HuffPost senior politics reporter Jennifer Bendery published a report claiming the Pentagon "invited more than 3,500 employees to attend a Good Friday service at its in-house chapel", then framed it as a scandal. Her angle: "Except it's only for Protestants, not Catholics." The problem? Catholics don't hold Mass on Good Friday. They never have. And the backlash was swift.
The report cited a memo sent to staff by Air Force leadership that read, in part, "Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel." A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to HuffPost that it was the only service being held on Good Friday at the Pentagon's interfaith chapel. Bendery treated the parenthetical, "(No Catholic Mass)", as evidence of exclusion. Critics across the media and social media treated it as evidence of something else entirely: religious illiteracy at a major newsroom.
As Fox News Digital reported, the pushback was immediate and came from Catholics, Protestants, and secular commentators alike, all making the same basic point that any practicing Catholic, or anyone with a search engine, could have supplied before the piece went live.
Good Friday is the one day of the liturgical year when the Catholic Church does not celebrate Mass. There is no consecration of the Eucharist. The faithful gather instead for a service, reading the Passion of Christ, venerating the cross, and distributing hosts consecrated the day before on Holy Thursday. This is not obscure theology. It is the most elementary feature of the Catholic liturgical calendar.
Washington Examiner reporter Salena Zito was among the first to respond. "Catholic here... we do not celebrate Mass on Good Friday," she wrote. "It is the only day of the year without a Mass, as the church commemorates Jesus' death."
Rachel Campos-Duffy, co-host of "Fox & Friends Weekend," offered a more detailed explanation:
"Catholics technically don't have 'Mass' on Good Friday because there is no consecration of the Eucharist on Good Friday. We have a service where we read the Gospel passion of Christ, venerate the cross (we line up to kiss the feet of Jesus on a large crucifix or the wood of a large cross), and distribute host that was consecrated the day before on Holy Thursday."
Hot Air managing editor Ed Morrissey made the same point, noting that the memo's language likely reflected standard liturgical terminology, not a policy decision. "This sounds like a misunderstanding of terms by the sources or the reporters," he wrote.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has been a frequent target of political opponents since taking office, was named directly in Bendery's piece. She described him as "a far-right evangelical Christian" who "has tried to infuse his religious views into Pentagon activities." That framing turned a scheduling memo about a chapel service into an implied indictment of the defense secretary's faith.
National Review senior editor Charles C.W. Cook did not mince words:
"Yes. It says that there is no Catholic Mass on Good Friday because Catholics do not do Catholic Mass on Good Friday. Is there literally nobody you could have asked? Not one person? Not even Google?"
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson wrote that Bendery "continues to write about Christianity and keeps proving to be completely ignorant of Christianity. Catholics do not celebrate Mass on Good Friday."
Townhall editor Larry O'Connor pointed to a failure that went beyond one reporter. "It IS extraordinary that not one person in the editorial chain has even the slightest knowledge of Catholics," he wrote. That question, how an entire editorial process failed to catch a factual error this basic, may be more damaging to HuffPost's credibility than the original mistake.
Hegseth has faced no shortage of opposition since taking the helm at the Pentagon. He has moved aggressively to reshape Defense Department leadership, drawing both praise from supporters who want accountability and criticism from those who prefer the status quo.
RedState writer Bonchie framed the episode as part of a broader pattern. "Catholics do not do Mass on Good Friday. It would be offensive to them to try to hold one," he wrote. "Just incredible how hard the left is trying to cause divisions that don't actually exist."
A Department of War official told Fox News Digital that Catholic Masses are held "on a daily basis at the Pentagon" and that "religious services are open to all Pentagon employees." In other words, the building that HuffPost implied was shutting Catholics out holds Catholic Mass every single day, except the one day Catholics themselves do not hold Mass.
Fox News Digital also reported it had obtained the Pentagon's schedule. BuzzFeed, HuffPost's parent company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the controversy.
The Pentagon's broader approach to personnel and culture under Hegseth has drawn sustained attention. Democrats have accused him of politicizing military promotions, while the administration has defended its emphasis on meritocracy. Against that backdrop, a story suggesting the defense secretary was targeting Catholics carried obvious political freight, which made the factual error all the more consequential.
Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham highlighted what she called the reporter's refusal to correct course even after the error was pointed out by, in her words, "literally THOUSANDS of Catholics."
"And yet her arrogance is such that even though she has been exposed as religiously ignorant on a massive scale, she is still refusing to acknowledge these corrections. She also suggests Catholics would be barred from attending the Pentagon's Good Friday service if they wanted to attend, which I am quite certain is not true."
That last point deserves emphasis. Even the premise that Catholics could not attend the Protestant service was unsupported. The Department of War official's statement, that religious services are open to all Pentagon employees, directly contradicted it.
The HuffPost report did not merely get a detail wrong. It built an entire narrative, Pentagon excludes Catholics, Hegseth imposes his faith, on a foundation that collapses the moment you understand the most basic fact about Catholic Good Friday observance. The memo's "(No Catholic Mass)" notation was not a policy choice by the defense secretary. It was a statement of liturgical reality.
Hegseth's tenure has been marked by a willingness to make difficult personnel decisions, from forcing the Army chief of staff into retirement to broader leadership changes across the department. Those moves have generated real debate worth covering. A Good Friday chapel memo is not one of them.
The episode raises a question that Larry O'Connor and others posed directly: How does a major newsroom publish a story about Catholic religious practice without a single person in the editorial chain knowing that Catholics do not celebrate Mass on Good Friday? The answer may say less about the Pentagon than it does about the newsrooms that cover it.
When your outrage depends on not understanding the faith you claim is being persecuted, the story isn't about religious freedom. It's about a press corps that will reach for any weapon, even one it doesn't know how to hold.
