CCHA, Historical
Studies, 69 (2003), 64-84
Faith on the
Battlefield:
Canada’s Catholic
Chaplaincy Service
during the Second
World War.1
Yves-Yvon J.
Pelletier
In the midst of a fierce
Allied attack on German positions in Italy in 1944 and with cannon fire
lighting up the night sky as bright as day, Father Alphonse Claude-Laboissière,
padre of the Royal 22e Régiment, was bringing the sacraments to his soldiers who
could not leave their outpost near the front line. During this unscheduled
visit, the padre surprised two soldiers – each holding a machine gun in one
hand and a rosary in the other – reciting their prayers. Said one of the
French-Canadian soldiers to the padre: “Here, we don’t forget to say all our
prayers.”2
This account illustrates the
work of Catholic chaplains in the Canadian forces during the Second World War
and suggests the theme of this paper – the organization of the Canadian
Catholic Chaplaincy Service during this period and the activities of Catholic
chaplains at the regimental level. By examining the Second World War experience
of the Royal 22e Régiment (R22R) through the eyes of its padres, and by
tracking the number of soldiers in the Second Canadian Infantry Division who
took part in religious services, I will seek to evaluate the effectiveness of
Catholic chaplains in the conflict.3 I will argue that, by taking into account the lessons learned during
the First World War, the Canadian Catholic Chaplaincy Service was able to be
more effective during the Second World War, and that some evidence for this
effectiveness can be found in the participation rate of Canadian Catholic
soldiers in religious activities during wartime.
When the Government of Canada
declared war on Nazi Germany on 10 September 1939, the Canadian Roman Catholic
Church was quick to react with calls to serve. However, the lessons learned
from the First World War incited many church leaders to suggest organizational
improvements in the rules and responsibilities of chaplains and senior military
officials. Among those calling for such improvements was Bishop Joseph Francis
Ryan, who in a letter to Prime Minister Mackenzie King on behalf of the
Catholic Bishops of Ontario, “courteously but earnestly request[ed] that in the
matter of Chaplain organization, a distinct Canadian Catholic Director of
Chaplain Services, not subject, directly or indirectly, to any chaplain of
another religious denomination be named.”4 This position was also echoed by the Council of Canadian Bishops, which
believed two distinct branches of the military chaplaincy would better ensure
the spiritual well-being of all soldiers.5
These requests by some of
Canada’s most senior Catholic clerics for separate but equal chaplaincy
services derived from their own struggles as well as those of their Protestant
colleagues during the First World War. Their proposal did not fall on deaf
ears, militarily or politically. During the First World War, the overall effectiveness
of Canada’s military chaplaincy had been seriously compromised by delays in
creating the chaplaincy service, by promoting chaplains based on political or
family ties instead of experience, and by uniting all religious denominations
under the same corps.6 Thus, the Department of Militia's refusal to allow the chaplaincy
service to organize around its two large denominational groups ensured
perpetual conflicts between Catholics and Protestants.
After the last Canadian
contingent returned home in 1921, this complete organizational debacle within
the chaplaincy corps, which had deprived many Canadian soldiers of a vital
source of moral and spiritual leadership from their own faith, led the federal
government to issue an Order-in-Council disbanding the Canadian Military
Chaplaincy.7 Historian Duff Crerar
concluded that these conflicts were one of the primary reasons the Chaplaincy
service was disbanded.8 Chaplains who wished to continue ministering to a particular regiment
during the interwar years were forced to do so as volunteers, without any
official recognition of their commitment or contributions.9
Seeking to avoid the problems
that had compromised the chaplaincy’s effectiveness during the First World War,
and recognizing the importance of and necessity for strong moral and spiritual
leadership in military regiments, the government approved the creation of
separate but equal Catholic and Protestant Chaplaincy Services. This decision
made Canada the only country to create a dual chaplaincy service: a Protestant
division for all non-Catholics and a Catholic division for Roman and Orthodox
Catholics.10 While discussions among
