplains, “for his personal intervention” in the case.
Gen. Solhjem, an Assemblies of God pastor who became chief in 2019, “moved quickly to assure the presence of additional Catholic priests from the Army Reserves” at Walter Reed once the contract was terminated, Archbishop Broglio said.
“He also made certain that the needs of Catholics were addressed in the renegotiation of the contract,” the archbishop said.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services said it is “the only Catholic authority for endorsing and granting faculties to Catholic priests and chaplains to serve in the U.S. Military” and has ecclesial jurisdiction over Walter Reed and other military medical centers.
Spokespersons for the Defense Health Agency and Mr. Rubio did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Archbishop Broglio, who is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was unavailable.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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