Newspaper Page Text
TWELVE
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LA YMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
FEBRUARY 28, 1948
Union and Confederate Leaders Praised
Work of Catholic Chaplains and Nuns
During the War Between the States
<N. C. W. S. News Service)
NOTRE DAME, Ind.—Letters of
praise for Catholic priests and
Sisters written by the great Union
and Confederate generals of the
Civil War have been released for
the first time by the Rev. Thomas
T. MacAvoy, C. S. C., head of the
history department of the Univers
ity of Notre Dame.
The letters are a part of an
unpublished manuscript written
by Maj. David Power Conyngham,
New York Herald correspondent
during the Civil War and author
of a history of the Irish Brigade.
The Manuscript entitled “Soldiers
of the Cross,” tells the story of
the Catholic chaplains and nuns
who served in humanitarian roles
for both sides during the conflict.
Major Conyngham, after comple
tion of the manuscript, asked the
various generals of both sides to
express their opinions of the ser
vice rendered by the Catholic
priests and nuns during the war.
“Catholic chaplains . . . were
kind and attentive to the temporal
and spiritual wants of the men of
their brigades, and were assiduous
in their attentions in encouraging
the well and comforting the sick
of the army,” wrote Gen. Robert
E. Lee.
“There were three regular chap
lains attached to General Stofford
and Heyz’ Louisiana Brigades,"
General Lee continued, “namely,
Father Sheeran, Father Hubert
and Father Mulders. Other Catho
lic clergymen occasionally visited
the army, conspicious among
whom the Bishop McGill of Rich
mond.”
General Lee had praise for the
nuns. too. “The Catholic Sisters
in Richmond devoted themselves
to the sick and wounded in the
hospitals,” he wrote, “and I was
told were unremitting in their at
tentions to the soldiers.”
On the Union side, Gen. George
B. McClellan wrote: “My attention
was very frequently drawn to their
disinterested and most valuable
efforts in the cause of hu
manity. ...”
Another famous Union military
leader, Maj. General A. E. Burn
side wrote:
“. . . The Catholic clergy were
eminently distinguished for the
self sacrificing manner - in which
they performed their duties. They
spared no pains and shrank from
no exposure or hardships in their
labor for the relief of the sick and
wounded. Wherever there is
sympathy for suffering there will
be gratitude for the self-sacrific
ing labors of these devoted men.
Of the Sisters of Mercy there is
little need for me to speak. Their
good deeds are written in the
grateful hearts of thousands of our
soldiers, to whom they were
ministering angels.”
Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Hooker,
Union leader, said he had had
little contact with the work of the
Sisters but praised the chaplains
saying:
. “ . . . I always found the Catho
lic chaplain faithful, attentive and
zealous in the discharge of his
duties. His mission seemed to be
to devote himself solely to the
spiritual and temporal wants of
the soldiers. In camp, by his
pious example and religious teach
ings, he greatly softened and
Christianized the tone and actions
of the men; while, in the field,
he was ever found regardless of
danger, where his duty called him
and where the wounded or the
dying soldiers needed his mini
stration.”
General W. S. Rosecrans, an
other Union leader, who was a
convert to the Catholic Church,
wrote:
“I always expected from the
Catholic chaplains and Sisters
works stamped with the impress
of that Divine Charity which has
God for its author and final end
and do not remember an instance
in which I felt disappointed.
“If you wish to compare the
fruits of the various kinds of
charity, displayed during the late
war, I think considerable contrast
may be found between those
which spring from natural and
those which spring from super
natural motives.”
General Rosecrans already had
become a Catholic when he wrote
this letter.
Maj. Gen. W. S. Hancock, also
of the Union forces, wrote that
Catholic priests and nuns “had the
respect of the troops, without re
gard to their religious views, from
the general highest in command
to the drummer boy.”