the Protestant churches led to the early appointment of George Anderson Wells,
Bishop of Cariboo, as the Principal Protestant Chaplain, the Catholic bishops
awaited the decision of the Holy See.11 In early October 1939, Pope Pius XII recognized Charles Leo Nelligan,
Bishop of Pembroke, as the Principal Canadian Catholic Chaplain.12 The Minister of National Defence approved the
nomination of both candidates on 21 October 1939.13
Recognizing the important role
of chaplains, the Department of National Defence (DND) established, in
consultation with the Catholic Chaplaincy, the rules and responsibilities of
chaplains and senior military officials. Prior to overseas service,
newly-recruited chaplains first had to undergo physical training, basic
military education, and to demonstrate competence and experience in war-time
counselling.14 During the mandatory
six-month training at the Chaplain School at Camp Borden near Barrie (Ontario),
chaplains received instructions from military officers on army methods and
military life and from religious leaders on how to provide spiritual and moral
guidance during periods of extreme hardship. The Department also expected that
in addition to celebrating mass and administering the sacraments, chaplains
would visit the sick, wounded, and incarcerated, and offer religious
instruction. Furthermore, chaplains were charged with strengthening regimental
unity, maintaining high morale, encouraging and assisting soldiers to write to
their families, censoring letters, actively participating in mess duties, and
assisting medical staff in treating the wounded.15 Most importantly, the Department had learned during the First World War
that a ‘jovial’ chaplain visiting the front lines boosted troops’ morale more
than endless hours of counselling and religious guidance in the regiment’s
chapel.16 Accordingly, chaplains
were encouraged to forge friendships with all military personnel and to inspire
them in these times of war. In addition, chaplains were expected to maintain
records of wounded and deceased military personnel and to inform the families
of these tragedies, as well as to help the men relax by organizing sporting and
social events.17 In fact, commanding
officers needed the chaplains to help keep their men on the path of morality
and self-restraint, so that despite the daily hardships, the men would be able
to fight another day.
As for the religious
responsibilities of senior military officials, they were given the task of
promoting the spiritual well-being of their troops. As such, commanding
officers were required to make available to chaplains the tools they needed to
accomplish their mission: a chapel to celebrate mass, a private office to hear
confession, and an acceptable method of transportation to visit the troops. In
addition, commanding officers had to limit the number of soldiers taking part
in military exercise when mass or other religious activities were taking place.18 And finally, senior military officers had to
lead by example, taking part in all religious activities.19 Despite the good will of the DND, no list of
rules and responsibilities could have completely eliminated the social and
personal conflict between senior military officials and chaplains. For the
first time, however, the roles and responsibilities of both groups had been
made much clearer, which helped strengthen the chaplaincy's effectiveness.
With these rules and responsibilities laid
out as clearly as possible, Nelligan turned his complete attention to
recruiting clerics for the Canadian Catholic Chaplaincy Service. For his
vicars-general, Nelligan selected Fathers T. J. McCarthy of Sarnia and J. G.
Côté of Québec City, both veterans of the First World War. They were given the
tasks of organizing the Canadian Catholic Chaplaincy’s activities overseas and
assisting Nelligan in recruiting clerics.20 However, before
Nelligan was able to launch a national recruiting campaign for clerics, the
government announced its decision to despatch to Great Britain the First
Canadian Infantry Division, which included a dozen regiments. Having fought for
the right of each Catholic soldier to practice his religion wherever he was,
Nelligan and his vicars-general had to move quickly to recruit at least twenty
clerics needed to fill positions in the First Division alone. Nelligan
recruited mainly veteran chaplains to fill these positions. Then, in each of
Canada’s eleven military districts, Nelligan mounted a recruitment drive for
clerics – both parish priests and members of religious orders – who could function
well as military chaplains.
