Fr. William Doyle, S.J. Chaplain Of The Battle of Ypres "They Speak His Name With Tears"

By Father William Joseph Doyle, S.J.

[The following letter, written by Father William Doyle a few days before he was killed during the advance of Irish troops north-east of Ypres on August 17th, 1917, is a chapter of autobiography needing the fewest possible notes in its elucidation. This Jesuit Chaplain of the Irish Province was the son of Mr. Hugh Doyle of Dalkey, co. Dublin, for many years Registrar of the Dublin Bankruptcy Court; he was forty-four years of age when he wrote this to his father, aged eighty-six.* Educated at Radcliffe by the Rosminians, William Doyle nevertheless became a Jesuit. He studied in Belgium, was ordained at Milltown Park in 1907, was Professor at Clongowes (where he founded and edited The Clongovmian) and subsequently laboured in Limerick and in Dublin. In November, 1915, the call to more strenuous service came to him, and three months later he went to the Front with the 16th Irish Division. For his bravery at Ginchy he was awarded the Military Cross, and he was afterwards commended by his Commanding Officer for the V.C., which, however, he was not to receive. As a preamble to his own letter may be quoted a line from that of a brother-chaplain, written about Father Doyle before his death : "He is a marvel. They may talk of heroes and saints—they are hardly in it!" That exclamation neither the saints nor heroes aforesaid, nor yet the eighth Urban of the scrupulous Decree, will in anywise take amiss.]

July 30th, 1917.—For the past week we have been moving steadily up to the Front. It was half-past one a.m. when our first halting-place was reached, and we marched again at three. It was the morning of July 31st,. the Feast of St. Ignatius, a day dear to every Jesuit, but doubly so to the soldier sons of the soldier Saint. Was it to be Mass or sleep ? Nature said " sleep," but grace won the day; and while the weary soldiers slumbered the Adorable Sacrifice was offered for them. As we fall into the line once more the dark clouds are lit up with red and golden flashes of light, the earth quivers with the simultaneous crash of thousands of guns—the Fourth Battle of Ypres has begun. . . . The road was a sight never to be forgotten. On one side marched our columns in close formation. On the other galloped by an endless line of ammunition waggons, extra guns hurrying up to the Front, and motor-lorries packed with stores of all kinds ; while between the two flowed back the stream of empties and ambulance after ambulance filled with wounded and dying. We marched on through the City of the Dead—Ypres, out again by the opposite gate. A welcome halt at last, with perhaps an hour or more of delay. At that moment the place for sleep did not matter two straws—a thorn-bush, the bed of a stream, anywhere would do to satisfy the longing for even a few moments of slumber after nearly two days and nights of marching without sleep. I picked out a soft spot on the ruins of a home, laid me down with a sigh of relief.

August 1st.—Morning brought a leaden sky, more rain, and no breakfast. Our cook, with the rations, had got lost during the night, so there was nothing for it but to tighten one's belt.

Sunday, August 12th —We have just got back to camp,, after (for me at least) six days and seven continuous nights on the battle-field. I shall give you the principal events of these exciting days, as I jotted them down in my notebook. (August $th.) All day I have been busy hearing the men's confessions, and giving batch after batch Holy Communion. My poor, brave boys—they are lying on the battle-field, some in a little grave dug and blessed by their chaplain, who loves them all as if they were his own children. Do you wonder that, in spite of the joy that fills my heart, many a time tears gather in my eyes as I think of those who are gone ? As the men stand lined up on parade I go from Company to Company giving a General Absolution, which I know is a big comfort to them. Then I shoulder my pack and make for the train which, this time, is to carry us part of our journey. "Top-end for Blighty, boys; bottom-end for Berlin !" I tell them as they clamber in, for they like a cheery word. "If you're in Jerryland, Father, we're with you too," shouted one big giant, and is greeted with a roar of approval.