Gen. P. G. Beauregard, a Con
federate leader, wrote:
“The services of both chaplains
and Sisters were most devoted
and invaluable during the most
trying periods of the war; their
efforts to alleviate the sufferings
of the wounded and sick, Federal
as well as Confederates, were in
defatigable and unremitting. Even
Protestant commanding officers
were always happy to avail them
selves of the self-sacrificing, un
tiring and generous assistance of
the Sisters who were so kind and
devoted to the poor, helpless, sick
and wounded soldiers placed
under their care, that these
heroes of many hard fought bat
tles, looked upon them as their
own sisters or mothers.
Protestant chaplains in the Civil
War thought highly of their
Catholic fellow-chaplains. Chap
lain George Pepper, a Methodist
minister in the Union Army,
wrote:
“I was well and intimately ac
quainted with many Catholic chap
lains and truly express the senti
ments of thousands of my own
faith, when I say that a more self
less, more devoted, and more
courageous set of men never
served in any army. In battle
they splendidly defied the bullets
<>f the enemy, and were always
present in the front among the
bravest of the brave. I have beau
tiful memories of the Rev. Fathers
Tracy, Cooney, and also of the
brave Chaplain Brady of the 15th
Michigan. The last time I saw
these gifted and gallant priests
was at the battles of Atlanta, with
the chivalrous Stanley, where they
displayed rare heroism and pa
triotism.”
General Stanley, mentioned by
Chaplain Pepper, became a con-
Pastor in Rome
FATHER GRADY
The Rev. James H. Grady, Pas
tor. of St. Mary’s Church, Rome,
Georgia.
Pupils at School in
Rome Being Served
Breakfast During Lent
ROME, Ga.—In order that chil
dren attending St. Mary’s School
might more conveniently attend
Mass and receive Holy Communion
daily during Lent, breakfast is be
ing served the children at the
school through the cooperation of
members of St. Mary’s Parish
Council of Catholic Women and
members of the Knights of Colum
bus in Rome.
Present enrollment of one hun
dred and six pupils at St. Mary’s
School is exactly double the num
ber that were enrolled at the
school when it opened two years
ago.
Sister Martin Marie, O. P., prin
cipal of the school, also teaches the
seventh and eighth grades. Other
members of the school faculty are
Sister Mary Annette O. P., who
teaches the first and second
grades; Sister Mary Faith, O. P.,
who teaches the third and fourth
grades, and Sister Mary Angelitn,
O. P., who teaches the fifth and
sixth grades.
American Catholics Must Continue
Sending Aid to Rumanian People
Declares Bishop Gerald O’Hara
NEW YORK.—(NO—Rumania
is still in critical need of food,
clothing and medicines, accord
ing to an American Bishop who is
acting as Regent of the Papal
Nunciature in Bucharest and has
helped to administer aid sent to
Rumanians by American Catho
lics.
“Rumania, like most of Europe,
is still plagued by want and it is
to be fervently hoped that the ino-
mense good done by Catholics of
the United States in the past will
be continued in the future until
the crisis will have passed,” wrote
Bishop Gerald P. O’Hara of Savan-
nah-Atlanta in a letter received
here by War Relief Services-Na-
tional Catholic Welfare Confer
ence.
Bishop O’Hara described how a
two-year drought in Rumania had
occasioned many deaths from hun
ger and had reduced thousands of
people to skin and bones. He
said that War Relief Services, the
American Catholic agency, joined
hands with the American, Swiss,
Swedish, Danish and Irish Red
Cross units in supplying aid at a
most urgent time. This was in
March, 1947.
“The first efforts of W. R. S.,"
he related, “were directed to
wards the Moldavian region of Ru
mania, which was the section
where conditions were particular
ly pitiful. W. R. S. agents, hasti
ly organized, opened food and
clothing distribution centers.
Through consignments of food and
clcthing sent directly by Our Holy
Father from Vatican City and
from the Catholics of the United
States through W. R. S., milk cen
ters for . children were opened in
many places.”
