Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson
The chaplin responding in your USMC thread made me think. Both the Catholic and Episcopal have a Federal or military Archbishop. In fact the Catholic church has a Archbishop and four auxiliary Bishops. Most or all were active military and served as chaplains. So they have a better then normal of having encountered the odd.
Learned about this when the priest at my wife's Episcopal church parish who had been career Air Force chaplin before he retired from the military and went to a regular parish was appointed to the Federal Bishp position.
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Yes, that's a very good point.
In my setting, the Catholic Church has its own secret conspiracy to defend the the world from the supernatural, so the Catholic military chaplains are more likely to report anything odd up their own hierarchy (where it eventually catches the attention of someone read-in on the occult). However, that has not, in the past, prevented individual priests from allying with PCs outside the Church. Indeed, both J.R. Kessler and a PC, Lucien Lacoste, in this campaign, have or had Catholic priests as personal friends, Allies or Contacts.
One or more military chaplains of religious organizations that lack effective occult arms of their own, however, might well have been recruited by J.R. Kessler as an intelligence source and talent scout in the military. They'd keep an eye out on military personnel who had supernatural experiences and (without violating the seal of the confessional, for those whom that is an issue), tell someone whom they know can perhaps help them in some way.
The information then makes its way to Kessler's people. While Kessler can't help every victim of the supernatural, if there is any kind of personal connection or a friend asks, there is a possibility that strings might be pulled to ensure that a savvy psychologist with knowledge of the occult is made aware of their problem, to increase the odds that they'll get actually useful help.
And those who come out of such encounters more or less whole, perhaps even having distinguished themselves while actually understanding what they want through, instead of rationalizing it as something else, might be scouted for their potential as recruits, as informants, as support personnel in various fields, or, if they are uniquely qualified, as Night Riders.