Apr 14, 2018
coltonlhaynes: The Jar has arrived. I love these ppl too much. #coachella2018
seen from United States
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Yemen
coltonlhaynes: The Jar has arrived. I love these ppl too much. #coachella2018
Retired Rear Adm. Margaret G. Kibben was announced Thursday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s choice to be the next House chaplain, replacing the retiring Rev. Patrick J. Conroy. Kibben will be the first female chaplain for either chamber.
NIELS LESNIEWSKI at CQ-Roll Call, via Stars and Stripes:
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — For the first time in American history, a woman will serve as House chaplain.
Retired Rear Adm. Margaret G. Kibben was announced Thursday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s choice to be the next House chaplain, replacing the retiring Rev. Patrick J. Conroy. Kibben will be the first female chaplain for either chamber.
Kibben was the first woman to serve as chief of Navy chaplains, serving from 2014-2018 in that role, and was previously chaplain of the Marine Corps.
Her arrival on Capitol Hill will mean that both the House and Senate chaplains will be retired chief chaplains of the Navy, with longtime Senate Chaplain Barry Black having led the Navy’s chaplains from 2000 through 2003. Earlier in her military career, Kibben was the senior chaplain serving in Afghanistan, according to the announcement from Pelosi’s office.
In addition to the visible role giving the opening prayer in the House, the chaplain provides an assortment of pastoral services to members and congressional staffers. There are a number of prayer services and events regularly hosted by the chaplain’s office, reflecting multiple faith traditions.
Kibben’s selection came as the result of a bipartisan process, and Pelosi said that both she and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., agreed on the choice.
“Her integrity, experience and patriotism will serve the Congress and the Country well, as she ministers to the needs of Members,” Pelosi said in a statement. “This historic appointment was made possible by the values-based leadership of Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, and I thank him and all Members of the bipartisan group leading the search … for their successful work. Their recommendation was accepted by Leader McCarthy and me.”
Kibben is a Presbyterian minister, the first from that particular denomination to hold the position since Rev. Bernard Braskamp, who served in the 1950s and 1960s. Fox News first reported the pending appointment.
While House chaplains are typically elected alongside other House officers at the start of each Congress (and often re-elected) Conroy’s tenure was almost cut short in 2018 as part of a rather unusual saga.
Then-Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin moved to push out Conroy, a Jesuit priest, but the effort faced pushback from Democrats led by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is Catholic — and from a few Republicans.
“The service of Father Pat Conroy has been a blessing to Members on both sides of the aisle,” Pelosi said. “Throughout his service, Father Pat fulfilled the calling of St. Ignatius of Loyola: ‘for the greater glory of God.’ His service has been a spiritual and moral anchor for Members, grounding our institution in the values of faith and country and reminding our Members of our responsibilities to our great nation and constituents. All Members wish Father Pat well as he enjoys his well-deserved retirement from the House.”
The embattled chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives has won his job back just hours after sending a scalding letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan that accused a top Ryan staff aide of telling him "something like 'maybe it's time that we had a Chaplain that wasn't a Catholic.'" Ryan, a...
Andrew Taylor at AP, via ABC News:
The embattled chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives has won his job back just hours after sending a scalding letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan that accused a top Ryan staff aide of telling him "something like 'maybe it's time that we had a Chaplain that wasn't a Catholic.'"
Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, forced Reverend Pat Conroy to tender his resignation last month, sparking a firestorm. Ryan has said he was dissatisfied with Conroy's pastoral care to lawmakers.
But in a statement Thursday, Ryan — himself a Catholic — reversed course.
"It is my job as speaker to do what is best for this body, and I know that this body is not well served by a protracted fight over such an important position," Ryan said.
Ryan's statement came soon after Conroy delivered a two-page letter that said he has never "heard a complaint about my ministry" as House chaplain. Instead, Conroy says top Ryan aide Jonathan Burks told him the speaker wanted his resignation, and cited a prayer last year that was potentially critical of the GOP tax bill.
"I inquired as to whether or not it was 'for cause,' and Mr. Burks mentioned something dismissively like 'maybe it's time that we had a Chaplain that wasn't a Catholic,'" Conroy wrote to Ryan in a letter that was also sent to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Ryan did not directly address Conroy's explosive charge, saying, "To be clear, that decision was based on my duty to ensure that the House has the kind of pastoral services that it deserves."
