The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-12-28
| PORTRAYAL OF MARSHAL FOCH

street and was surprised to see sol
Cliers salute this man in great excite
ment, and women and children stop
ping in their tracks with awestruck
faces as he passed. r ,.s
It was Focll. And now, Evans Of
SAM Bernardino counts the experience
as the greatest in his life.
During that three-quarters of an
hour that the generalissimo of all the
allied armies was on his knees in
humble supplication in that quiet
church, 10000 guns were roaring at
his word on a hundred. hills that
rocked with death. ..
Millions of armed men crouched in
trenches or rushed across blood
drenched terraines at his command.
generals, and field marshals artillery,
cavalry, engineers, tanks, fought and
wrought across. the map of Europe
absolutely as he commanded them to
do, and in no other manner, as he
went into that little church tospray.
Nor was it an unusual thing for
Gen. Foch to do. There is no day that
he does not do the same thing if
there be church that he can reach.
Moreover, it is not a new thing with
him. He has, done it his whole life
long.
Men who do that which Foch does
have no doubts. When Premier Glenn
enceau, the old Tiger of France, stood
on the battle front with anxious heart,
one look at the face of Foch stilled
all his fears. He returned to Paris
with the vision Of sure and certain
victory.
When the freedom of the world
hung in the balance the world turned
to Foch as the one great genius who
could save 1T; and that Foch, who is
perhaps the greatest soldier the world
has produced, is first of all, Chris.
tian. ..... l.,
What is the use of listening to ma.
terialists in the face of these facts?
Where did the man go who brought
home. his sack Of gold nuggets every
night? Where does Foch go who
brings home victory every day? He
goes to God
Think Of this type of man., quiet and
as humble as the humblest peasant in
the stricken fields of Flanders, with
the hopes and the destinies of
whole world in his hands?
! Is it not our tradition that such a
commander, compared to whom Alex
ander and Constantine and Napoleon
and Caesar stand as corporals in Lii
liput, should be inaccessible in his
Ilordly grandeur from the eyes Of COM
mon men? ~ ce @%f
And yet, young Evans of San Ber-
nardino, just an every day American
boy from under the shadow Of old San
Gorgonio, spent nearly an hour with
Foch in an old French church, and
not even. one bayonet was there to
keep them apart.
They represented the two great de-
mocracies Of the world, but there in
that old church they represented.
Jointly, a far greater thing-the de.
mocracy of Christ.
The war is at last ended, and Foch
has already won it. ...
The kaiser prated much of Cod, but
we know that his "Gott' is not the God
Who gave US Christ as His only begot-
ten Son. You shall search the utter
ances OF. the kaiser in vain to find one
single reference of his to Christ, or
one appeal that he has made to the
Son Of God.
When, some day soon, the trumpets
shall sound the clear, Sweet can of
peace across a'broken world, the vic.
tors shall kneel at the feet of Christ,
and at the head Of all the weary vet
rejoicing host shall kneel Christ's
gray general, Ferdinand Foch.