Pastor condemns ‘militia’ call at Ascension in Chesterfield

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — A full-page announcement “calling all young men back to the Church to form a militia” was published in a recent bulletin at Ascension Catholic Church.

The item in the June 16 bulletin included a link to an application form for the “Sancta Lana Legion Council” that would train militia legionnaires described as 18- to 29-year-old men “to protect the Holy Eucharist, congregation, clergy, and church grounds from violent and non-violent attacks.”

“Ascension Parish in Chesterfield, MO has been chosen as the testing ground for the militia and, if successful, we hope to establish platoons at parishes around the world,” reads the application form.

The Rev. Eugene Schaeffer, associate pastor at Ascension, said Wednesday after morning Mass that the announcement was a “mistake” and that he has not spoken to anyone trying to form a militia.

“We are working on a retraction right now,” Schaeffer said. “There were several points in the process that broke down. There is no militia.”

The June 16 bulletin had been pulled from the church’s website and a retraction statement was posted Wednesday. Ascension’s bulletins are published by the Wisconsin company LPi.

The bulletin item stating that a new militia would be affiliated with Ascension was “untrue,” the retraction states:

“To be perfectly clear, there is no militia being formed, and we regret that this item was included in the bulletin. Furthermore, the suggestion that our community might require a militia in order for us to celebrate the Eucharist is both inappropriate and unhelpful. Please be assured that there have been zero threats made against our community. We sincerely apologize for this error and the anguish it has caused, and we believe it is in the best interest of our parish and our community for us to clarify that we do not support this activity.”

Brecht Mulvihill, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, would not elaborate on how the item was submitted or approved for the bulletin but confirmed it came from a man.

The application form linked in the bulletin was shut down by Wednesday afternoon. It asked potential volunteers about their expertise in medicine, soldiery, Latin language, fitness, marketing and self defense.

Legionnaires who completed the “physical fitness and combat training” for the militia would also be required to serve as readers and ushers during Mass while wearing “bright white uniforms.”

The form said legionnaires would not be armed guards outside the church but “could be called upon by the Pastor of the Parish to take up arms defensively” if the congregation were threatened. “Additionally, all legionnaires will be trained in hand-to-hand combat to stop an armed intruder.”

Noreen McCann, an Ascension parishioner who attended Mass on Wednesday, said she supports security at the church.

“I think we should recognize the troubled times in which we live. Large community events have been targeted for violence. I don’t think church attendees should be sitting ducks,” McCann said. “It should be known that if you come to a Catholic church, where people are worshiping God, they are going to be protected and defended.”

A 76-year-old retired banker from Chesterfield who attended morning Mass wasn’t aware of the bulletin. Shown a copy of it, he read it aloud, starting with “Calling all young men.”

He stumbled on the word “militia.”

“I think that’s a poor choice of words, but yes the Eucharist is sacred, so it does need to be protected,” he said, only providing his first name, Jack. “Militia implies military protection. I don’t think they mean military. I think they just want a group to be outspoken about the Eucharist, you know, our religious freedom. Religious freedom is under attack.”

Catholics believe the sacrament of the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus Christ present in bread and wine.

When asked what threat the Eucharist is under, the churchgoer said, “The Eucharist is the greatest gift Jesus gave us. Nobody is taking the Eucharist away, but it is government’s movement against various religious things. There is a constant battle going on.”

The application form for the militia referred to a post from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops listing 333 incidents of arson, vandalism, and other destruction of Catholic sites across the country since May 2020.

Ascension parish near Interstate 64 and Baxter Road is the fifth largest in the archdiocese with nearly 3,000 households and a grade school of 400 students.

The median household income in the parish is $121,400 and the percentage of white residents has declined from 93% to 75% in the last few decades, according to archdiocesan records.