House chaplain Reverend Patrick Conroy forced out by Paul Ryan
New on www.DailyBrian.com
http://bit.ly/2w043FN
House chaplain Reverend Patrick Conroy forced out by Paul Ryan
Link to this Article: Link to this Article: ...
They Canned the Chaplain
Gail Collins, NY Times, April 27, 2018
For the first time in history, the chaplain of the House of Representatives has been fired.
We do not normally spend a heck of a lot of time dwelling on the House chaplain, since his (or theoretically, her) job is just to give an opening-of-the-session prayer and provide private counseling to members and the House staff.
Now, Patrick Conroy, the Jesuit priest who’s been chaplain for nearly seven years, is on his way out. A lot of people are shocked. “Washington can be a very mean place,” said Trump on Friday. “A nasty place.”
Actually, the president was not talking about Conroy, but Ronny Jackson, his own doomed nominee for the job of running the Veterans Affairs Department. The two career catastrophes would be similar only if Conroy had been appointed despite a lack of experience in praying.
So this time the leading man is House Speaker Paul Ryan. Conroy told The Times’s Elizabeth Dias that he recently got a message from Ryan, requesting his resignation, with no reason given. His last day is May 24.
One possible spark for Ryan’s wrath is an interview Conroy gave recently in which he was quoted as saying that many people who get elected to Congress “don’t know how to say hello in the hallway” let alone work well with a staff. Perhaps the article will be followed up with a second interview on lawmakers’ ability to take criticism.
Otherwise, the best explanation anyone has come up with is that the priest was being punished for a prayer he gave last November, at the opening of a debate on the Republican tax bill. Conroy asked the Almighty to make sure that the members’ efforts “guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”
Clearly a hostile act.
“Invoking fairness if you’re a chaplain is apparently a firing offense,” said Representative Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who’s been leading a pro-Conroy rebellion.
Actually, the idea that Conroy was being fired for asking God for a fair tax bill is one of the more palatable explanations for Ryan’s behavior. A popular alternative is that some non-Catholic lawmakers were just getting tired of having a priest in the job.
Representative Mark Walker, a conservative Republican who is co-chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, stirred up a squall when he suggested the next chaplain should be a family man, with a wife and “adult children.” Clearly, that’s going to eliminate any new Jesuits. (Asked for comment, Walker’s office said he was “not excluding any faith or denomination.”)
House members staged a very short uprising on Friday, with a passel of Democrats and a couple of Republicans calling for an investigation. Those of you who are aware of the way the House of Representatives functions will not be stunned to hear that the motion was rather quickly snuffed out by a mostly party-line vote.
Representative Connolly is now going around quoting Henry II, who, legend tells us, asked “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” just before some of his loyal soldiers ran off and murdered the politically difficult archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. Henry II is possibly the most often cited man in Washington these days--James Comey said that line was just what he thought of when Donald Trump asked him to do something about that irritating Michael Flynn investigation.
It cannot possibly be a good sign that an ancient invitation to homicide is coming up so frequently. But you have to admit this time the quote works pretty well, what with the actual priest and all.
Ryan, who’s been vague about his motives, apparently did complain about the tax prayer. (Conroy says he told him, “Padre, you just got to stay out of politics.”) But that was last year. Why do you think this is all happening now, when the 115th Congress is nearly over?
Possibly there’s a growing Republican hysteria around that tax bill. They were so proud of it, and it’s virtually the only thing Republicans have accomplished. Now, they’re going back to their districts to run for re-election and discovering that most voters are unenthralled.
So getting rid of Conroy might have been an exercise in pique. Otherwise, the timing is a mystery. Ryan himself is leaving Congress at the end of the year. When he announced his retirement, some malcontents muttered that he ought to step down from the speaker’s job now and give someone else a turn. No way. “I intend to run through the tape, to finish the year,” said the man who loves everything about physical fitness, including metaphors.
“Paul Ryan’s giving himself that luxury,” said Connolly. “Why wouldn’t you give it to the chaplain?”
Perhaps Ryan has simply been driven crazy trying to deal with the Trump White House, the president’s strange, unsettling behavior and his endlessly contradictory comments. Maybe he just felt a need to act out.
Let’s go with that explanation. It makes as much sense as anything, and we can pin Chaplaingate on you-know-who.
One of the chief clowns in the circus that was once the federal government of the United States took it upon himself to fire the House chaplain, Reverend Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest. Speaker of the House, soon to be just a plain-ol’-Joe like the rest of us, decided that the priest praying for the poor, for peace, and for equality was a firing offense. Hmmmm … think about that one for a minute, folks!
