Padre

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Padre (pronounced /ˈpɑːdreɪ/) is a commonly used term for a military chaplain in the American, British, French and Canadian Armed Forces. "Padre" (Spanish and Italian for Father) is the common term of address for all chaplains by all ranks.

1 Britain
2 France
3 See also
4 Sources

[edit] Britain

All chaplains are commissioned officers and wear uniform. British Army and Royal Air Force chaplains bear ranks and wear rank insignia, but Royal Navy chaplains do not, wearing a cross and the officers' cap badge as their only insignia.

Chaplains in the armed forces were previously all Christian or Jewish. In recent times, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has employed only Christian chaplains, with the Jewish community providing an honorary chaplain under longstanding arrangements, although Jewish chaplains have served in the Territorial Army. However, at the end of 2004, Ivor Caplin, the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence announced that the armed forces would recruit four non-Christian chaplains, from Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities, with a Jewish chaplain expected to be employed by the MoD in due course.

[edit] France

Saint Louis was the king who gave legal status to the military almoners, since chaplains supporting their lord into crusades were the first to be militarized. In 1531, during the Battle of Cappel, the Swiss padre, Uldrich Zwingli, became the very first protestant military almoner to be killed in a battlefield.

The actual French Aumônerie Militaire (military almonry) status is based on the July 8th, 1880 law, which involves both Catholic, Protestant and Jewish cults. The 1905 laicity law, definitely rejecting religion out of the French Republic, exceptionally, doesn't apply to the army. The Minister of Defence names three Chief-Staff-linked military almoners -one per cult- in charge of all chaplains. The civilians chaplains, serving in the army, are named by one of these three military almoners. In the years to come, a fourth military almoner, specially dedicated to the Muslim cult, will join the Chief-Staff.

French military chaplains wears a uniform, since World War II, but don't have any rank nor rank insignia. The modern military almonry is rooted in WWII, where military chaplains were incorporated in almost every Free French Forces fighting units and made of personnel coming from either Metropolitan France, England or from the French Empire. After the war, military almoners where sent to occupation zones in Germany and Austria.

In the 50's, military almoners where sent in the French Union's territories, including Indochina and Algeria. In 1954, the pastor Tissot was part of the last paratroopers volunteers to jump over the besieged Dien Bien Phu fortified camp in northern Vietnam. In May 7th, he was made prisoner of the Viet Minh and sent to an extermination camp, deep in the jungle.

Since 1984, French military chaplains are involved in every military operations -including the Gulf War- from Rapid Reaction Force (Force d'Action Rapide) units to Marine ships.