The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-02-14
al families, men, women and children,

all families, men, women and children,
properly connected with it's ministry.
When regiment takes the field the chap
lain should go with it and be ready to meet
| the new wants that at such time always
arise, where men are thrown into hospitals
or are suffering on the field from wounds.
Certainly many of them desire and solicit
the advice and consolation that nobody is so
well fitted to give as the minister of re-
ligion. When not in the field the chaplains
will be attached to the several garrisons
where the army is stationed and there to
the best of their ability meet all the re-
qulrements which the minister OF the Cos
pei ev erywhere supplies.
They baptize the children, they conduct
the Sunday school, they give lectures and
sermons TO the officers and men of the army.
and they perform their part of the burial
service when anyone is called away by
death.
| Now the bureau system to which l have
referred, il we should view the whole
chaplainey just as we do the medical pro-
visions for the army, might afford an effec-
tive arrangement to meet all the religious
wants of the service in complete and sat-
isfactory manner. Wherein, then, lie the
objections2
Practically,
THE OBJECTIONS THAT ARE ENCOUNTERED
are the same throughout the service; that
is to say, at posts and IN every regiment.
1t is that each individual connected with
the army prefers what he can have in civil
life, a minister of his own persuasion. The
| Catholic asks for priest the Churchmau
for an Episcopal clergyman, and men of
other denominations, when practicable de-
sire to have man of their own persuasion.
The second objection heretofore made has
been that the office does not seek the man,
49, NJ,
case that those who are old or lntirm or
weary with too hard work, and in some
cases, perhaps, those who are least fitted
for doing the work, are likely to be and too
often are earnest applicants for the posi-
TONS This being the case, it is not at all
to be wondered at that SO many who do not
give satisfaction find their way into the
United States service. The bureau system
| ubmit, would certainly not remedy this
evil, but would rather increase it.
Abundant remedies, my dear sir, have
been suggested touching the subject of the
appointment of these ministers of the faith
but none of them seem to me to be satisfac
tory or to promise any wholesome fruitage
Should you visit any garrison or pos
from Washington city to the Columbis
river, you would find that the members O.
that garrison feel and express themselve!
very much as the members of an individual
church. The church is sometimes obliget
to take the priest or the clergyman SEMI tt
it by the bishop or archbishop, but the hes
harmony prevails and the best fruits re
suit, as general rule, where the member
of the church, agreeing to abide by the vii
, of the majority, formally
ASSENT TO THE CALLING OF THEIR PASTOR.
In the exceptional cases, on the contrary
the attendance upon the services is i'm
, paired and the church greatly deteriora es
Now, it does appear to me that this sub
ject, for the benefit of the army itself
, could be disposed Of without additions
cost, as suggested by this action of the II
I dividual church. Any one garrison, TO
example. for the Catholic Christians coul
employ priest, and usually the othe
Christian people of the post would agre
upon some individual, some clergyman, an
instruct their council of administration
employ his services. The council of admir-
/ istration may consist of the commandin