Ryan has warned Conroy before about praying for the things that seem to have dropped off the agenda of the government, such as compassion, but the prayer that broke the camel’s back came last Friday when Conroy prayed “for all people who have special needs” and “those who are sick” and for those “who serve in this House to be their best selves.”
Now, folks … you all know by now that I am not religious. However, I cannot find a darn thing in the Padre’s prayer with which to take umbrage. Not. One. Thing. Conroy’s firing may well be the clue to exactly what our government, such as it is, has become. It has become a group of self-serving men and women who feel threatened when they are reminded of the majority of this nation whom they have harmed in one way or another. They are offended by those who would have the gall to remind them that there are people in this nation who are suffering from such things as illness, starvation and homelessness.
Ryan’s statement of the priest’s termination came on April 16th, but was phrased in such a way that nobody realized what happened, for Ryan merely said that Conroy would be ‘stepping down’:
“As chaplain, Father Conroy has been a great source of strength and support to our community. He is deeply admired by members and staff. Father Conroy’s ministry here has made a difference, and we are all very grateful to him.”
Sounds fairly innocuous, eh? Until this week when Conroy’s letter of resignation was made public. The first line says it all:
“As you have requested, [emphasis added] I hereby offer my resignation as the 60th chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.”
Conroy later said in an interview that his resignation was requested on behalf of Ryan by Ryan’s chief of staff … he couldn’t even be bothered to do his own dirty work. Or … was he afraid to face Conroy, knowing there would be questions?
One prayer that earned Conroy a rebuke from Ryan last November, when the bill that would give huge tax cuts mainly to the wealthy was being debated on the floor, included:
“May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle. May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”
And Ryan took umbrage. A few days after, a staffer from Ryan’s office came to Conroy and said that Ryan felt the prayer was too political and was upset. And then one day, as Conroy and Ryan passed in the halls of the Capitol, Ryan said, “Padre, you just got to stay out of politics.”
I wonder if Ryan would have been happier if Father Conroy had prayed for the continued wealth of the members of Congress, or the good health of Donald Trump? Perhaps he should have prayed for the people of the United States to all develop amnesia and forget the abominations that have been thrust upon us since 20 January 2017.
In the grand scheme of today’s environment in Washington, the firing of the House chaplain is not the most important issue, not the biggest news of the day. But it speaks volumes and speaks them loudly, I believe. It sends the message, once again, that among republicans in the federal government, there is little if any concern for the people of this nation, and any who believe otherwise will not be tolerated in the ‘hallowed’ halls of our government. In truth, I no longer think of it as a government, but rather as either a circus or a train wreck, depending on the news of the day.
Some members of both parties are outraged and demanding more information regarding the priest’s firing. Representatives Walter Jones, a republican from North Carolina, and Gerald Connolly, a democrat from Virginia, are circulating a letter for their colleagues to sign, asking Mr. Ryan for more information. Jones said …
“I’m very upset. If this is true about the prayer, and we have freedom of religion in America, how about freedom of religion on the floor of the House? The members of the House vote for the chaplain. This is not a one-man decision. The House should have the facts of whatever the problem is.”
On Friday, House democrats attempted to establish an investigative panel to look into Ryan’s decision to fire Conroy, but the House republicans, predictably, succeeded in shutting down the idea before it even sprouted wings. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong issued a statement saying, “The speaker made the decision he believes to be in the best interest of the House, and he remains grateful for Father Conroy’s many years of service.” Yeah, sure he does. Ms. Strong must be practicing to get Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ job someday.
As one writer for The Washington Post puts it: “Only in this perverted time could a priest lose his job after committing the sin of crying out for justice for the poor.” I think that says it all.
Clown vs Cleric One of the chief clowns in the circus that was once the federal government of the United States took it upon himself to fire the House chaplain, Reverend Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest.
Paul Ryan shoves House Chaplain out the door
Paul Ryan shoves House Chaplain out the door
That’s Father Conroy on the right. Not far enough to the Right for Ryan.
❝ The chaplain of the House said on Thursday that he was blindsided when Speaker Paul D. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, a request that he complied with but was never given a reason for.
The sudden resignation of the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, shocked members of both parties. He had served in the role…
View On WordPress
May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle.
Former House Chaplain, Reverend Patrick Conroy
forced out today, in the year of our Lord 2018 by House Speaker Paul Ryan for speaking against the GOP tax plan
Welcome to the Resistance Reverend