At the start of the war, the DND had
established the requirement for Catholic chaplains at one cleric for every 500
Catholic soldiers.21 Unable to meet this requirement from the
start, Nelligan continuously lobbied archbishops, bishops, and superiors of
religious orders to nominate more clerics for military service. For example,
Nelligan frequently sent letters to ecclesiastical authorities across Canada
thanking them for the great sacrifice they were making in allowing such high
quality priests to become military chaplains, and concluding with another
request to free up a few more priests. Most challenging for Nelligan, the
Department had asked that all chaplains be less than 50 years of age, and even
better if they were under 40, a constraint that limited the pool of available
candidates.22
Recognizing Nelligan’s lobbying efforts,
the military eventually allowed chaplains older than 50 years old to enlist,
and who would be sent overseas only if they were assigned administrative
duties. Therefore, Nelligan recommended the “despatch of older and battle-worn
chaplains to hospital units,” allowing the younger chaplains to accompany the
units into battle.23 By 1945, Nelligan had managed to recruit
201Catholic clerics, of whom 157 saw active duty in theatres of war, wherever
Canadians served.24 Falling short, however, of the requirement of
one padre for every 500 catholic soldiers, the demands on a padre’s time were
considerably increased. In addition, regiments feared they could be deprived of
the service of a chaplain in case of injury or death. As such, some chaplains
were encouraged not to follow their regiment into battle; rather they stayed
behind the soldiers, helping to minister to the wounded. This was a hard
decision to accept for some padres. “A padre in times of war follows his boys and
his boys are happy to have him,” said one padre. “We do what we can to help
everyone. Normally we shouldn’t go (on the battlefields) because, if you lose
your padre, you might have to wait three to four years before another chaplain
can be found.”25
The support Catholic Chaplains received
from the DND was also mirrored by the Holy See’s support and its approval of
wartime religious faculties. Although these faculties had been permitted during
the First World War, their reintroduction provided the religious flexibility
needed again in these new troubling times. For example, chaplains requested and
received permission to celebrate three masses on Sunday or statutory holiday
mornings – an important permission, given that regimental units were often
scattered over a long distance and were unable to regroup for mass.26 In recognition
that soldiers typically had military duties in the mornings, the Chaplaincy
received permission to celebrate mass on Sunday evenings.27 Furthermore, when
chaplains did not have sufficient time to hear individual confessions – before
sending soldiers into battle, for example – they were permitted to grant
general absolution. In addition, since the need to fast prior to receiving the
Eucharist was difficult for men in active wartime service, this requirement was
reduced to four hours instead of eight. On the battlefield, moreover, soldiers
could receive Holy Communion at any time, without any need to fast.28 To simplify the
already complex business of feeding the troops, soldiers were also allowed to
consume meat on Fridays.29 And in December 1943, the Holy See recognized
for the first time that the religious obligations of Catholic soldiers were
secondary to their military duties.30
Despite the reintroduction of many wartime
faculties, the Roman Catholic Church could not address the rising incidence of
venereal disease, drunkenness, and blasphemy that signaled a moral and
spiritual decline in the Canadian Armed Forces. This phenomenon, however, was
not limited to Canadian troops. With the objective of reinforcing soldiers’
religious values, Bishop Nelligan adopted an innovative British Army practice
called the “Padre’s Hour,” introduced by Royal Air Force Commander Sir
Frederick Browning in December 1942. The Padre’s Hour, which took place for an
hour each week, required that chaplains discuss with the troops, among many
other social and personal topics, the role of a Catholic soldier and one’s
relationship with God, the state, and family.31 Padre's Hour was
also seen as a first step in the reintegration of military personnel into the
larger Canadian society following the war.
In spite of the innovative approach of
Padre’s Hour, Nelligan told his chaplains to expect neither many participants
nor immediate success.32 However, in the month of June 1943, for
example, the chaplain of the Canadian Armed Forces Reinforcement Unit stationed
in the United Kingdom noted that more than 2,000 men who had not regularly
taken active part in church activities were now doing so.33 Although it is
difficult to assess its success, Padre’s Hour did help to create greater
personal bonds between soldiers and chaplains and to encourage soldiers not to
be afraid to turn to their padre for help. The effectiveness of Padre’s Hour,
however, rested mainly with the commanding officers. While most encouraged this
initiative to increase moral conduct and morale, some commanding officers
feared Padre’s Hour was another attempt to increase the role of the Church
within the regiments. Some commanding officers cancelled Padre’s Hour
frequently, with or without advanced warning to the padre. In some instances,
Padre’s Hour was “treated with indifference, which in its practical results, is
the equivalence of hostility.”34 On other occasions, Padre’s Hour coincided
perfectly with unscheduled but mandatory military exercises.35 Even when Padre’s
Hour could take place, the padre might have a difficult time accessing a room
large enough to welcome the military personnel.36
There also exists other anecdotal
information that supports senior military officers' infringement of their
responsibilities toward chaplains. For example, some commanding officers
refused access to a vehicle despite the fact that some regiments were scattered
over long distances. Anecdotes suggest that some padres were often forced to
carpool with other padres, or call upon his divisional chaplain, to visit his
flock.37 Private quarters were also a luxury in wartime, but a much needed tool
to celebrate mass or hear confession. In some instances, commanding officers
refused to construct a common room for their soldiers for such purposes. In
another instance, a colonel attempted to take over a padre’s confessional for
his own purposes.38 As well, many chaplains resented the lack of
access to their military personnel. In spite of directives reinforced by
Canadian Army Headquarters in London prohibiting military duties during mass
and times of religious activities, like Padre’s Hour, some padres complained
that these directives were not always obeyed. On countless occasions, mass and
other religious meetings were cancelled or the timing was changed without
consulting the chaplain.39 As such, for some chaplains, their access to
the troops was curtailed by commanding officers, limiting them to one-on-one
encounters and exponentially increasing the time needed to minister to the
soldiers. These anecdotes, however, do not represent a widespread occurrence
among the Canadian forces; in large part, commanding officers provided the
support chaplains needed, recognizing that their role contributed to strengthening
the regiment’s unity and efficiency.
