Double standard at Air Force Academy?

[2-12-07 UPDATE: According to the Engaged Encounter speaker, one of the four cadets managed to get out to the weekend, but the other three never made it.]

The following e-mail excerpt came to us from a Catholic Engaged Encounter speaker in our diocese who is upset because the Air Force Academy will allow its nationally ranked men's basketball team to travel to New Mexico this weekend, but four Catholic seniors cannot leave to attend their required Engaged Encounter weekend. The academy is currently on "lockdown" this weekend after 19 cadets admitted to cheating on a basic-knowledge test.
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There are 32 couples registered for this weekend’s Catholic Engaged Encounter, four of these couples are from the Air Force Academy. They were informed yesterday that they cannot attend this religious retreat, because the Air Force Academy is restricting the entire Cadet Wing for a weekend of reflection on cheating.

While I understand the need for the entire cadet wing to reflect on this, the entire cadet wing will not there. The members of the basketball team have been allowed to leave, since they have an away game tomorrow. If the entire cadet wing was to be there I would understand better the outright denial that we were given, but how does a basketball game rate an exception and a religious retreat that will help these young men and women prepare for a lifelong commitment in marriage not rate the same exemption!?

The cadets who were supposed to attend the Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend are all senior cadets, who have wedding dates set right after graduation (May 30), and the Diocese of Colorado Springs does not have another chance for them to attend a CEE weekend until June 8, not to mention the fact that they have already paid $175 – non refundable after two weeks out. They have made all kinds of arrangements so that they can attend and done everything they can to faithfully prepare for this sacrament. While there is an opportunity for them to attend a weekend through the Archdiocese of Denver (at St. Malo, April 13-15 -- the cost is $350 per couple, making it cost prohibitive for most cadets) and a weekend in Estes Park in early May (4-6, cost is $225), that is when these same cadets will be preparing for or taking finals, making arrangements to move to their next base. Oh yes, there is this thing of a wedding the weekend of June 2 – so there are final preparations for that too, not to mention they will have to pay [for the retreat] again.

The instance of divorce is over 50 percent in the military. With all the demands on these young kids the least we can do is afford them the best opportunity to prepare properly for this. The Diocese of Colorado Springs has done an admirable job in discerning a year-long preparation process for couples to have to go through to prepare for these lifelong vows. The military similarly takes these young cadets and prepares them for four years here and, in the majority of cases, with follow-on training for them to be proficient at whatever job they will have defending our country. Is it too much to ask that they be allowed to leave campus for 36 hours to prepare for a commitment for the rest of their lives?!