Father Jake: The Underwater Jesuit

USS LABOON is the eighth ship in the ARLEIGH BURKE class and the fifth ship in that class built by Bath Iron Works.
About the Ship’s Name, about Captain John Francis Laboon:

Fr. "Jake" Laboon, S.J.

USS LABOON honors the distinguished career of captain John Francis "Jake" Laboon, Chaplain Corps, U.S. Navy. Known to most simply as "Father Jake", he devoted his life to service to God, Country and the Navy. A Football star at the National Championship Lacrosse All American, Laboon Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy as a member of the class of 1944. Assigned to the submarine USS PETO (SS 265) then Lieutenant Junior Grade Laboon won the Silver Star for bravery for diving from his moving submarine to rescue a downed aviator under heavy enemy fire. At the close of World War II, Lieutenant Laboon left the Navy to become a Jesuit priest. In 1958 Father Laboon returned to the Navy he loved so much as a member of the Chaplain Corps. Over the next 21 years, he served in virtually every branch of the Navy and Marine Corps. His assignments included tours in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan and Vietnam. As Chaplain with the Marines in Vietnam, Father Laboon earned a Legion of Merit with Combat "V". In addition to his heroic service in two wars, Father Laboon became the first chaplain for the Polaris Submarine Program and later became the Senior Catholic Chaplain at the Naval Academy.

The Naval Academy has honored Father Laboon by renaming the Chaplain's Center in his honor. When he retired in 1979, Captain Laboon was the Fleet Chaplain, Atlantic Fleet. When his naval career ended, Father Laboon returned to Annapolis as the house manager for the Jesuit retreat facility, Manresa-on-Severn.

His final tour of duty was as pastor of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Church in Woodstock, Maryland. When he passed away in 1988, Father Jake left behind countless service members and their families whose lives he had touched with his compassion and understanding. His courage and genuine concern for all his shipmates was then, is now, and will forever remain an extraordinary example for young sailors and marines everywhere.

Link (here)

Read more about Fr. John Laboon, S.J. (do not miss this link) (here) in the article entitled, The Underwater Parish in Time Magazine (May 4th, 1959)

Descended From The Roman Conqueror Of Spain

St. Ignatius of Loyola in arms

Ignatius was born in 1491, near Azpeitia in Guipuscoa, of an ancient line which on one side claimed descent from the Roman conqueror of Spain. In his youth he differed little from other young men of his rank. He followed the profession of arms, and devoted himself, after the fashion of his time, to the service of a noble lady. (Mr. Rose thinks that she was no less a personage than Germaine de Foix, the second wife of Ferdinand of Arragon). In 1521 he was serving with the garrison of Pamplona, the capital of Navarre, which was being held for Charles V. against the partisans of the D'Albret family (which Ferdinand had dispossessed), supported by secret help from the French king. The town was evacuated on the approach of the French, but the citadel still held out, and into this Ignatius retired. A few days afterwards the besiegers delivered an assault. In the course of the struggle Ignatius was wounded. Seldom has a cannon - ball been fired to more effect than that which put an end to the young Spaniard's soldiering on the Whit Monday of 1521—the same year, by the way, in which Luther made his famous declaration the Diet of Worms. Appropriately enough a basilica, which we have figured in this notice, marks the spot where this wound, so far-reaching in its effects, was inflicted. The conquerors treated the young knight with the greatest respect. He was conveyed to a lodging in the town, and when it was evident that he required more careful nursing than could there be supplied, he was taken to his home at the Castle of Loyola. He had not yet given up the world. When the surgeon told him that a painful operation, the sawing off a protruding bone, would be necessary to prevent permanent deformity, he insisted on its being performed.

Link (here) to read the portion of the mentioned work in the book entitled, The Portfolio

The Irish Trench Priest

The book Trench Priest, an exciting and very moving story of an Irish Jesuit,

Fr William Doyle, his lifelong war on himself and finally his magnificent triumph in the trenches of Flanders where he laid down his life for Our Lord and his Irish Battalion in the First World War. Anybody who comes to the final chapters will not fail to be moved by the descriptions of the gallant and courageous soldiers and their child-like love for their priest who went out with them into the firing lines to anoint and console them as they fell.

