SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 1 July 1915, Page 23

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

GENERAL. The African Missionary states that about one hundred and forty members of the Society for African Missions, including two bishops, have been ‘ commandeered ’ for service in the war. ~ King Albert has conferred the Cross of the Order of Leopold on Lady Dorothie Feilding for Red Cross services which she has rendered on the battlefields in Flanders since the beginning of.the war. Among a long list of Catholic officers killed recently at the front occur the names of Major Josliig Royal West Kents; Lieutenant Davis, East Surreys; Lieutenant Neely, of the' Suffolks; and Lieutenant Archer-Shee, of the Ist South Staffordshires, who has been missing since last October, and is believed to have been killed at that time. ‘ I been with the Army in various parts of France and Belgium since August, and not one single case of indecent conduct on the part of a Catholic soldier has come to my knowledge,’ writes a British sergeant at the front, who adds : ‘ Men with such reputations and strong character are a national asset, and wield enormous influence by their very presence."’

Captain Gilbert Meade Gerard, of Rochsoles, Lanarkshire, an officer of the Ist Battalion 1LL.1., whose name figures in one of the latest lists of officers wounded at the front, is the only son ,of the late General Sir Montagu Gilbert Gerard, and the nephew of the late Father Gerard, S.J. The Gerards of Rochsoles are

one of the best-known Catholic families in Scotland

Trooper James Stephen Neylon, Wairio (who was wounded at the Dardanelles)

CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN KILLED. Rev. W. Finn, Catholic chaplain to the troops, whose death was referred to in our last issue, was a priest belonging to the diocese of Middlesbrough. Prior to his appointment as an army chaplain in November last, he was in charge of the Catholic mission at Houghton Hall, Sancton, Yorkshire, and prior to that he had acted as pastor of the Catholic mission of All Saints’, Thirsk. He is believed to be the first British chaplain of anv denomination who has fallen in the war.

■ - : ~ CATHOLIC CHAPLAINS. >•: VW „„ rJ ?, ie Lo .l ldo ! 1 corespondent of the Dublin Independent • ; o<vy a that about 14u Catholic chaplains have so far beer appointed to the British Army and Navy, this figure representing priests who are devoting their whole firm to the service. In addition there are, close : on twenty other priests giving part time service, and beyond that iere is a large number of official chaplains attending to fixed military camps and depots in various parts oi • IT'S' , A u oat . 3 per cent - of Lie whole Catholic . f to 7 0 Gieat Britain are thus engaged in attending to the spiritual necessities of Catholics defending the Empue. Cardinal Bourne, it is said, needs still more, and is appealing to the bishops of the country to send in the names of suitable priests who can be spared. It is necessary that all candidates should be recommended by their own bishops. y BELGIAN SOLDIER PRIESTS ORDAINED. f Jr 6 Rlg , ? ev M g r - Dewachter, Auxiliary Bishop of Malines has been on a mission to the brave Belgian * Loops in Flanders, and has now returned to Bishop’s House, Southwark, where he has been staying since soon after the outbreak of war. His Lordship granted an interview to a representative ot the Universe to whom he gave many interesting particulars regarding ins brief but important, mission to the Belgian Army 3 It may be mentioned that before leaving for the front Bishop Dewachter completed arrangements for holding an ordination at Fumes, and he also gave Holy Orders to many of the scattered seminarists of the' various dioceses of Belgium who have been former students either in I ranee or England. , It has afforded me great consolation to pay a visit o the Catholic soldiers fighting in the trenches,’ remarked Ins Lordship to our representative. ‘ I went amongst them in the hospitals and various institutions, pinch I am- happy to place on record are doiim an immense amount of good in the direction of securing lor them complete restoration to health. The devoted English and French nurses are giving themselves untiringly and generously to the nursing of the brave wounded Allied troops.’ ‘ Your visit was chiefly concerned with the Belgian soldiers, remarked the representative. „ Yes, replied his Lordship. ‘ 1 went along the filing-line and into every institution where a word of hope and encouragement would be accepted by the noble wounded soldiers: Many of them were sorely wounded, but they bore their injuries with wonderful courage. I was consoled by the remarkable spirit of devotion displayed by the Catholic men. Amongst other places I visited was La Panne; it was my happiness to confer the Order of Priesthood upon twenty-five Belgian students.’ ”

