Inasmuch as I previously singled out evangelical chaplains as responsible for the intensity of resistance to doing away with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, it seems only fair to note the comparable opposition of the Catholic-in-charge, Timothy Broglio, Archbishop for the Military Services USA. To be sure, Broglio does not threaten to withhold priestly services from known homosexuals, nor does he cry wolf about supposed First Amendment threats to the chaplain corps.

But otherwise, his letter (published in the Washington Post‘s On Faith section) wouldn’t get a passing grade in a moral reasoning midterm. “There is no doubt that morality and the corresponding good moral decisions have an effect on unit cohesion and the overall morale of the troops and effectiveness of the mission.” Yes, and doesn’t that mean making sure that heterosexual service personnel refrain from sexual activity out of wedlock? How exactly would the situation differ if homosexuals were allowed to name themselves as such?

Broglio goes on to analogize homosexuals to alcoholics:

For years, those struggling with alcoholism have benefitted from
Alcoholics Anonymous. Like homosexuality, there is rarely a cure.
There is a control through a process, which is guarded by absolute
secrecy. It is an equivalent to “Don’t ask don’t tell”. The process
has worked well for some time without the charge that it is
discriminatory.

No, your excellency, it’s not equivalent to DADT. Alcoholics are free to tell whomever they like that that’s what they are. And everybody within an AA group knows each other. That’s kind of the whole point. Maybe the idea is for unadmitted gays and lesbians to get together in Homosexuals Anonymous groups to achieve “a control through a process.” Is that, like, the gays-in-the-priesthood model? The mind boggles.