Open House Showcases Redemptorist Chaplains
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November 7, 2023October in Philadelphia brings more than the changing colors of autumn leaves. We also celebrate Archives Month – 31 days of special events and exhibits – sharing our collections and exactly what archivists do. This year, the Redemptorist archives took part with an Open House that allowed visitors to view our reading room, vault, and a unique display on the long history of American Redemptorists’ support of Catholics in the military through chaplaincy.
The Redemptorists had only been in the United States for 29 years when the American Civil War broke out. Already spread throughout the country, Redemptorists found themselves in seceded southern states and northern states. Only a few served as military chaplains, including Fr. James Sheeran, who kept a diary of his time as the chaplain of a Confederate unit from Louisiana, while others, like Fr. Francis X. Seelos, tended to wounded soldiers as civilians. Another major conflict pulled Americans into battle and Redemptorists into service to their country 52 years later.
The United States officially declared war against Germany in April of 1917, but it would be almost a year before troops made it over to Europe. In the meantime, camps sprouted up around the country. Various nongovernmental groups dove into the material and spiritual care of the soldiers in training, including the Knights of Columbus. Men like Redemptorist William Carroll worked with the Knights to serve Catholic soldiers in stateside camps, but eventually offered their services directly to the military.
William M. Carroll was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1872 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1897, where he became a Redemptorist. After the United States entered World War I, he worked with the Knights of Columbus at Kelly Field in Texas, but was commissioned a First Lieutenant on August 1, 1918 and sent overseas.
Records of the Redemptorists in World War I show the variety of ways chaplains served. Fr. Carroll was attached to Base Hospital No. 50 with the American Expeditionary Force in France, where he ministered to the wounded. Although the hospital served primarily American soldiers, the international nature of the war meant that men from all over the world could be patients, especially those from allied countries that didn’t have designated hospitals. In one instance, Fr. Carroll wrote of two Chinese patients who turned out to be Catholic and spoke French. Fr. Carroll spoke English, French, and German, and was able to interpret their needs until they were transferred to a French hospital where they could more easily communicate with staff. Many other stories peppered Fr. Carroll’s diary. While he may have documented his entire war experience at the time, the only volume to survive begins January 1, 1919 after Armistice Day – November 11, 1918. Fr. Carroll remained with the Base Hospital through demobilization of the troops, and the little book documents his day-to-day activities and travels to what had once been the Western Front, his return to the United States, and his discharge on August 1, 1919.
Other Redemptorists, like Christian Darley, were with the troops on the front lines and experienced battle. He lived the great discomforts of the trenches alongside the soldiers, and saw the suffering and death firsthand. Two of the Saint Louis Province Redemptorists were attached to troop ships. Armistead H. L. Catterlin was born in Effingham, IL in 1880. He made his final profession as a Redemptorist in 1909 and served in several parishes until he was inducted into the U.S. Army as a chaplain on May 31, 1918. Fr. Catterlin was stationed at Hoboken, NJ during most of the war and traveled with U.S. troops as they crossed the Atlantic to France and England and back again. These crossings were considered particularly perilous due to German U-boats, which had been cruising the Atlantic targeting ships since 1914. Thankfully, Fr. Catterlin and all of the troops he ministered to survived the crossings.
World War I left a great physical and psychological effect on the entire world, and while many hoped it would be the “War to end all Wars,” it was not to be. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States once again declared war and mobilization began. In many ways this was a bigger conflict than World War I, and dozens of Redemptorists from the St. Louis and Baltimore Provinces became military chaplains for the duration. The documentation of World War II Chaplains made up the largest section of our Open House display.
Guests could view the cadre of Catholic priests who attended Chaplain School, see photographs of blessings and Masses on Navy ships and in jungles, photographs of catechism classes and battlefield confessions, letters home, and the faces of many of the Redemptorists who traveled overseas – two of whom did not make it home. The St. Louis and Baltimore Provinces each lost a confrere to the war. Both were memorialized at the time, and in our display.
Americans on the home front were very engaged in supporting soldiers during World War II and yearned to be kept informed on their lives overseas. The St. Louis Province had an active newsletter during the war years devoted to those in military service. And immediately after the war, Fr. Martin Bringazi, the Provincial Chronicler at the time, began compiling a scrapbook with photographs and service records for each confrere who had served.
The Yank Club collection in the Denver Province Archives provides a wealth of information on the war and those who served. While most of the Redemptorists returned to their pre-war work by 1946, two St. Louis Province confreres continued to serve, and documented their time in Japan in the late 1940s. Fr. Joseph Pohl was stationed for a time in Korea during the hostilities there until he was evacuated in 1951. He served at Shepard Air Force Base in Texas and then spent three years (1954-1957) at an Air Force Base in England before he was discharged and returned to his work with the St. Louis Province.
Our Chaplain display did not stop there. Though not at the numbers needed during World War II, American Redemptorists have continued to serve with the military. Through our archives, we were able to show visitors that legacy of service that endures to this day.