The book is full of pictures of Fr Doyle's life and of the places and battles he describes. There are also numerous maps so that you can follow him through the maze of trenches.

Link (here) to the Transalpine Redemptorists blog and post on Fr. Doyle

Jesuit Was Awarded The "Medal Of Honor"

Get to Know … Fr. Joseph O' Callahan, S.J.

Joseph Timothy O'Callahan (May 14, 1905 - March 18, 1964) was a Jesuit priest who would later be described as "the bravest man I ever saw" by his commanding officer on the aircraft carrier Franklin.

O' Callahan was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during World War II. Specializing in mathematics and physics in addition to religious philosophy, he was ordained in the Jesuit Order in 1934.

He spent time teaching at Boston College, the Jesuit Seminary of Weston College and the College of Holy Cross. He was appointed Lieutenant, J.G., in the Chaplain Corps of the U.S. Navy Reserve on Aug. 7, 1940.

While in active service, O'Callahan reported aboard the USS Franklin on March 2, 1945, just 17 days before it was severely damaged by two bombs from a Japanese aircraft that attacked the carrier at dawn.

Although wounded by one of the explosions after the attack, O'Callahan moved about the exposed and slanting flight deck administering the last rites to the dying, comforting the wounded, and

leading officers and crewmen into the flames to carry hot bombs and shells to the edge of the deck for jettisoning.

For his action, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. O'Callahan returned to Holy Cross College in the fall of 1948 as a philosophy professor. He died in 1964 and is buried in the Jesuit cemetery on campus. His Medal of Honor resides in the archives at the college. Fr. O' Callahan also wrote a book about his experiences called, I Was Chaplain on the Franklin .

Link (here)

Read more (here) at McNamara's Blog

D-Day And The Jesuit Martyrs Of WWII

United States of America's President Ronald Reagan
his speech at Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day
(here)

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
Prayer prior to D-Day
(here)

The Normandy Invasion
(here)

The Jesuit Martyrs of WWII
(here)

This Jesuit Earned Two Bronze Stars: Fight! Fight! Fight!

REV. WALTER HALLORAN Died Mar. 1, 2005

Jesuit priest Walter Halloran died at age 83 in a Jesuit retirement home. Rev. Halloran was the last surviving priest who performed the 1949 exorcism on a 14-year-old Mt. Rainier, (The Haunted Boy) Maryland boy. That exorcism was the inspiration for writer William Peter Blatty, author of the book "The Exorcist."

The real exorcism was performed at a St. Louis psychiatric hospital by Rev. William Bowdern. Rev. Halloran was asked to help control the child as he was having violent seizures.

Rev. Halloran’s nose was broken during the exorcism. He appeared as himself in the documentary about the real exorcism: "In the Grip of Evil." Rev. Halloran served his country in Vietnam. He earned two Bronze Stars as an airborne chaplain.

Link (here)

Civil War Jesuit: Fr. Joseph B. O’Hagan, S.J

Serving as a Chaplain involved many trials, and Chaplain O’Hagan steeled himself to the task by thinking of the tribulations and obstacles that Saint Francis Xavier overcame in his day. In time he came to appreciate the courage amply displayed by his fellow soldiers on many a battlefield and how well most of them responded to military discipline and to his own efforts to encourage them to remember their religious duties.

He became good friends with a Protestant Chaplain in the Brigade, Joseph Twichell, who was rather shocked when O’Hagan took him on a visit to Georgetown and found that the Jesuits liked to eat, smoke and drink! (One can imagine the tales that Twichell had been told about Catholic priests in general, and Jesuits in particular, as he was brought up!) At Fredericksburg they huddled together for warmth under the same blanket, which caused Father O’Hagan to laugh at the idea of a Jesuit priest and a New England Puritan minister in such close proximity! A good memoir of O’Hagan by another Protestant Chaplain is here. It speaks well of Father O’Hagan that his Protestant colleagues regarded him with so much fondness.

