Christian Soldiers vs. the Navy

Christian Soilders vs. the Navy

If the Third Commandment forbids using the Lord's name in vain, can his name be used for a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine? At its annual meeting in Washington this fall, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops voted no. They wrote an elaborately polite letter to Navy Secretary John Lehman, saying that naming a sub Corpus Christi—Latin for body of Christ—"is very nearly sacrilegious."

The Navy has so far resisted the request to change the name. The sub is not named after a sacred mystery of the faith but, the Navy says, the Texas city (pop. 332,000) where the...