The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-06-02
THE SOUL OF FRANCE

Cross of War.
I'VE were eleven in the TRENCH
said Adolphe "All cur officers had
been killed except the sergeant who
was priest, and we were waiting for
the signal to leap over and charge.
The sergeant said, Now, boys, you
know | am a priest. Say your act of
contrition and l will give you absolu-
tiOn.' So we knelt and did it, and he
did it, and we all jumped out together.
We went eleven and came back four,
and the priest was not among u.s."
| want not to eXpound, but merely
quote
THE priest chases fear of death by
his example, and the absolution he can
give the boy from Painters puts it.
And forward the music, the heart is
at peace. Rare are those who die
without absolution, if not individual
at least collective, given to them all
together in common before the COM
bat"
In danger of death, you understand?
strict rule of fasting soldiers are al
lowed to receive it after they have
eaten. Before combat, in hesitation,
this one detail of opportunity decides
many. Danger of death, danger of
death. -.
If all this clashes with your
previous ideas of Frenchmen, or men
in general, or other matters, remem-
Der that war is great DISCOVER,
human nature a big thing. No back
stairs entrance to eternal life is being
preached. Who wants to sin in face
of hourly death?
The boy from Painters was march
ing with his section to the trenches.
soldier, a peasant, edged in and
marched beside him, saying: 81 would
like to take communion tomorrow
morning. One never knows what will
happen here. Can't | make my con-
fession now?" The priest said: go
ahead They walked together; the
man, walking, said his prayers and
then, for his confession, just pro-
nounced three letters-"R. A. S.
which is the telephone and wireless
formula, in war; for rien a signaler, or
Nothing particular to report
What" said the priest. "You
mean that you've done nothing wrong;
have nothing on your conscience?"
What could | do wrong, here?'
asked the soldier of France (who, re-
member is in his own country, fight
ing off the inyader). Il am too dog
tired with marching, grubbing, and
battle. When | get time to rest
sit and think about my wife and kids
home on the farm, or else | sleep.
That can't be wrong"
The priest said: mo, that can't be
wrong" and gave him absolution as
they walked.
Nights of sleeplessness in the
trenches according to Adolphe),
when 1.-The priest of Quimper" and
two friends recited the rosary aloud,
the entire trench gave the short
responses.
''The priest of Quimper used to hear
confessions all night long," says
Adolphe. He would start at one end
of the trench, and, forward march,
he'd clean 'em all up!"
And this is Adolphe!
For more technical exactitude
| quote the Able Joseph D of Blois,
q sub-lieutenant.
Above ALL here Tin war;" he says,
the priest is the minister of the
| sacraments of penance and COM
munion: penitence, which reconciles
the soul with God, and communion,
which makes heaven entire descend
into the soul and permits man to
look death in the face That Is why
| they want us here. The priest-soldier
is the religious security of the bat
| TALON"
| To supply this Gas to courage),
must point out that the men are not
all the time thinking each of his own
personal religious state, but all gain
confidence from what they see of these
things, also in others-in particular,
their officers.
THE day we quit the second line
ouA SoptCllh WcuL W
| says Adolphe, "and one who was a
kind of leader in the bunch, not hard
character, you know, but, all the same.
he was a butcher out at La Villette
before the war, said, and we most of
us agreed and no man called him
down. He said: I'm not afraid to go
under fire with captain who went to
communion the same morning."
All Of which, of course, is fully real.
lied by the chiefs. i
i AS you can imagine, the priest-sol.
dier's first idea is always to improyise
a church somewhere. Now, 1t is the
habitual thing, when other facilities
lack, for captains to offer their per
sonal cave dugouts for the purpose
And l know of communion Masses or
Requiem Masses for dead soldiers
: held in great half ruined churches
4 where two generals and $50 officers OF
all grades sat in chairs of the prin
cipal nave, while 5000 men crowded
standing, in the laterals, under the or
, gans, behind the altar, every
/