Thanking a chaplain

[Perrotfish]

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What's the accepted etiquette for thanking a military chaplain for presiding over a wedding? For a civilian priest you just make a donation to the parish, but obviously the federal government is footing the bill for that here. So what do I do instead? Donation to Catholic Charities in the priest's name? gift card to a restaurant? A box of fine wine? Has anyone done this before?

 

[DrMetal]

What's the accepted etiquette for thanking a military chaplain for presiding over a wedding? For a civilian priest you just make a donation to the parish, but obviously the federal government is footing the bill for that here. So what do I do instead? Donation to Catholic Charities in the priest's name? gift card to a restaurant? A box of fine wine? Has anyone done this before?

Any of those options would probably be ok. If you're donating to a third party in his name, you can be as generous as you want. If you're giving him a personal gift, it probably shouldn't be too extravagant (to avoid the perception of an unduly familiar relationship) . . . bottle of wine or a gift card to a restaurant should be fine.

 

[Gastrapathy]

What's the accepted etiquette for thanking a military chaplain for presiding over a wedding? For a civilian priest you just make a donation to the parish, but obviously the federal government is footing the bill for that here. So what do I do instead? Donation to Catholic Charities in the priest's name? gift card to a restaurant? A box of fine wine? Has anyone done this before?

We donated to his divinity alma mater.

 

[Ziehl-Neelsen]

If the priest is an active duty chaplain; he works under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Military Services, USA. Perhaps a donation to the Archdiocese is in order.

http://www.milarch.org/site/c.dwJXKgOUJiIaG/b.6287817/k.3DFD/Home__Archdiocese_for_the_Military.htm

The last time we had a child baptized we asked the the priest (chaplain) what his preference was. He asked us to donate to a parish food bank that he worked with in town.

We always buy the priest a personal gift as well, and come to think of it, since every sacrament in my life has been performed by a Jesuit, I've never had to consider anything other than a bottle of good scotch.

 

[vellnueve]

Booze?