HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — As venues for religious services go, the Rev. Thomas Hoar says you could do worse than a submarine.
Hoar presided over a Mass aboard the USS Missouri last Sunday. He says there was a quiet calm to the sub as it surged through the Atlantic Ocean, and he was touched by the thanks from sailors who crowded into the officers’ ward room to pray.
It was a first for Hoar and for the Navy. It had never before seen a Mass performed on a Virginia-class attack submarine. Unlike sailors on the Navy’s surface ships, which are large enough to accommodate chaplains during deployments, submariners almost always rely on trained crew members to provide services as lay leaders.
Hoar was a guest on a four-day sea transit for the sub.
