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TheChurchMilitant

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Thursday, July 21, 2005

A Catholic Chaplain in Afghanistan.

Thanks to BLACKFIVE for this one. (Father Mode's own pages are here.)

Spirtual Warfare 2005

Tom C. sent an email to bring attention to a blog by a Navy Chaplain in Afghanistan. Chaplain (Lieutenant) Daniel Mode has responsibility for the needs of Catholic (and other) military members in Southern Afghanistan.

Fr. Daniel Mode, Navy Reserve chaplain, has a powerful, powerful story to tell of his personal involvement in that tragedy over in Afghanistan where he is currently serving.

The links to Father Mode's blog posts concerning the SEALs:

Fourth of July I
...In the next 10 hours I would quickly learn the full and powerful story of courage, incredible loss, and one heroic sailor daringly rescued. I would enter into world I had only heard about but never knew--Special operations. I would open my heart and my very soul seeking God's grace and His energy to embrace the spiritual challenge that lay before me...

Fourth of July II
I woke up in a mental fog. I met up with the a representative from the Navy SEALs in the morning. I was thinking we would begin to discuss the memorial for those who had died, instead I was taken without an invitation to another location. In just an hour, I would learn the full account and the fate of the other four Seals who were still on the ground. I was given a 24/7 beeper, a Land Rover SUV, a security badge and whisked into a briefing. At this initial meeting, I was given the additional task of being the lead chaplain on the Repatriation team that would bring back one of the true heroes of this war. The acronyms were flying and most of the details of the brief went right over my head--I was in a fog. I kept thinking, "how did I get here?"...

Fourth of July III
And then there was one. It has been a very long and powerful two weeks. As I reflect over these days, I can't help but come to the same conclusion: this has truly been the most spiritually profound experience of my 13 years as a priest and my 7 as a Navy Chaplain.
So much to witness--the pain of so much loss, yes; but also the incredible will to hope.
The "one" was the last Navy SEAL that had died during the fire fight of June 28th, whose body was finally recovered on Sunday, July 10th, and whose Ramp Ceremony was held on July 12th...

Bless and protect Your servant, O Lord.

Posted by TheChurchMilitant at 3:46 PM

1 comment:

WI Catholic said...

Ahhh, I have found how you know about Fr Dan Mode. This is a wonderful man, a good priest, faithful to the Church. He is learning first hand now about what Fr Vincent Capodanno went through in Vietnam. If you have not read Fr Dan's book, The Grunt Padre... do.

Fr Vince Capodanno earned 'three' Purple Hearts in one day, his final one on earth, and then went Home, comforting another wounded grunt, and shading him from further injury with his own back. Fr was on his second tour of duty as Navy Chaplain in Nam. You can hear Fr Dan talk about him on Catholic Answers archives and on EWTN's archives.

When Fr Dan was called up, he gave up his work as pastor at Queen of Apostles Church in Alexandria, VA. That is a wonderful parish I get to visit occasionally when I visit my sister and her family. Beautiful Masses with incense, etc. One of the priests there before him as pastor was Fr Wm Saunders.

Fr Vincent Capodanno is also a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, posthumously. The citation can be read here:
http://www.medalofhonor.com/VincentCapodanno.htm

Fr died just after I graduated from High School. He was a Maryknoll. They have a couple of pages on him also. There is a site for Father's cause for canonization, also:

http://www.father-capodanno.org/Father.html
http://www.catholicmil.org/html/cause.html

And a personal account of the last man that Fr Capodanno ministered to on the day he died:
A MUST READ...
http://www.securenet.net/3rdbn5th/mike35/capodanno1.htm

Tue Sep 06, 09:50:00 PM EDT

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First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct. "My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up. What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.

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