During the fighting at Fair Oaks in 1862, Father O’Hagan was briefly captured and held in Richmond. A New York Times articles on his experiences as a POW is here.

Link (here) to the full post at The American Catholic, scroll down and read the lively comments section.

Go (here) to read the a response by Nathan O'Hollaran, S.J. at Whoever So Desires.

This is Nathan's introduction.

I take a break to answer this question since it was a matter of some debate at The American Catholic following a few posts on Jesuits in the military. The articles have been written by one Donald R. McClarey. In response to a comment about Ignatius leaving the military, one commentator (Rick) states: “Seems the Company of Jesus is related to the military in its very makeup and its founder’s roots and vision.” Donald chimes in a couple of posts later, agreeing: “And Saint Ignatius was the General of the Order, required military style obedience, used military imagery throughout his writings and had no qualms about Jesuits serving as military chaplains. Rick nails it.” Well, most of that is not quite right. Actually, it is quite wrong, but is a prevalent myth that circulates. So I thought it high time to clear up a few questions.

Read his full piece (here)

Saints Canisius, Kostka, Gonzaga And Victory Of The Poles Over The Cossacks At Chocim

First Jesuits its success seemed for some time doubtful. in Poland. Here there were two Provinces, and

it was Peter Canisius, Provincial of Upper Germany, who first of the Jesuits penetrated into Poland.

Rumours had reached the Pope of a Diet to be held at Piotrkow in 1558, where religion was to be the chief subject of discussion. Justly alarmed at the imminent prospect of the secession of Poland, he sent Mentuatus as legate to the Diet, accompanied by Canisius.

The Jesuit lost no opportunities of preaching and furthering the interests of Rome by all possible means; he pointed out the evils of the mutual accusations which the clergy and court brought against each other;

the king, who constantly refused to persecute, was encouraged to refuse any modification of episcopal rights, and the Diet was induced to prohibit all innovation. The visit of Canisius' did not lead at once to any further steps on the part of the Jesuits, but Polish youths began to visit their school at Vienna, and among them Stanislas Kostka ', who led a saintly life, and was canonized after his death. He became acquainted with Canisius, and on his departure from Vienna proceeded to Rome, where he met Warszewski, afterwards high in the favour of Sigismund III, and Aloysius Gonzaga; here he died in 1568 at the age of eighteen.

The Poles paid great veneration to his name : he was claimed as the Patron of Poland, and legends grew up that his appearance at Chocim gave the victory to the Poles, and rescued the city of Przemysl from the Cossacks.

It was in 1564 that Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius wrote to the General Superior James Lainez asking for some members of the Society. The General dispatched some from Rome and others from Lower Germany, with Christopher Strombelius as leader. Their journey was beset with hardships; they could enter neither city nor village because of the plague, and slept in the open air.

Link (here)

Watercolor of the victorious Polish forces at Chocim, the mounted winged Hussar's are featured in the piece.

Jesuit Support Of Radical SOAW Near The End, Finally

The Ignatian Solidarity Network has announced this year will be the final year they will teach human rights and justice courses during the annual School Of The Americas Watch Protests each November. November 16, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of t he assassination of the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter at the University of Central America in San Salvador.

No word yet on where they will teach in 2010.

Blogger Note: How about in conjunction with the March For Life?

Link (here)

"Yes, Sire... And Then, After That, I Turned Out Badly... I Became A Jesuit."

In 1925, to celebrate their Silver Wedding, King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium traveled to India. There is a touching account, by a Belgian missionary priest, Father Jacquemotte, of his meeting with the King at the Jesuit College in Darjeeling. The priest had formerly been a soldier in World War I. The story is related in the lovely book, Le Roi Albert et les Missions, (1935), by Joseph Masson, S.J. Albert and Elisabeth were always staunch supporters of the Catholic missionaries; this account reveals the King's deep admiration for their heroism.