Despite the expected challenges padres’
faced in ministering to their soldiers, their position was strengthened through
three new initiatives: the creation of a separate but equal Canadian Catholic
Chaplain Service defending the rights of all Catholic military personnel;
clearer guidelines from the DND outlining the military’s expectations of
padres, as well as governing the relationship between commanding officers and
padres; and the availability of Padre’s Hour as a means of engaging soldiers on
topics beyond mass and the sacraments, and forging bonds between participants
and the padre. Although these three initiatives did not always eliminate every
source of tension, Catholic chaplains could more easily focus on their
principal task, their raison d’être – ministering to soldiers. As we will see,
the effectiveness of the chaplaincy enabled its members to respond to an
increasing participation rate of soldiers to religious activities of the Royal
22e Régiment as well as the Second Canadian Infantry Division.
Sitting in the rectory of Saint-Ambroise
parish in Montreal listening to Mackenzie King’s announcement of 1 September
1939 placing Canada’s militia on active service was 38-year old Father Joseph
Armand Sabourin. Three days later, Sabourin, feeling compelled to respond to
his nation’s call for help, assumed his duties as chaplain of the
Montreal-based Fusiliers Mont-Royal (FMR), one of the sixteen regiments that
made up the Second Canadian Infantry Division. Among the other fifteen
regiments were the Régiment de Maisonneuve (RdM), the only other almost
exclusively French-Canadian and Catholic regiment within the Division, and
fourteen mainly English-Canadian and religiously diverse regiments, including
the Cameron Highlanders and the Royal Regiment of Canada.40
While the wartime experience of these
sixteen regiments differed, senior Catholic chaplains within the Second
Canadian Infantry Division used the monthly reports provided by each Catholic
chaplain to compile a monthly account of the numbers of military personnel
attending mass and receiving communion or confession. Although most padres’
logs submitted to headquarters did not find their way into military or public
archives, these divisional monthly reports, from November 1941 to March 1945,
did survive. Today, they provide a valuable tool for examining religious participation
throughout the war years.41 The double vertical scale graph compares the
number of communions and confessions that took place each month with the number
of burial services.42 Since this chart represents Catholic
activities in all sixteen regiments, the war experience of two almost
exclusively Catholic regiments of the Second Canadian Infantry Division – the
FMR and the RdM – will be used to help explain this graphic.
From November 1941 to March 1944, when most
regiments of the Second Canadian Infantry Division were waiting in the United
Kingdom for the Allied high command’s strategic planning, the number of
sacraments received remains fairly constant, with a slight, but expected,
increase during the Easter and Christmas periods. Since these regiments were
not engaged in active fighting, death rates were low. Similarly, each padre had
the opportunity to get to know and build up a pastoral relationship with his
soldiers. The only exception to the general “quiet” during the pre-March 1944
period was August and September 1942, the period of the Dieppe Raid, and its
immediate aftermath. Aware of the intense battle that lay ahead for the FMR and
the heavy casualties expected, many soldiers and officers, turning to Padre
Sabourin for reassurance, received the sacraments in great numbers. Without
sufficient time to hear individual confessions, chaplains benefited from the
Holy See’s permission to grant general, rather than individual, absolution.
Padre Sabourin accompanied his soldiers in prayer, granted them general
absolution for their sins, and invited them all to receive communion before
they boarded their landing craft for Dieppe.43
While the risks had been deemed high by
senior military officials, few could have predicted the human cost or the
lasting scar of the Dieppe Raid. Out of 794 officers and soldiers who had
prayed with Sabourin prior to the raid, 587 were killed. This left Sabourin
with the harrowing task of providing the last rite en masse for many of the men
he had cared for since leaving Canada three years earlier. Far from immune to
the traumas of war taking place around him and with hundreds of his soldiers
and friends dying on the beaches in gallant but pitifully hopeless attacks,
Sabourin – emotionally scarred from this conflict – could no longer cope with
ministering to the survivors. Returning him home became the most practical
solution for both religious and military authorities.44 Padre Charles E.
