THE
P RTAL
April 2018
Page 11
Book Review
Fr Simon Ellis on ‘Priests in Uniform’
Catholic Chaplains to the British Forces in the First World War
T
he current discussion over patrimony (within the Ordinariate and elsewhere) often focuses on
liturgy at the expense of the pastoral. Nevertheless, anyone wanting to posit that ex-Anglican Catholic
priests somehow stand at a pastoral advantage, owing to their having operated within the established church,
may end up making claims that simply do not stand up to the facts of history: for example the pastoral
example of Catholic padres in the Great War.
James Hagerty’s very thorough and
stimulating book ‘Priests in Uniform’
reviews the pastoral work of over
800 Catholic priests who worked in
a (proto- military Ordinariate) as
Military Chaplains of the army and
Royal Navy in the First World War.
What sort of pastoral care did the
Catholic padres - seconded from
parishes, seminaries and religious
orders - offer on the Western
Front and elsewhere? Garnering
evidence previously undiscovered
from letters, personal papers,
testimonials and the Catholic press,
Hagerty builds up a powerful case
for the effectiveness of Catholic
padres, compared to their Anglican
and other free church counterparts who were “the
most tragic failure in the war”. Hagerty posits that
the Catholic padres “had the ability to forgive sins
and administer the sacraments; these were essential to
the Catholic man before he went over the top”. For
example, one chaplain recalled that he heard nearly
3000 confessions over 9 months in a hospital. Many
who were lapsed or negligent returned to the faith.
those of us who have served in the
beloved Church of England, this
conclusion comes as no surprise.
The lack of agreed sacramental
shorthand is as much of a problem
in 2018 as it was in 1918.
This book has a very human
appeal, documenting the 41
Catholic padres killed in the Great
War, for example, Fr Bernard
Kavanagh, a Redemptorist from
Limerick, who was ordained in
1889, who served in Egypt and
Palestine and died aged 53 - three
years into his service - of wounds
in Jerusalem in 1917 and is buried
at the Mount of Olives War
Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Hagerty also explores whether the war changed
people’s faith. Of course, for many who lost loved
ones, trust in God did diminish, but the “Catholic
priest reveals himself unshakably as the man who
stands pre-eminently at once as the most human and
yet as the most unflinchingly supernatural” (p.351).
Fr James Bernard Marshall, for example, could be seen
wandering about the troops in the trenches, offering to
Hagerty tackles Alan Wilkinson’s argument made in pray with the soldiers and bless them. Some clutched
1978 that Catholic padres were more successful simply his hand as he passed.
because they were of the same [working] class as the
soldiers. No, says Hagerty, because the Catholic priests
This book will be of interest to historians and to
were from all walks of life and social class, including those with interest in some unusual heroes of the faith
the middle class and aristocrats who had attended – British and Irish together - who served as Catholic
institutions like Stonyhurst. No, they were nearer to padres. Even those who were not Catholic wondered
the soldiers because of the nature of the work.
“what this strange intimate religion might be which
went with men step by step into the very valley of the
In contrast, “Anglican chaplains and soldiers arrived shadow of death”.
at the front with virtually no commonly accepted
‘Priests in Uniform’ Catholic Chaplains
sacramental shorthand with which to communicate,
to
the
British Forces in the First World War
either with God or each other”. Woodbine Willy was
James Hagerty
offering cigarettes, but the Catholic padre was offering
Gracewing 2017 - 978 085244 906 6
the body of Christ and his forgiveness: no contest. For