"Under my missionary's cassock," the Father writes, "my soldier's heart beats faster than ever. Just as before, on the Yser, I am standing before my commander-in-chief, who is cordially shaking my hand..."

"You were in the artillery?"

"Yes, Sire, at Ramscapelle, one day... in September 1918, you came to shake our hands in our shelter ... since that day, I had never seen you again."

In silence, they gaze at each other, they understand... Ramscapelle!

"Then, you entered the air force, as a pilot?"

"Yes, Sire... and then, after that, I turned out badly... I became a Jesuit."

The King laughed heartily. "Continue, continue: the cause you are defending is so beautiful."

"Sire, there are, I believe, only two sacred causes: God and Country."

"But your life must be very hard. How do you endure the climate! I have seen, in the plain, old missionaries, in India for fifty years...What courage... it is admirable!.. Is the distance from home not too painful?"

"Sire, it is a sacrifice. So you can imagine our joy at seeing you again. We would never have hoped for it..."

"You are not returning to Belgium?"

"No, Sire, never."

At this brief response, which revealed the gift of self, the King remained thoughtful for a moment: then, he concluded, forcefully:

"Courage, courage, you are still a soldier!"

Link (here) to the blog titled The Cross of Laeken

Wedding photo King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium

Civil War Jesuit, The Rebel Chaplain

For all four years of the American Civil War, the French-born Jesuit Louis-Hipployte Gache (1817-1907) served as a Chaplain with the Confederate Army. His letters, written between May 1861 and July 1865, describe his experiences with the Tenth Louisiana Infantry. In 1981 Father Cornelius M. Buckley, S.J., collected Father Gache’s wartime letters together in a book titled A Frenchman, A Chaplain, A Rebel. During the Civil War some six hundred women religious served as nurses in the both the Union and Confederate armies.

Link (here) to the full post I Thought Catholic's Were Worst People A The Earth! from the blog called Mc Namara's Blog

West Point Jesuit

Father James Clark, S.J. (1809-1885) was the first West Point graduate to join the Jesuits. Born in Pennsylvania, he entered the United States Military Academy in 1825 and graduated with the likes of future Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston in the Class of 1829. Future Confederate president Jefferson Davis was a year ahead. (Edgar Alan Poe also had a short stay at the academy during Clark’s time.) After a year of service in Louisiana, Lieutenant Clark resigned his commission (not such an unusual move at the time.) Not long thereafter, he became a Catholic and joined the faculty of St. Mary's College in Baltimore, connected with the seminary. In 1844, he joined the Jesuits and was ordained three years later.

Link (here) to McNamara's Blog to read the rest of the story

A Jesuit For Over Sixty Years

Jesuit Weingartner receives Austrian Honorary Cross for Science and Arts

By Nancy T. Lu

Ninety-year-old Jesuit missionary Friedrich Weingartner received last November 28 the Austrian Honorary Cross for Science and Arts awarded by the Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer.

The ceremony held in recognition of his extensive research and study of the languages of the indigenous people in Taiwan took place at the Fu Jen Catholic University's Faculty of Theology and Infirmary in Hsinchuang City, Taipei County. Sieglinde Spanlang, the director of the Austrian Tourism Office, decorated Weingartner with the medal and also presented him with a certificate.

Born in Meggenhofen near Linz in Upper Austria, Weingartner studied theology in Innsbruck, philosophy in Munich, as well as Mandarin and linguistics in Manila, Hamburg and the United States.

Weingartner was ordained a priest in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1947. He joined the army but got kicked out after his priesthood was exposed. Besides, he was very seriously sick with typhoid fever then and, therefore, had to be discharged from military service to the envy of his colleagues in the army.

Throughout his nearly 50 years as a missionary in Taiwan, he was engaged in the study up close of aboriginal languages. He took risks for some of the aborigines were known to be headhunters, venturing deep into remote areas with existing aboriginal communities.

