Fort Gordon, Georgia recently announced that it was going to eliminate the office of Director of Catholic Religious Education. Citing budgetary constraints, the loss of the office meant that the approximately 300 students and adults who partake in CCD and RCIA programs would be ill-served. The Catholic League stepped in when we were notified by one of our members.
What seemed so unfair about this case is that the other candidates for termination—the Protestant DRE, the head Chaplain’s secretary, and the non-appropriated funds manager—were all more expensive to operate than the Catholic directorship. Indeed, Protestant enrollment is only a third the size of Catholic enrollment, yet it was to remain unaffected. What made matters even worse is that the initial way of handling the problem was to appoint the Protestant DRE in charge of the Catholic program.
The league sent a letter of complaint to Colonel Mark Breinholt, Installation Staff Chaplain. We are glad to report that he responded by saying that the Catholic DRE position has not been eliminated. It’s nice to know that Catholics can count on having a qualified Catholic instructor working with them.
