Exhibition highlights crucial role of chaplains in World War I

The National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Kansas (United States), presents the exhibition Sacred Servicewhich highlights the roles of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim chaplains around the world during the “Great War” (1914-1918).

The exhibition will be open until September 2025.

“It is an exhibition that looks both at the chaplains’ individual faith experiences and at how those faith experiences transformed the world,” Patricia Cecil, the museum’s curator specializing in faith, religion and the First World War, told the National Catholic Register.

Traditionally, chaplains provide spiritual guidance to soldiers off the battlefield, but the exhibit expands their stories to highlight Catholic priests who risked their lives to administer sacraments and medically assist soldiers.

“Many chaplains offered first aid, medical help and took soldiers to field hospitals. They ran through ‘No Man’s Land’, searching for those who were still alive, because they felt this calling that was where they needed to be. And it was really the Catholic chaplains who started that,” Cecil said.

Although chaplains generally serve as non-combatants, secular reform laws in France forced French priests and monks to be drafted. More than 22,000 Catholic priests served in the French army during the war, both as soldiers and spiritual advisors, according to Cecil.

The exhibition includes a model of a bombed-out French chapel, containing sacred objects such as the vestments, Communion kit and confessional stole of the famous chaplain Fr. Francis Duffy (1871-1932). The latter was chaplain of the 69th Regiment of the US Army and is known for his charisma and his constant care for the wounded and dying.

Stephen Harris, author of the book Duffy’s War: Fr. Francis Duffy, Wild Bill Donovan, and the Irish Fighting 69th in World War Imentioned that Father Duffy made sure he knew the names of each of the soldiers.

“I was on the battlefield dodging bullets and giving last rites, talking to soldiers, knowing their names and holding their hands as they died,” Harris told the Register. Harris also recounted that Father Duffy once used his bare hands to pull out soldiers trapped in a bunker, although he was unsuccessful.

Cecil stressed that Fr Duffy’s legacy reconfigured the role of chaplains to what it is today. The 1940 film The Fighting 69thstarring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien, popularized the story of this priest.

“The film got people ‘thinking about service, living our faith, sacrifice, being called to duty, and how a person of faith answers all of these questions’ shortly before the United States entered World War II,” Cecil added.

The exhibition also tells the story of Father Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, who later became Pope Saint John XXIII. His role as a chaplain in the Royal Italian Army inspired his promotion of peace, human rights, and his eventual advocacy to de-escalate the Cuban Missile Crisis as Pope, according to Cecil.

Additionally, the exhibition highlights Irish Jesuit chaplain and Servant of God, Fr. Willie Doyle, whose canonization process opened in late 2022. The exhibition documents Fr. Doyle’s self-sacrificial behaviors, such as when he went to bed in the muddy trenches so a doctor could sleep on it instead of in the mud.

“It is inconceivable, I think, to our modern minds in 2024, the sacrificial acts that many of these men performed,” Cecil said.

The exhibit showcases the multifaceted role of chaplains, from saving lives and healing souls to being a source of comfort amid the dangers of war.

“That’s really, I think, the story of the chaplains of World War I. There is a person here in the military, in a moment of maximum horror, who sees you as a person. In a system that only sees you as a cog in the machine of war, here is a person who sees you and recognizes your inherent dignity and worth,” Cecil concluded.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in National Catholic Register.