FRENCH JESUITS IN THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 1 February 1917, Page 15

FRENCH JESUITS IN THE WAR

~ The majority of the French priests with the troops ‘ (to-day wear no soutane to tuck up (writes P.J.G. in .v ; Studies . Only f too; frequently they .have been forced yto, adopt the', soldier’s ! uniform and the soldier’s trade. Jsgut, with or without the soutane, they have not for- - (gotten how to march ‘straight in front of the fire,’ and their conduct has silenced the ricanements of the manuals railleurs. V; Alike those who say Mass and those who hear it have made good the promise of the Breton :peasant of ’7O. ’ . •' ■"T . . ■ ■- • . ■ * Readers of the Diary of a War Correspondent During the Siege of ■ Paris will remember the striking contrast he observed between the reservists from Normandy and Brittany and the Municipal Guard. The former, ; t who marched to the capital' as a rule headed by M. j I’Abbe, were rarely seen in the cafes or boulevards; •. but they held the trenches during that awful winter, . | though every night numbers were frozen to death. The Parisians of the Municipal Guard, on the other hand, preferred strutting on the pavements of the city, and laughing at the awkwardness of the men from the country, to the less showy task of freezing in the outer lines. The Bretons were given every opportunity of proving how they could die, apres la messe. M. Zola, in L.a Debacle, affords a confirmation of this contrast,' which is all the more striking coming from such a source. Depicting the demoralisation of a certain French army ; corps, which fled some thirty miles in panic before a handful of scouting Uhlans, he describes how the soldiers in their haste to get away flung aside their rifles, knapsacks, and accoutrements, but makes an exception for one corporal, who did not curse the Emperor, and clung to his gun and knapsack, * through that sense of duty which he owed to his religious education.’ It need not surprise us then that the French clergy, when called upon, to exchange the cassock for the uni--1 form, have given an excellent account of themselves. ; A. E. Powell, the American war correspondent, in his War in Flanders, writes; — ‘ One of the most inspiring features of the campaign in Belgium was the heroism displayed by the priests and members of religious Orders. Village cures in their black cassocks and shovel hats, and monks in sandals and brown woollen robes, were everywhere. I saw them in the trenches exhorting the soldiers to fight to the last for God and the King : I saw them, going on the battlefield with stretchers to gather the wounded under a fire which made veterans seek shelter; I saw them in the villages, where the big shells were falling, helping to carry away the ill and the ■--- aged ; I saw them in the hospitals taking farewell messages and administering the last Sacraments to the dying; I even saw them, rifle in hand, fighting for the existence of the nation. .. To these, soldiers of the Lord I raise my hat in respect and admiration. The people of Belgium owe them a debt that they can never repay.’ The French clergy, many of whom had been trained as soldiers, were not likely to be behind their Belgian brothers in courage and patriotism. Nor have they been. But it is not my intention to enlarge upon this tempting theme. Much has been written already on the splendid example they have shown, and in time • we may expect many of those exhaustive and luminous works of which the Gallic mind has the incommunicable ( secret. The purpose of this chronicle is to give a brief account of the numbers and activities of the French Jesuits called to the colors. The secular clergy, and other religious Orders, have equally glorious statistics to point , to. Even the congregations of nuns, those formidable enemies of France which recent Ministries considered more menacing to the Third Republic than • the Emperor of Germany, have their roll of honor. „ Thus, the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul can Y y point to 4000 Sisters engaged in tending the victims of Armageddon in one or other quarter of the belligerent world. Here, however, I am concerned only with the Jesuits of France, for the very adequate reason thgt .only in tJiejp case are the facts accessible to me.

. ■ . Since the outbreak. of the war 653 French Jesuits have been mobilised.. Of ...these 297 were priests, 275 scholastics, .82 r lay Brothers. They j had v almost all to - return from; exile. in order to defend' the {country that had driven • them; out. ; And it is an illuminating com-, ment on the sincerity; of French Radicalism, that while it pretended to believe their presence dangerous to the country in time of peace, it welcomed their return in : time of war, when, if they were really disloyal, they could have ten times the power for mischief that they possessed before. ..Nor'were they the objects of many ricanements . From the first their comrades in arms and still more the officers and commanders treated them with sympathy and respect ; and these sentiments have increased since then. : Many of the officers had been pupils in the schools of the Society, and chivalrously forgetting impositions and the like of former days, made their old masters as welcome as possible. At present 306 are at the front- 75 as chaplains, 99 as stretcher-bearers, 16 as auxiliaries, 116 as combatants ; 193 are stationed in the garrisons and hospitals scattered up and down France, 106 as infifmarians, 20 as auxiliaries, and 67 in military posts. Eleven have found their way to the Dardanelles, and 9 are in Servia, of. whom one is captain r of an aviation squadron. Eight . are with the colors in Tien-tsin, 9 in Madagascar, 2 in Tunis. . . ' . . ' That they have shown themselves apt pupils in the trade of war seems clearly demonstrated by the number of promotions which have come their way. With two or three exceptions the Jesuits in the ranks started as simple privates. , Now, 3 are majors, 4 departmental officers (of whom one is captain), 5 naval officers, 2 captains of the line, 11 lieutenants, 32 -lieutenants. In the non-commissioned ranks we find 63 sergeants, 46 corporals, 5 adjutants, 4 brigadiers, and 12 sergeants of artillery or cavalry. . ' These promotions would of themselves prove that their courage had not been found wanting ;. but the following list of distinctions makes it still clearer that they have given signal proof of valor and devotion. Already 10 have been made Chevaliers de la Legion d’Honneur , 6 have received the Medaille Militaire, 1 the Cross of St. George (Russian), 1 the Distinguished - Conduct Medal (English), while no less than 84 have been cites a I’Ordre da Jo (mentioned with special praise by divisional commanders) and received the Croix de Guerre. t And these distinctions have not been cheaply purchased. Their Roll of Honor is mournfully high. Up to date 61 are reported as dead, 10 as missing (doubtless • dead, for the most part), 25 have been taken prisoners, of whom 14 still remain in captivity. The wounded number 98. Of these 41,.have returned to the colors, 14 have died, and the rest are either still in hospital or permanently disabled. If we remember that fully half the number of Jesuits mobilised occupy non-com-batant positions, which normally involve much less risk than the duties of soldiers, or even no risk at all, as for instance the task of infirmarians in base hospitals, we shall find this casualty list exceedingly high. It proves that those who were exposed to danger showed a courage that, if it erred, must have erred on the side of rashness. And one is justified in concluding that the Spanish captain who defended Pamplona would not feel ashamed of his sons.