'Did you visit his Majesty the King of Belgium?’ inquired our representative. ‘ That was one of (he privileges of my brief visit enthusiastically remarked his Lordship. ~ ‘ I had the pleasure of laying before him a full statement regarding the position of the refugees in every part of England. I was able to supply him with this because I' receive detailed statements daily from every town and village in which the Belgians are now settled in this hospitable land. His Majesty was impressed by the statement I laid before him, and gave expression ‘to the satisfaction which, he felt with the steps that are taken to preserve the faith of his exiled people. He followed with interest each detail as I laid it before him, and he expressed his happiness when he learned that they were being well cared for.’ " &

Bishop Dewachter mentioned an incident to illust ate the brutality of the German soldiers. ‘1 visited a. Catholic institution, he said, ‘ which was in charge of a community of devoted nuns who were engaged in nursing old and infirm people. A few hours later the guns of the enemy were turned on the institution, and, .as a result of tile bombardment, four nuns, eleven sick and infirm old men and women were killed, and twentytwo were wounded. It is all a terrible business,’ commented his Lordship. ■X' i ■ .

•* ' • - --> ■_ - ±1 ’ . ~ _ ■'_ ■ 'Naturally your- visit to the trenches afforded con- ' siderable : gratification';* to the Belgian soldiers?' ' C ° n ' in t>.pV 8 ’ in K dee ?’’ re P lied his Lordship. .f To each man m the trenches I presented a medal of our Lady, which they received with much eagerness. . Their first ones- ; tions related to their wives or.mothers or sisters now A iirdiffriW' C ?? ntry ’ and 1 am now their ambassador nr distributing their messages of tender solicitude.’ v - Asked as to his opinion generally regarding the struSc° f l' 8 B T e gi n; . soldiers now engaged in this bitter i - gg j’ Lordship with considerable vigor exclaimed: They are ready to fight to the end, and they will never rest until they sweep away the enemy.’ •* - s

J-he .Liate Private Dennis O’DONNELL, Thornbury (particulars of whose death appeared in our issue of June 24).

GENERAL ABSOLUTION AT THE FRONT. Father a ,"L Very bllS ' V With ’" y bi S !»*■>. ’ say* a Jesuit fro!,! serving as an Anne chaplain at the

I am at present lodged next a big church— ii :!^r 1U tl,e tWS * writes ge : mg to ‘r pitaK belong ‘My regiment, Brigade, are in this town, and Thon T° ler bngadeS are about fOU4 ' miles away though my regiment have been in and out of the Benches several times, we’ve not yet had a single casualty and the hospitals mostly contain sick cases. * et '‘ as 14 I have been out here for months and I %e forgotten most of the events of last week already ! • • • he Soldiers Mass at 11.30 on Sunday brought me a congregation of about 300.-350. 1 prepared these men for a General Absolution, and at the Do,nine non -inn i/ir/nu x all received Holy Communion—though they had breakfasted— as Viaticum; for they would be in cvcleJ 1 ft/ 6 trClclies f hat night ’ In the afternoon I ceded oil four or five miles, and after Benediction other soldiers were given the same privilege. Some I missed nJ e U / lled 011 Mo " da -Y afternoon for the stragglers.’ n Monday morning I did a big round on my cycle to find out the regiments of the division scattered in other parts, returning for dinner with the cure at midday. ttei dinner, off again, and I managed to get 50 for Absolution and Holy Communion before 4 o’clock. I had to do my journey all over again after tea, as I had an appointment with a doctor, whom I received into the Church before night. Once again the bicycle is a treasure ! I should have needed three or four horses to get over the ground I covered during the day.’ •

THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS. : The Amsterdam correspondent/ of the Catholic Times, writing on May 1, says: —The Queen of the Belgians zealously continues her work of succouring the sick, the wounded, and those who are in need. The other day she visited Ypres, which is almost in ruins. It was a dreary, rainy, miserable day, in keeping with the desolate countryside the royal’ lady passed through. Accompanied only by a physician and an aide-de-camp, the Queen visited the hospitals and the ; orphanages, consoled the poor and bereft along the route, and once more proved herself worthy of the title of * Angel of Charity ’ which the people have bestowed upon her. Queen Elizabeth usually carries a small camera, to enable her to secure memorials of the devastations that have taken place. Wherever she goes she carries consolation and encouragement. She is often seen in hospitals and ambulance-trains. Some while ago, on leaving a hospital, she was cheered with great enthusiasm by a Belgian regiment. This occurred just after the following episode. She was standing at the bed-side of a poor ambulance man who had been wounded on the head whilst picking up a wounded man. The man being nearly unconscious, one of the doctors whispered into his ear: ‘ The Queen is standing at your side.’ The patient slightly turned his head, joyfully smiled, and in a hardly audible voice said; ‘ What an honor, your Majesty, for a poor little ambulance man.’

