Walter Reed National Military Medical Center terminates Catholic pastoral care contract during Holy Week (Archdiocese for the Military Services)

The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ordered a group of Franciscan friars to “cease and desist” from ministering to Catholic patients there after awarding a contract to provide pastoral care to a secular, for-profit defense contracting firm. The friars had ministered there for nearly two decades.

“It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care is taken away from the sick and the aged when it was so readily available,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services. “I fear that giving a contract to the lowest bidder overlooked the fact that the bidder cannot provide the necessary service. I earnestly hope that this disdain for the sick will be remedied at once and their First Amendment rights will be respected.”