You are Visitor No. Since 11 November 98
The following is reprinted from NewsLINKS with
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By De Juana Lozada
HANAU, Germany (ARNEWS, Sept. 2, 1997) -- When you think about who an Army chaplain is, the image that might often come to mind is one of a spiritual counselor or pastoral director of Sunday services. While it's true chaplains do these things, they also do much more.
"We're available to help soldiers, family members and civilians with any type of concern they may have, be it spiritual, work-related, or otherwise," said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Dave DeDonato, 414th Base Support Battalion staff chaplain.
DeDonato said a good example concerns sexual harassment. "Almost everything you see, hear or read about how to report an incident of sexual harrassment emphasizes going to the Judge Advocate General, the Inspector General or Equal Opportunity. We're saying that in addition to those, another resource would be your unit chaplain," he said.
According to DeDonato, the Chaplain Corps has one particular aspect that sets it apart from other organizations and that's confidentiality.
"Without diminishing the value of the other agencies, Army chaplain regulations state that any communications to a chaplain acting as a spiritual advisor must be kept in confidence and cannot be told to anyone else without permission.
Not only do the regulations prevent us from doing so, but also many religious faith groups hold to the "vow of the confessional" or other similar pastoral relationships which is built around confidentiality," he said.
"Another unique aspect of the chaplain is our ability to go to whatever level in the chain of command we need to in order to help those who've come to us. For example, I as a chaplain could call the Department of the Army to help break a personnel log jam or to Indianapolis, Indiana, to check on a finance problem. But, many times our greatest value is being a non-judgmental listener."
DeDonato stressed that those seeking counseling don't necessarily have to be church-goers to use the chaplains to help them through the rough times.
"A good chaplain is going to listen and not 'preach' at the people they're counseling. Instead, they'll work hard to help you find a solution," he said.
The bottom line, DeDonato said, is that from marriage to family counseling, stress management to suicide prevention, the chaplains can help.
"And, if it's beyond our level of expertise, we can refer you to the appropriate agencies that can provide additional help."
"People would be surprised at the level of experience that their chaplains have. Many are on their second careers, many are prior service (enlisted and officers), and many have been through the same types of problems themselves that you may be having," DeDonato said.
(Editor's note: De Juana Lozada writes for the Hessen Herald in Hanau.)
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