THE DEVOTION OF THE FRENCH CLERGY. The Abbe Thebault, a French voluntary chaplain, has received the Cross of the Legion of Honor. He is twenty-nine years old. One could see him on all the battlefields in Belgium, on the Aisne, amongst the hills of Argonne, on his bicycle, heedless of shot and shell, bringing to the dying the consolations of religion. The Abbe Vichy, curate at St. Paul de Montlucon, corporal stretcher-bearer in the 98th Regiment, mentioned twice in despatches, has just received the Order of St. George of Russia. One day the Abbe Vichy saved fifteen wounded men. Carrying them, one after the other, on his back from an ambulance which had been set on .fire by the Germans, he put them into a place of safety in a church distant two hundred metres. Most interesting is the account given by a seminarist of the diocese of Albi, Henri Galan, now serving as an infantry sergeant, who received on the 25th March his military medal. ‘ In spite of the bad weather/ he writes, ‘ Thursday was a grand day for me. In fact, I was at Chalons, to receive the military medal at the hands of General Joffre. It was in front of fifteen thousand men, fifteen generals, and foreign military attaches, that the cere-

mony took place. • Fifty of us received decorations and medals. The Commander-in-Chief had a kind word for each one of us. p “You are very young' to have the military medal, .sergeant,” he said to me. “I am twenty-three years old, sir.’ “Twenty-three! Do you know that I had to wait sixty-three years before I got mine? Are you satisfied?” “I am very proud, sir.” “So am I,” he replied, and after this dialogue there was a hearty embrace.’ ' * EXAMPLES OF HEROISM. I had occasion last week (writes the Paris correspondent of the Catholic Times) to mention the glorious death of a Jesuit soldier. Father Deslandes. Another Jesuit, Father d Esmard de Jabrun, sergeant in an infantry regiment, has just received the military medal. The official report says : ‘ Grievously wounded on March 10, when leading his men forward, he never ceased to encourage them, and he continued to cry out: “Forward ! We have reached our object. Forward !” V Another priest, the Abbe Clermont, was publicly honored by his chiefs for his devotion to his captain. When the latter fell mortally wounded, the priest went to his assistance, and was in the act of binding his wounds when a shell broke his own shoulder. ‘My poor friend,’ said the captain, ‘ you too are hurt; let us unite our sufferings to those of our Lord and. offer them for the expiation of our sins.’ Then, after a last prayer for his young wife and little child, the officer breathed his last. . The Abbe was-rescued in time, and lives to tell of his chief’s heroic sacrifice. No less striking is the courage of a soldier-priest from the diocese of Albi, the Abbe Tabarly, aged twenty-nine, who, before the war, was professor in an ecclesiastical college. He was leading his men forward when he was struck his comrades saw his gun fall from his hands ; then he made a solemn sign of the Cross over himself and sank to the ground. He was found lying on his back, his arms crossed on his breast, quite dead, but with a smile upon his lips. ‘ Tie was,’ said one who knew him well, ‘ idolised by his fellow-soldiers for his courage, his devotedness, and his kindness.’ The fact is brought home to us daily that our seminaries, with their austere self-repression ; our colleges, with their studious atmosphere, have, strange as it may seem, proved excellent pi-eparatory schools for our soldier priests.

A NUN’S WAR EXPERIENCE. The Rev. Mother-General of the Order of Christian Doctrine has received the following letter, written on Easter Sunday, from one of her nuns, who is stationed close to the front.

‘ It is 9 o’clock in the evening. - I have returned from the church, where Holy Communion has been given as Viaticum to the soldiers, who are leaving tonight for the trenches, in view of an immediate attack. From half-past 6 o’clock this morning Holy Communion has been distributed to an immense number of men. At 9 o’clock there was High Mass. What a spectacle! Twelve hundred persons at least present the church was too small for the number of soldiers, who, with pious and recollected demeanour, sought to find an entrance. Our three soldier priests, who also leave for the battlefield this evening, have officiated. The sermon preached was most appropriate for the occasion, and at the conclusion of the Mass the three priests just alluded to exhorted their brethren in arms to re-assemble in the afternoon for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Consequently at 2 o’clock the church was simply thronged. I shall never lose the memory of this Benediction. The devoted soldiers who sang so well had practised the hymns in the trenches, and , they sang excellently well. At the conclusion of the ‘ Tan turn Ergo ’ the officiating priest addressed a few words to the soldiers and recommended them to recite the Act of Acceptation of Death to which there is attacued a plenary indulgence. It was, indeed, a touching moment to see such a number of men repeating the words of this prayer.