Front line priests

[Wexflyer]

From an MA thesis by J.M. Brennan, available online:

"The portrait of the Irish Catholic Chaplain as brave, selfless and even saintly suited the British military authorities and the Catholic Church in Britain. These stories of extraordinary bravery helped the Catholic cause in Britain and were used to improve recruitment in Ireland. They were also used to counter anti-war sentiments in the American newspapers. In May 1916 Fr. Bernard Rawlinson wrote to Fr. Gill asking him to provide him with personal experiences of front line chaplains to publish in Irish and American newspapers to aid recruitment. He said he had been asked for this by the ‘Intelligence Dept.’122

I believe Fr. Rawlinson was the Chief Catholic chaplain to the British Army in WWI.

[michaeldr]

7 hours ago, Wexflyer said:

I believe Fr. Rawlinson was the Chief Catholic chaplain to the British Army in WWI.

 

Correct

This from Johnstone & Hagerty

 

Edited 13 December , 2017 by michaeldr

[nigelcave]

On 12/12/2017 at 13:28, CROONAERT said:

 

Very true on both counts with many serving on attachment to the Service de santé (officers only) or the Sections d'Infirmiers Militaires (other ranks). Interestingly, due to their 'everyday roles' within the French army, most French priests during the war were armed!

 

Below is an image of a French priest/chaplain named Renaud (on the left, rolling a fag!) serving as a sergent (or Infirmier-chef) in a Section d'Infirmiers Militaire at the Ouvrage de Froideterre near Verdun in 1916...

 

Dave. (PS The attached chart illustrates the numbers of French clergy involved in the war... the first column indicates the numbers mobilised into the military, the second illustrates the deaths)

 

 

And to put those figures in context: the first figure is for diocesan clergy, the second is for ordained members of male religious orders and the third is for religious brothers, i.e. members of a religious order who are not ordained priest.

Edited 14 December , 2017 by nigelcave

[pagius]

On 12/13/2017 at 03:35, Wexflyer said:

From an MA thesis by J.M. Brennan, available online:

"The portrait of the Irish Catholic Chaplain as brave, selfless and even saintly suited the British military authorities and the Catholic Church in Britain. These stories of extraordinary bravery helped the Catholic cause in Britain and were used to improve recruitment in Ireland. They were also used to counter anti-war sentiments in the American newspapers. In May 1916 Fr. Bernard Rawlinson wrote to Fr. Gill asking him to provide him with personal experiences of front line chaplains to publish in Irish and American newspapers to aid recruitment. He said he had been asked for this by the ‘Intelligence Dept.’122

I believe Fr. Rawlinson was the Chief Catholic chaplain to the British Army in WWI.

 

A lot about Rawlinson in this article ...     http://www.monlib.org.uk/papers/ebch/1998hagerty.pdf

 

He was my g-uncle Dom Ambrose's boss    http://agiusww1.com/tancred/    and before the war he was secretary to my g-g-uncle Archbishop Agius in Manila !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Agius