Beaudry, a parish priest from Joliette known to many officers and some soldiers
of the Montréal- and Joliette-based regiment, was called upon to replace
Sabourin.45 Without a full complement, the FMR was given time to reorganize itself,
increase its numbers and train as a unit. For Beaudry, this time proved
important, allowing him to comfort his flock and reassure them that God had not
abandoned them.46 As for Sabourin, following a seven-month counseling and rest period, he
returned to active military duty, taking up the position of senior Catholic
cleric for Canadian troops stationed in Newfoundland.47
While the FMR took part in the Dieppe Raid,
the RdM had been ordered to maintain their position in England, a position held
since August 1940. Despite a Nazi air raid on the night of 19 August 1942 – the
Regiment’s first encounter with the enemy – which caused no casualties, the
regiment waited until the Invasion of Normandy for their baptism of fire.48 Throughout this
long period of waiting, Father Guy Laramée, a well-known Jesuit youth pastor
from the Montreal region appointed to the RdM in October 1939, took this time
to prepare his soldiers for the hardships ahead. In fact, some officers were
continuously preoccupying themselves with the spiritual well-being of their
soldiers, and were pleased with Laramée’s ability to bond with these young men.49 In a sermon,
Laramée implored officers and soldiers to “confide in the Virgin Mary for this
war will be fatal for many among us. Never can we have too much love for the
Virgin Mary and never can we have too much confidence in her protection.”50 After four years
of valued service, the RdM was sad to lose Laramée following his promotion
within the chaplaincy ranks.51 Replacing him was Padre Gérard Marchand, a
former Voltigeurs de Québec chaplain, who benefited from a year’s experience
with the regiment before heading to the battlefield.52
In May and June 1944, as Allied troops
prepared for D-Day, chaplains were instructed to prepare their soldiers for
combat by “furthering the comfort and general welfare of the men.”53 Despite the tragedy
of the Dieppe Raid, the lessons learned proved useful. For example, for the
first time, chaplains received explicit instructions on conducting mass
burials. With such information in hand, the padres acknowledged the upcoming
hardships, prepared their men spiritually as best as they could, and offered
them the sacraments. A few weeks after D-Day, the RdM joined the other
regiments fighting in France, with a “great number going to communion” before
leaving for the battlefield.54
The most intense battles against the Nazis
took place from June 1944 to May 1945 in a war of constant movement. As the
intensity of the fighting continued, soldiers and officers lived every hour knowing
that their lives were in constant danger, and they turned to their padre in
unprecedented numbers for the sacraments of communion and confession. Between
June and December 1944, the FMR and the RdM both lost nearly one-third of their
men.55 A telling example: in September 1944, the Second Canadian Infantry
Division conducted 441 burial services, laying to rest thousands of its own
soldiers – this contrasts vividly to the less than 25 burial services per month
conducted between January and May 1944. As for those who survived, they turned
to the Church in greater number than ever before for comfort: September 1944
saw the number of communions quadruple and the number of confessions double
compared to April of the same year.
As the war dragged on through another
winter and the casualties kept mounting, commanding officers turned to their
“jovial” chaplain for help in raising the spirits of the men and in encouraging
them to fight on. Chaplains continued to visit soldiers wherever they were,
often at considerable personal risk. They listened to their fears and
encouraged them. They offered them the sacraments, which were rarely refused.
In these difficult times, the devotion of many chaplains to their men remained
firm. Armed with faculties to minister to their men in wartime, some chaplains
accompanied their troops to the most advanced outposts on the battlefields,
disobeying chaplaincy guidelines. Father Rémi Dalcourt was one of these many
committed padres. On 28 February 1945, after performing a burial service,
Dalcourt’s car hit an enemy landmine, and he was killed instantly. In a letter
received posthumously, Dalcourt described to a friend his dedication to his soldiers.
“I only have one desire, one mission: to be with my soldiers, under the rain of
God and under the rain of the enemy.”56 Despite the recognition
of the chaplains’ work, Dalcourt became the third, and final, Canadian Catholic
padre to lose his life in this war.
