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D +2,310

I am a bit of a WWII history buff.

Actually, truth be told - I am a total WWII history dork. For example, I participate in WWII reenacting events and am building a collection of WWII items (generally USO related).

In many ways my interest in WWII, reenacting and swing dancing more or less led me to interest in the Tridentine Mass. My interests in both the Catholic Church and WWII grew at the same time it was inevitable that they would intersect. Crazy but true... evidently the Holy Spirit uses just about anything to get wandering Catholics back into the fold.

In particular, as I read biographies about those who fought in WWII I was struck by how important their faith was to them... in a way that I had never encountered in person.

I am certain a portion of that was surely of the 'there's no atheists in foxholes' variety of faith. Yet I am deeply impressed with the importance put on the sacraments by those who were in the midst of hell. Sometimes faith in God and prayer was all that they had to keep them going forward in impossible circumstances. For those on the homefront as well - often uncertainty about the fate of loved ones in harms way was only alleviated through prayer.

In particular the stories of the bravery and self sacrifice of chaplains at the battlefront are stunning. For example - Father Francis L. Sampson parachuted into Normandy on D-Day in 1944 with the 101st Airborne Division. He went behind enemy lines without a gun in order to ensure that the men who he jumped with would have access to the sacraments. He traveled with them throughout the war - even including time as a POW (where he requested that he be imprisoned with the enlisted rather than the officers).

If anyone is ever interested in true stories of heroic self sacrifice by Catholic Chaplains in WWII I would highly recommend the book Battlefield Chaplains: Catholic Priests in World War II.

Today the Catholic chaplaincy in the military is dreadfully undermanned... one way we can support Catholic men and women in the armed forces is to make a donation to Catholicmil.org, an organization that works to make sure that the Catholic members of the military get the spiritual support they need. In particular, through the distribution of literature such as Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayerbook.

posted by Mary Martha @ 4:24 PM