BREAKING: Pete Hegseth faces backlash over reported Good Friday chapel service decision at the Pentagon!

According to HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery, the Defense Department has invited more than 3,500 employees to a Good Friday service at the Pentagon Chapel, but she noted that it’s only for Protestants and not for Catholics. 

She got an email from Air Force leadership that clearly stated the unfair treatment of religious freedom. The email said, “Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel.” A Pentagon employee said, “I guess so the Catholics know their kind ain’t welcome. It’s so ridiculous.” When Bendery asked the Pentagon, a spokesperson said there won’t be another service for Catholics today. While Catholics don’t have a full Mass on Good Friday, they do hold other religious services, pray, distribute pre-consecrated holy bread, and follow the Stations of the Cross. The Pentagon under Hegseth has not respected these traditions. This situation makes sense because Hegseth is part of the Christian Nationalist movement, which is deeply connected to Evangelical Christianity. 

This group often looks at Catholics with suspicion or strong dislike. Hegseth once invited pastor Doug Wilson, who has called for a Christian theocracy in the U.S. and suggested that “biblical slavery” could return under that system. He has also proposed banning Catholic processions. In this vision of a Christian America, Catholic cathedrals would be destroyed and replaced with golden statues of Trump holding a cross. This hostility towards Catholics is also because of the Pope’s strong criticism of some Republican policies, especially his comments against the treatment of migrants and the Iraq War under Trump. Many Republicans now see the Pope and all Catholics as enemies.