After he retired in 1995, he focused in the next 10 years on the language, grammar, phonology and syntax of the Saisiat minority tribe in Paishou Tsun, Shihtan Hsiang, Miaoli County. He wrote down what he learned, thereby helping preserve what was otherwise an unwritten language.

The Aboriginal Languages Research Center at the Tien Educational Center in Taipei was founded by him. He equipped it with audio and tape recorders from Germany.

The television network Osterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) sent a team in 2005 to do a special coverage on Weingartner. The film tracking down the life of Weingartner was shown to the small group gathered to celebrate with the Jesuit priest his awarding.

He Wrote For America Magazine

Lawrence Fernsworth is described as a "Conservative democrat of the old school, who had become a staunch defender of the new Republic", Fernsworth was grey-haired, wore a pince-nez and, a devout Roman Catholic, contributed to the Jesuit weekly America. Yet rather than lurid, unsubstantiated tales of torched churches and raped nuns, he wrote a careful account of the plight of fleeing refugees from Almeria for The Times. Despite the provision of sworn statements, The Times refrained from publication in favour of a denial from its correspondent. No act of faith must be allowed to get in the way of the facts – even when Fernsworth knew those facts "would be harmful to the Republican cause for which ... I felt a deep sympathy. But it was the truth and had to be told".

Link (here)

Jesuit Named To Military Medical Board

GUMC Professor Named to Defense Health Board

The U.S. Department of Defense has named Dr. William Blazek, S.J. to its Defense Health Board to provide independent scientific advice and recommendations on matters relating to the promotion of health and the delivery of health care to about 9.2 million members of the military and their families.

As a member of the federal advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, the Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) professor will also look at operational programs, health policy development, health research programs and requirements for the treatment and prevention of disease and injury within the realm of the defense department.

“The questions we will address as an advisory board are the same questions any large health system would have -- and they speak to who we are as a nation,” says Blazek. “There are a number of issues facing the military health system right now that impact a huge number of people, including the impact of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans and health issues that impact amputees.”

Link (here) to the full article.

Military Chaplain Talks About Veterans Day

Jesuit in Iraq Paul Shaughnessey, SJ, a chaplain in Iraq was interviewed for a Veterans Day program on Catholic TV.

Watch his interview (here)
Link (here) to previous post

I Found Your Card In My Sons Wallet

Saving Sergeant Vanek
By Dr. William Blazek, S.J.

A small manila envelope I opened this past January contained a Mass card and funeral program for Sgt. Joe Vanek. I felt sick to my stomach when I realized what I was reading. As I stood before the department mailboxes, our far distant war rushed closely home in his mother's sad words: "I found your card in my son's wallet...Joe was killed in action in Baghdad on Nov. 12, 2007." Vanek, 22, a Chicago-area native, had been serving with "America's Guard of Honor,"

the 82nd Airborne Division. An Army press release related only that he was killed by small arms fire. Not too many months before he was taken up to God, the pleasant paratrooper had made a heartfelt plea to me that more priests volunteer to serve the needs of Catholic Service Members fighting in the combat zone. He rightly noted that there is a great shortage of such ministers accompanying our forces in Southwest Asia. The consolation this young warrior received in the Sacraments of Confession and Eucharist shortly before his death makes his request that more Catholic clergy consider serving as wartime chaplains all the more poignant.

Read the full article (here)

Photo: Srgt. Joe Vanek is in the center with his squad with clear glasses next General David Petraeus

Irish Jesuit World War II Chaplain: Fr John Hayes, S.J.

John Hayes, the son of Michael and Agnes Hayes (nee Lyons), 21 Ascot Terrace, O’Connell Avenue, Limerick was born on 15th February 1909. His early education by the Jesuits at The Crescent College in the city was to be an introduction to the priestly life. He joined the Jesuits at St. Stanislaus College, Tullabeg where he started his novitiate in 1925. From 1934 until 1936 he taught as a scholastic at Belvedere College, Dublin. In 1936 he went on to study theology at Milltown Park, Dublin where he was ordained priest in July 1939. He was engaged in further studies until June 1941.