During battles in France and
Belgium, Padre Beaudry followed the regiment onto the battlefields, offering
the sacraments of confession and communion, and celebrating mass whenever and
wherever possible. Beaudry likened his role during such battles to an
“ambulance attendant working close to enemy fire;” he did whatever he could to
provide the sacraments to his “boys.”57 As for Padre Marchand, he used his sermons and other encounters with
his soldiers and officers to encourage them on in their fight and to request
that they thank God through prayers for the ongoing protection of members of
the regiment.58 Up to the time of the
final ceasefire, soldiers continued to receive the sacraments in large numbers
and the requests on a padre’s time were limitless.
While the experience and the
effectiveness of padres can be analyzed at the divisional level, there is also
considerable value in examining the situation from the regimental perspective.
By looking at the war through the eyes of the various padres who accompanied
the Royal 22e Régiment we will be able to see how these chaplains
served their troops.
On 1 September 1939 – nine
days prior to Canada’s declaration of war – the federal government approved the
use of article 64 of the Militia Act, placing its regiments on active
service. For the Royal 22e Régiment (R22R), mobilization came at a time when
the number of soldiers had been permitted to dwindle to 300 men during the
interwar years. As a result of this announcement, R22R recruitment drives
quickly took place in Chicoutimi, Roberval, Saguenay, and Mont-Joli, rapidly
increasing the regiment’s complement to over 800 men by early December.59 Welcoming new R22R recruits to Québec City’s
Citadel was Msgr J. G. Côté, Nelligan’s francophone vicar-general and a R22R
chaplain during the First World War.
Since Côté’s age exceeded
the limits imposed by the DND in 1939 for overseas enrolment and with the
government’s sudden inclusion of the R22R as part of the First Canadian
Infantry Division, Nelligan was obliged to find a new, and younger, padre to
look after this regiment overseas.60 Impressed by a young cleric named Maurice L. Roy, a theologian from
Université Laval (who would later become the military’s principal chaplain as
well as cardinal), Nelligan encouraged him to sign up, and to accompany
Canada’s first French-Canadian regiment overseas.61 While the R22R left Canadian soil on 4 December 1939, accompanied by
Padre Roy, the regiment was not called upon to play an active role until July
1943. Without any serious incident during these initial years, the regiment
focused on training.
With boredom quickly setting in, and
lasting for more than three years, Roy used his time to organize several social
events, including movie screenings, dances, and music concerts, thus helping
his soldiers forget – albeit for short periods of time – the waiting game. Roy
benefited from these quiet times to help officers and soldiers understand the
role of a padre. During his interactions with soldiers and officers, and in
particular in a letter to his soldiers, Roy implores them to come and see him,
for a padre’s role is to help, not to punish: “I await you, as a friend and as
a brother, to whom I wish to provide my services and give you a bit of joy.”62 A victim of his own success, Roy’s dedication
to his regiment did not go unnoticed by his superiors. On 21May 1941, this
popular chaplain was promoted to senior chaplain with responsibilities for all
chaplains serving Canada’s First Infantry Division.63 In his farewell sermon to the regiment, Roy
expressed his regret at not being able to accompany the R22R until the very
end, but kept his promise of visiting the regiment often.64
Although most padres underwent a six-month
military and religious training prior to being sent overseas, it did not
guarantee an enhanced ability to acclimatize oneself to new working conditions.
This was indeed the case for Roy’s replacement, 39-year old padre Édouard
Desilets, a native of Ste-Anne-du-Sault, Québec. Due to the lack of Canadian
clerics overseas, Nelligan took advantage of the arrival of Desilets in the
United Kingdom in April 1941 to appoint him immediately to the R22R.65 From the beginning, Desilets could not provide
the guidance and leadership a regiment needed in troubling times. Following
Desilets’ inability to console the victims of air raids, the commanding officer
of the R22R met privately with the divisional chaplain, to request that prior
to being sent to the battlefield, a new chaplain would be named to the
regiment.66 Despite Desilets’
difficulties in adapting to his wartime responsibilities, his cleric colleagues
never abandoned him, supporting him in his functions until a replacement could
be found a year later, in December 1942.67
Life for the R22R changed
dramatically on 10 July 1943. Under Lieutenant-Colonel Bernatchez’s command, the
R22R took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, a 38-day journey which
resulted in the Allied troops taking control of the island. But marching into
the town of Messina, the centre of Sicilian control, did not come without
sacrifice. On 17 July 1943, the R22R experienced its first battle, with seven
of their own losing their lives, and another 24 being injured. Other
battlefields, including Valguarnera, Catenanuova, and Adrano, which bear
witness to more sufferings, remain enshrined in the regiment’s history.
