New book on Irish Jesuits in the First World War

(Vatican Radio) The world is this year marking the 100th anniversary of the First World War.  Nearly 70 million combatants were mobilized across the planet in the course of the conflict, and serving them were chaplains of every denomination. 

The Catholic chaplains stood out, since the need to give the dying the last rites meant priests had to be on the front lines.

A new book called “Irish Jesuit Chaplains in the First World War” uses resources from the Irish Province of the Jesuit order to look at the lives of the 32 Jesuits from the province who served with the Allied forces in the War, four of whom lost their lives.

“The oldest was a 62-year old from Mayo who went with the Australian forces, the youngest was a 32-year old teacher from Dublin,” said Damien Burke, assistant archivist to the Irish Jesuit Province.

Listen to the interview with Damien Burke by Charles Collins:

“In some ways the reasons for going were not always as clear as you would expect,” he told Vatican Radio.

“A lot of them was because their whole class went, others was because of the Catholic nature of the Sacraments,” Burke explained. “The men were dying at the front without Sacraments, which was a big issue in Ireland at the time.”

Several Catholic chaplains were commended for their bravery and heroism, and they stood out from the other chaplains because their need to be on the front lines, to administer Last Rites to the dying.

View the Flickr photos of the First World War chaplains of the Irish Jesuit Province

However, Burke said this heroism was not spoken about when the priests returned home, due to the chaotic period of the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

“In Ireland, the majority of the chaplains who came back forgot about their First World War years,” he said.  “The records show…that once they came back there was very little talking about it, there was very little going to reunions, there was no showing of medals by Jesuits themselves.  They just moved on.”