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chaplain can do that no other officer cannot. And should never have to.
An offender was shot and killed – a young person – in Englewood on Jackson’s watch. The Department had to go to the grandmother’s house and let her know. A lieu- tenant called Jackson to go with him.
“We get over there and there is a porch full of young people,” Pastor Jackson described. “I’m thinking what do we do? I said, ‘Grandma, can we pray?’ She said, ‘Yes, we can pray.’ Everybody on the porch grasped hands and prayed. All of the sudden the police were no longer the bad guys.”
ef
In a perfect world, there would be a quantitative way to measure the impact the chaplains ministry has on the Department and its officers. But this is far from a
perfect world.
Not that the chaplains need validation. Thank-you
notes come along just enough to validate the mission, and the waves of recognition officers send up when the chaplains drive by give their omnipresent smiles even more wattage.
Still, leave it to Father Dan to homilize with a story of confirmation:
“This actually comes from Moshe,” he expounds. “He tells the story about the man walking on the beach after high tide has washed up all the starfish. The man begins picking up starfish and tossing them back into the sea when somebody asks him, ‘Why are you throwing the starfish into the sea? You will never be able to get them all. What difference will it make?’ The man tosses another starfish into the sea and responds, ‘I made a difference for that one.’ Our officers can make a difference one tour at a time. They might get only one arrest, but that’s one per- son who is not out there robbing, killing or raping.”
Herein lies the gospel for the Chicago Police Chaplains: They are truly helping their officers...one star at a time. d
36 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MAY 2016
On the street on estern A enue in the th District, Of cers Brian ulli an and Colin Prendergast, with Of cer Chaplain Bob Montelongo between them, show off their most aluable and reliable weapons their rosaries.
Congratulations to Chaplain Bob Montelongo on the occasion of his ordination to the Diaconate on May , .