Throughout these trying times, the regiment benefited from Padre Léo Gratton’s
ministering to the troops on the battlefields. Despite being one of the oldest
members of the regiment, at the age of 46 (in 1943), his physical abilities,
especially during long, endurance testing maneuvers, inspired even the youngest
members.68
Despite the hardship of life on the
battlefields, Gratton expressed his profound affection for the soldiers of the
R22R: “If you only knew how much I love my soldiers and how ready I am to do
anything I can for them. I will follow them always and I will follow them
everywhere, and nothing will separate me from them, especially in the most
critical and dangerous times.”69 Holding true to his promise, Gratton accompanied the regiment in its
next move: the invasion of Italy. With a mounting casualty rate during the
Italian campaign, Gratton’s dedication to providing the sacraments did not
diminish. In fact, to his divisional chaplain, Gratton remarked that, since the
invasion of Italy, a dramatic change had taken place in the piety of his men,
such that “many have come out of a nonchalant profession of their faith.”70 For another six months, the R22R helped to
push back Nazi troops, with more of their own becoming the ultimate sacrifice.
On 14 December 1943, for example, the battle of Casa Berardi cost “C” company
the life of 23 soldiers and 107 more were injured. While the R22R continued to
serve with great distinction, the list of the deceased continued to increase,
and so did the activities of Padre Gratton.
Following the exhaustive battles in Sicily
and Italy, Allied commanders looked to reserve units to strengthen the
complement of many regiments and to replace soldiers during a well-deserved
rest period. Gratton’s senior chaplain, recognizing his physical exhaustion
after several months on the battlefields, approved a two-month rest period. In
the interim, Alphonse Claude-Laboissière, a Franciscan father who had served
with reserve units of the R22R in Italy since September 1943, replaced Gratton.71 Accompanying him were hundreds of the
reservists he had served with during the previous months. Although keeping
personal war diaries was strongly prohibited, Claude-Laboissière kept a
personal log of his activities, which provides a rich source of historical
information on a padre’s wartime experience.72 His hesitancy in allowing its publication reflects his uneasiness with
being its central figure. However, without a predetermined public, this journal
remains a valuable source for the analysis of the rates of religious
participation, a statistic not taken into account in most official military
records. Using the entries of his diary for the weeks from 31 October 1943 to
16 April 1944 – weeks where the men were not involved in fighting and during
part of which they were – it becomes possible to analyze variations in rates of
participation in religious activities (Table 1).73
On 9 October 1943, Claude-Laboissière had
arrived in the Algerian port city of Oran, joining the R22R reserve units,
where he spent nearly three full months. Although life in Algeria was hard –
extreme heat, lack of proper supplies and equipment, and shortage of food – the
R22R reinforcement units found themselves at a considerable distance from the
main theatres of war. Claude-Laboissière’s diary indicates that a comfortable
routine was established, with training during the week, one religious service
on Sundays, and one other sacrament, usually confession, performed during the
week. The padre organized sporting events and discussion groups to help the men
relax and to help him get to know them better on an individual, personal level.
In December 1943, the R22R reinforcement
units’ quiet life in Algeria ended following the Battle of Ortona. As the
fighting in Italy intensified, and the R22R contingent there began to suffer
both increasing casualties and physical exhaustion, the R22R reinforcements
unit were ordered to Italy to bolster the regiment’s strength. On New Year’s
Day 1944, the R22R reinforcement units set sail for the Italian coast. During the
two-day voyage across the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, the unit was
subjected to two German bombing runs, but did not suffer any casualties. After
arriving in Italy, but still several hundred kilometres from the battlefield,
Claude-Laboissière and the men of the reinforcement units helped the local
civilian population rebuild their homes. With the exception of one bombing
raid, which caused no casualties, life remained fairly calm until the end of
January. Claude-Laboissière records that Sunday mass remained a focal point for
both the mainly Catholic Italian population and his soldiers.