In July 1941, he was appointed as a chaplain to the British Army and writing back from Redcar, Yorkshire he expressed his feelings about his new appointment ‘completely at home and experiences no sense of strangeness’. In 1943 he was selected for overseas service and in May of that year, set sail for India. On arrival there, he was assigned to the 36th Division at Poona. In early 1944, the Division moved to the Arakan front, where it was committed to help stop the Japanese advance; the fighting was hard; this was John Hayes’ introduction to active service. He was to prove an outstanding chaplain who was both loved and respected by all with whom he came in contact with; he was a man of tireless energy and indomitable courage.

On the 31st August 1944, John, in a letter home, wrote:

The 36th Division is now fighting the Japs about 30 miles south of the ‘city’ of Mogaung, about 22 odd miles from Mandalay, to the north. Having left cool Assam (where I was able to help administer to many American troops who greatly edified by large numbers frequenting the Sacraments) we flew over the hills to Myitkyina and went by jeep-pulled train to the ruins of Mogaung, captured just before by our allies, chiefly Chinese. The fight started about 12 miles south of Mogaung (Hill 60) which was cleared by one of our brigades and continued (though not toughly) over 20 miles to the south, our men clearing the road and rail which run mostly together in the direction of Mandalay. We were ‘on the road to Mandalay’ for our sins!

I missed the first phase but fortunately was in for the second phase of the battle. I attached myself to a Scotch Regiment and gave them Mass, Confession and Communion standing by a stream. We were in a long narrow plain between hills. Our Chinese allies hold the hills: we advance along the road and rail southwards in the valley. Occasionally the heat is oppressive, but heavy rains and scanty overhead shelter are the great difficulties. Sickness: malaria, dysentery, bad feet, jungle sores are common. (I’m completely fit D.G.). Last Monday, the 28th of August, I buried a Catholic, Corporal Kelly; he lay dead 30 paces from the railway; 10 yards away a Jap sat, his back to Kelly, dead, with his hand resting on his knees. While the grave was being prepared the moaning of a dying Jap was heard 40 paces away. I baptised him conditionally; he died 15 minutes later. I was so thoroughly affected by his sufferings that I could hardly carry out the burial of Corporal Kelly for tears.

A Chinese interpreter is showing interest in the Catholic Faith. Our casualties were reasonably light. The Jap has displayed great heroism in spite of our dive-bombers, strafing and heavy guns (to which he has no reply in kind). He has stood his ground with sublime courage. I feel somehow that God will reward his enormous spirit of self-dedication. I find it an inspiration myself. The effect of actual work during action is terrific.

One feels ready to sacrifice everything to save a single soul. So far God has given me the grace never to have felt fear on any occasion. No thanks to myself, for I know much better men who have felt fear. Largely, I think, a matter of natural complexion and texture of nerves.

This monsoon-swept valley between low hills is beautifully and softly green with running streams, but it is a valley of death; many bodies lie decomposing; the villages are all smashed, the people homeless, and God is looking down, I think, with pity on it all …….

It was during the hard fighting to capture Myitkyina, that Fr. Hayes was to earn the soubriquet of ‘Battling Hayes’. After Myitkyina, the Division pushed on to the Irrawaddy. It was on the banks of the great river that Fr. Hayes was to die, not from battle wounds but from disease.

On 28th December 1944 he was evacuated to the casualty clearing station at Katha where he was diagnosed as suffering from typhus. His condition got progressively worse, pneumonia set in. Fr. Hayes must have sensed that the end was near; he requested the last rites on 6th January 1945. John died on 21st January 1945 on the banks of the Irrawaddy just two months before the 14th Army decisively defeated the Japanese at Meiktila, on the road to Mandalay and Rangoon.

Read the full article (here)