Francis P . Duffy Francis Patrick Duffy ( May 2 , 1871 - June 27 , 1932 ) was a Canadian American soldier , Roman Catholic priest and military chaplain . Duffy served as chaplain for the 69th Infantry Regiment ( known as the " Fighting 69th " ) , a unit of the New York Army National Guard from New York City whose soldiers were largely drawn from the city ' s Irish - American and immigrant population . He served in the Spanish - American War ( 1898 ) , but it is his service on the Western Front in France during World War I ( 1917 - 1918 ) for which he is best known . Duffy , who typically was involved in combat and accompanied litter bearers into the thick of battle to recover wounded soldiers , became the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the United States Army . Duffy Square — the northern half of New York City ' s Times Square between 45th and 47th Streets — was named in his honour . Biography . Early life and career . Francis Duffy was born May 2 , 1871 in Cobourg , Ontario , Canada , and attended St . Michael ' s College in Toronto . He immigrated to New York City , where he taught for a time at the College of St . Francis Xavier , and was awarded a master ' s degree . He became a priest of the Archdiocese of New York , being ordained on September 6 , 1896 . He attended The Catholic University of America where he earned a doctorate in 1905 . After ordination , Duffy served on the faculty of St . Joseph ' s Seminary , Dunwoodie , Yonkers , which trains priests for the Archdiocese of New York . He was professor of Philosophical Psychology – a course more related to the Philosophy of the Human Person than to Clinical Psychology , in today ' s terms – and functioned as a mentor to numerous students . He was also editor of the " New York Review " , at the time the most scholarly and progressive Catholic theological publication in the United States . Extremely popular with students , Duffy was part of a group faculty members who introduced ground - breaking innovations into the seminary curriculum , putting the institution in the forefront of clerical education . When authors in the " New York Review " fell under suspicion of the heresy of modernism , the archbishop of New York , Michael Augustine Corrigan , broke up the faculty and reassigned them to other work . The " New York Review " itself never published an article that was suspect , but it did print papers by leading Catholic Biblical experts who were part of the newly emerging schools of Biblical criticism , and several of these authors ' other works , which would be uncontroversial today , raised eyebrows in Rome . Duffy himself wrote few signed items in the journal , although he did author parts of it , but was responsible as editor for the entire publication . Duffy ' s new assignment was creating the parish of Our Savior Church in the Bronx . There , he organized the parish and built a physical structure that combined parish school and church , one of several innovations he introduced . During this period , Duffy was active in both the Catholic Summer School , a sort of adult summer camp and continuing education system that foreshadowed the explosion in Catholic higher education for the laity today , and in the military – he was regimental chaplain to the 69th New York , which was federalized for a time during the Spanish - American War . Service as an Army chaplain . Already well known in theological circles , Duffy gained wider fame for his involvement as a military chaplain during World War I , when the 69th New York ( " " The Fighting 69th " " ) was federalized again and redesignated the 165th U . S . Infantry Regiment . When the unit moved up to the front in France , Duffy accompanied the litter bearers in recovering the wounded and was frequently seen in the thick of battle . Recognized by the regimental commander , Lieutenant Colonel William " Wild Bill " Donovan – who would go on to found the OSS in World War II ) – as a key element in the unit ' s morale , Duffy ' s role in the unit went beyond that of a normal cleric : the regiment was composed primarily of first - and second - generation Irish immigrants from New York City , many of whom wrote later about Duffy ' s leadership . Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur admitted later that Duffy was very briefly considered for the post of regimental commander . For his actions in the war , Duffy was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal , the Conspicuous Service Cross ( New York State ) , the Légion d ' honneur ( France ) , and the Croix de guerre . Father Duffy is the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the U . S . Army . Following the war he wrote " Father Duffy ' s Story " , which grew out of a manuscript originally started by Joyce Kilmer , the poet and convert to Catholicism who had joined the regiment and had become a close friend to Duffy . When Kilmer was killed in France , he was working on a history of the regiment ' s involvement in the war , which Duffy intended to continue , but Duffy was prevailed upon to include his own reminiscences . Holy Cross Church . Duffy then served as a pastor of Holy Cross Church in Hell ' s Kitchen , a block from Times Square , until his death . While there , he had one last opportunity to make a contribution to Catholic thought : in 1927 , during Al Smith ' s campaign for president , the " Atlantic Monthly " published a letter by Charles C . Marshall , a Protestant lawyer , which questioned whether a Catholic could serve as a loyal president who would put the nation and the Constitution before his allegiance to the Pope , a common thread in American anti - Catholicism . Smith was given a chance to reply : his article , which was ghost - written by Duffy , was a classic statement of the intellectual ideas behind American Catholic patriotism . It hinted at notions of religious freedom and freedom of conscience which would not be spelled out by the Church itself until the Second Vatican Council ' s " Declaration on Religious Freedom " in the 1960s . Death . Duffy died on June 27 , 1932 , in New York City . Beloved Chaplain of Fighting 69th Dies . New York , June 27 - The spirit of Father Francis Patrick Duffy , beloved chaplain of the ' Fighting Sixty - Ninth ' of the wartime Rainbow Division , has rejoined the thousands of men who died on the battlefields of France where he served them . The present colonel of his old regiment was at the bedside until near the end . Others through the nation and especially in New York , home of the old Sixty - Ninth , known in war days as the 165th Infantry , mourned the chaplain who died at the age of 62 . Father Duffy will have a military burial . The old Sixty - Ninth will attend the services of America ' s wars , msgr . John P . Chidwick , chaplain of the Battleship Maine when it was blown up in Havana Harbor , will preach the funeral sermon . Death came to Father Duffy early yesterday after an illness of three months from an intestinal infection . Hundreds of friends of all faiths had flooded the mails with letters of concern and hope for his recovery . The Irish chaplain of an Irish regiment won fame and decorations from his own and the French governments for his devotion to his men under fire during the World War . His death led General Douglas MacArthur , chief of staff in Washington and war - time commander of the Rainbow ( 42nd ) Division , to reveal he had recommended the priest for command of the 165th Regiment at one time when the division was in the midst of an offensive . Legacy . Father Duffy is commemorated by Duffy Square , which is located in the northern triangle of Times Square between 45th and 47th Streets in Manhattan , New York City . A monument , which is located in front of the steps of the TKTS booth , portrays Duffy standing in front of a Celtic cross . He is further commemorated as the namesake to the Chaplain Duffy Spiritual Fitness Center at Camp Smith , a New York Army National Guard installation in Cortlandt Manor , New York . In the 1940s movie " The Fighting 69th " , Father Duffy is portrayed by Pat O ' Brien .