However when the R22R
reinforcement unit was ordered to the battlefield on 3 February 1944, the men’s
lives changed forever. It was, for most of them, their baptism of fire. For the
next two months, the R22R– which consisted now mainly of the reinforcement
units – defended the Allied positions and succeeded in pushing the Nazis
further north. During the offensive, the number of dead and wounded rose
steadily. And, as the risk of death increased, so did the number of religious
services, to an average of almost three masses a week. Claude-Laboissière also
notes that his soldiers waited for him to grant general absolution before
heading to the battlefield.74 While
this period of intense fighting coincided with Lent, the padre and his soldiers
were unable to reflect on the religious importance of this time of the year. In
fact, Claude-Laboissière’s diary for 1944 makes no direct reference to Lent.
However, soldiers requested the sacraments of communion and confession more
often after the regiment’s arrival at the battlefield, perhaps motivated by
fears that unabsolved impurities might prevent them from attaining eternal
life. Indeed, the padre spent up to four evenings a week listening to
confessions. The only exception during this period was during the Holy Week of
April 2, 1944, when the commanding officer of the R22R, Colonel J. Allard,
received permission from his military superiors to pull his troops away from
the battlefield, in order to rest and to prepare themselves for Easter
celebrations.75 Not surprisingly, during
Holy Week, Claude-Laboissière celebrated five masses, although the men were
away from the battlefield and, temporarily at least, out of danger.
Claude-Laboissière’s diary provides an
historical account of what soldiers went through during the war. When the
regiment found itself far from the dangers of battle, as in Algeria, the men’s
religious concerns were less visible. However, as this padre’s diary clearly
demonstrates, when the death and mutilation of battle became real, as on the
Italian front, both the soldiers’ participation and the padre’s writings
reflect intensified religious concerns. Claude-Laboissière’s official
attachment to the R22R ended in May 1944, with the return of Gratton to the
R22R and the promotion of Claude-Laboissière to the position of senior chaplain
of the First Military Division, replacing Maurice Roy.
In the months that followed, the lives of
his soldiers were marked by persistent battles, with many deaths and injuries.
The possibility of an air raid did not prevent Gratton from celebrating mass.
During one such occasion, Gratton described his sentiments in regards to celebrating
mass on a battlefield: “What a wonderful sight to see officers and soldiers
receiving, under enemy sky, the God of their first communion. Mass in active
service is the biggest act of faith of the battalion. It is surely the source
by excellence of these divine benedictions on one and all.”76 As the war raged on, the R22R was sent to
France and then Holland to liberate these nations from Nazi occupation.
While the R22R played an important role
during the Second World War, it came with a heavy cost. Of the 314 officers and
4,980 soldiers who served with the regiment during the Second World War, 382
lost their lives and another 1,265 men were injured, a rate of 31% for injuries
and death.77 At no time was the
regiment without the services of a padre. The qualitative nature of the war
diaries of the R22R demonstrates the padres’ religious activities.
Claude-Laboissière’s diary presents a brief microcosm from which we can analyze
the increasing responsibilities of padres in proximity to the battlefield.
One of the DND’s preoccupations during the
Second World War was the spiritual and moral well-being of its troops. By
creating a dual chaplaincy service and by assigning rules and responsibilities
to chaplains and senior military officers, the military confirmed the
importance of the religious element in wartime. Under the leadership of Bishop
Nelligan, the Canadian Catholic Chaplaincy Service was mandated to provide to
the Catholic military personnel a religious encadrement, regardless of the
events unfolding around them. Despite the attempts to increase the number of
Catholic clerics, the shortage of priests ensured that those enlisted clerics
found themselves overworked, especially as the participation rate of Canadian
Catholic soldiers increased dramatically during the war’s most treacherous
periods. The ties between chaplain and soldier were reinforced not only through
wartime religious faculties but also through a new mechanism – Padre’s Hour. In
times of war, a padre’s willingness to bring the sacraments onto the
battlefield and visit the troops strengthened the padre-soldier relationship.
With the reintroduction of wartime
religious faculties, with the lessons learned from the First World War that led
to the creation of a dual chaplaincy service and a protocol of rules and
responsibilities for chaplains and senior military officers, chaplains were
indeed better able to meet the religious needs of their soldiers. With each new
day, more soldiers and officers were injured or killed; food and rest were
scarce; physical and moral exhaustion were commonplace. Recognizing the danger
that lay around them—which resulted in the death of thousands of their
brothers-in-arms – many soldiers took comfort in the promise of eternal life
through the sacraments.
Appendix A
Appendix B