“Other canteens were opened
wherever possible and wherever
the needs were greatest. Food,
clothing and medicine were dis
tributed through the Bishops and
other Catholic authorities of the
country. In this distribution, the
wishes of the donors were care
fully observed—that is to say,
their bounty was dispensed with
out respect to religious belief,
race or political affiliation,” Bish
op O’Hara continued.
Medicines of all kinds are “ex
ceedingly scarce” in Rumania, the
Bishop reported, and added: “In
the hospitals in which Catholic
Sisters are engaged in their work
of mercy, such essential things as
sheets and pillow cases, bed cloth
ing of various kinds, not to speak
of toweling material, soap, etc.,
are greatly needed.”
He said that the clergy has a
pressing need of black cloth from
which to make cassocks and hab
its, and observed that in his visits
to Rumanian seminaries he found
the students wearing all kinds of
clothing in lieu of cassocks. He
also wrote of a shortage in philoso
phical and theological books es
sential for seminary studies.
“From all sides,” he concluded,
“Rumanians, Catholics and non-
Catholics alike, appeal to us for
help of every kind but especially
for food and clothing. Our Amer
ican Catholics have given them
new hope and new courage . *
A COMMITTEE to restore Der-
rynane, the home of Daniel O'
Connell, great Irish statesman
who secured the passage of the
Catholic Relief Act in 1829 is
organizing an Ireland-wide drive
for funds.
Holy Cross Missioner
Conducts Novena at
Savannah Cathedral
W. S. GENTRY FURNITURE CO.
Incorporated
“It’s a Fact, You Can Do Better at Gentry’s”
FLOOR COVERINGS • WINDOW SHADES
RADIOS • RANGES • HEATERS
Telephone 5302 Rome, Ga. 420 Broad St.
(Special to The Bulletin)
SAVANNAH, Ga.—The Very
Rev. Michael A. Foran, C. S. C, 1
Superior of the Holy Cross Mis
sion Band, with headquarters at
the University of Notre Dame,!
conducted the usual Solemn No
vena to Our Lady of Lourdes at
the Cathedral of St. John the Bap-
tist, from February 1 to 9.
vert to the Church during the
war years.
The book gives a full account of
the lives of the chaplains and the
nuns. One of the most interesting
chapters includes a Catholic chap
lain’s account of the death of
Stonewall Jackson, a distinct ver
sion never before told in the full
details of this incident. The book
includes many letters of other
Catholic chaplains, recounting
their experiences in the field.
STUDENT NURSES IN SAVANNAH RECEIVE CAPS—Sixteen student nurses at St. Joseph’s Hos
pital School of Nursing were capped at exercises held in. the hospital chapel, at which the principal
address was delivered by Father James Conlin, hospital chaplain. Pictured with the student nurses
is Sister Mary Joseph, R. S. M., Director of Nurses at St. Joseph’s. The nurses in the class are
Misses Ann Theresa Byrnes, Savannah Beach; Mary Madeline Bunger, Savannah; Lois Vinnie Coop
er, Savannah; Patricia Ann Cox, Savannah Beach; Lois Mary Dills, Canton: Mary Jean Gardner,
Savannah; Norma Phyllis Hall, Savannah; Juanita Ann Hickox, Savannah; Carol Marie Lamb, Sa
vannah: Marguerite Theresa Lyons, Augusta; Dorothy Isabella Mauney, Leesburg, Fla.; Genevieve
Hay Pinckney, Pritchardville, S. C.; Gloria Theresa Goodwin, Savannah; Eloise Mildred Mitchem,
Ludowici; Joan Susan Speed, Townsend; Glenise Alma Woods, Dorchester.—(Photo by Southern
Photo Service—Courtesy of The Savannah Evening Press)
Compliments
S. H. KRESS & CO.
ROME, GEORGIA
Best Wishes
FROM
SCHWARTZ’S
ROME’S POPULAR PRICE SHOPPING CENTER
TELEPHONE 3341 241-3 BROAD ST.
ROME, GA.
DRINK
IN BOTTLES
Rome Coca-Cola Bottling Company
106-108 FIFTH AVENUE
ROME, GA.