The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-27
Catholic Thought And Opinion
By REV. JOSEPH F. DONNELLY

Idiminishes our chapel congregations somewhat, but has the value of edi- flying and encouraging the local civilian Catholics.
 Time and again I am told how thrilled our Catholic islanders are to see confessionals and Commun- jon rails filled with soIdiery of all ranks, and the faithful attendance at Mass of the Commanding General is as good as 8 sermon to many of them"
 AT PEARL HARBOR
 The first and the most touching of all the stories of edifying Catho- lie faith that have come out of the war was that of the ninistrations of Father William Speer Strahan dur ing the first hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Com monweal carried it several months ago, but the story of the religious faith and devotion of our heroes during those hours will be preserved forever among the many pages of similar devotion in the history of the Church.
 Some thirty young soldiers, bronzed and dusty knelt in a circle to receive Holy Communion. And as they knelt there in the mid-aft- ernoon, in far of Washington, Con- gress was declaring war. Yester- day there had been dead men stretched upon these fields, others now lay dying in hospitals. To be forewarned was to be forearmed; therefore the chaplain went about ceaseleSsly hearing Confessions and giving Holy Communion, visiting little groups by the roadside, pene- trating thickets where men were guarding or preparing gun positions. or making his way to distant posi- tions along 6esolate shore-lines so wildly beautiful that they would make Hollywood gasp with delight. CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS
 "So this one group of many had come to Confession, leaning against the trunk of a low sweeping tree. As many national strains as there were men might be seen among them, Germans from Ohio, Poles from Pottstown, Weehawken and South Bend, quiet dark French man from Louisiana, Hungarian from the shadows of George Wash ington Bridge, Ukrainians from the coal regions, Catholic Chinese from San Francisco and (you will meet them for their spirit has filled the whole earth) accents authentic of Flatbush and the Sunnyside yards.
 Feeling that the lengthening line of penitents might prove wearisome to those who had already finished their Confessions, for not all sol- diers are filled with heroic patience, the priest did his best to hurry. But they would not be hurried. this might be their last Confession.
 WITHOUT BELL OR CANDLE"
 Father will you write my mother line, here is her address, and please tell her that I made my Con- fession and went to Holy Commun- ion?' Father, when will you come and hear our Confessions again?' .. And a late conner making his way through the crowd, Father I missed out. Would you hear my Confession, please?' ...
 "One gave Communion in chapel at night, with neither bell nor can- dle light, to men going on guard duty in lonely dangerous positions. Tn another place one heard Confessions on a railroad track for an hour and half by the clock. Wherever one went 1t was always the same. They laid aside their rifles or stopped their work. One of them went to call the other Catholic boys in the neighborhood. A few moments later they were all kneeling again in that circle. :"
 And wherever our Catholic boys have gone it has been the same. In Manila, in Bataan, in Corrigedor And must it not be the same in unhappy France, in devasted Po- land, in the prison camps of Nazi Germany? Must 1t not be the same wherever there is priest to whom men may come in order that he might wash away their sins and con- secrate for them the Bread of Life?