67 3Wf





INTRODUCTION

When one’s country is at war no one
is a volunteer! You may have the privi-
lege of selecting some line of duty but in

the final analysis it is a duty, something

you must perform, something rooted in

a command and not in a request.

Someone has wisely suggested that at

such a time a man has two jobs,—one to
support himself and his family and the

other to support his country but the

second may easily become a paramount
task without any consideration or very

little of the man’s wishes or wants.

These thoughts rather inspire the pro-

position that today as far as war activi-

ties are concerned Vincentians are no

longer volunteers. The Country, the

Church and the Society have a right to

issue orders to them trebly compelling

when all such authorities unite in the
same order, as when they say today

“Vincentians ! Exercise in favor of

the service man, his family and his

Chaplain, that charity of which you

boast,—that Catholic charity that
is more spiritual than material”.

To bring home then to our Brothers a
realization of the fact that there is such

a duty, that we can perform it, indeed
that we must perform it, is the object of
the present publication.



2 WE CAN! WE MUST!

We bespeak therefore a careful reading
of the following preliminary statements

arranged more in their logical import-

ance than in the sequence of happening.

(1) As the government, anticipating

great military inductions, started to

build huge camps and industrial

units, thus drew from their homes

thousands and thousands of men,

there was created a situation that

should have engaged the attention of

Vincentians, — solicitude for men
away from their homes—for it is to
be noted that in addition to visiting

the poor in their homes the first Vin-

centians also made an effort to pro-

tect those who had left their homes .

As to this movement of the govern-

ment we Vincentians did nothing.

(2) When the great inductions actually

began the question then became an

acute and challenging one for the

Vincentians. Not only the past but

the future was whispering to us,
((

Show us your works”.

(3) The government, to guard against a

repetition of the bickerings and jeal-

ousies among the social agencies dur-

ing the last war, fostered the crea-

tion of the United Service Organiza-

tions (USO) as one single social

group to include Catholic, Jewish and

other agencies.



WE CAN! WE MUST! 3

(4) To have a properly coordinated rep-

resentation of the Catholics in such

group the ecclesiastical authorities

in this country organized the Nation-

al Catholic Community Service

(NCCS)

.

(5) The NCCS was to include every
agency that was ready to put its

shoulder to the wheel, national, dio-

cesan or parochial, — the Holy Name
Society, the Knights of Columbus,

St. Vincent de Paul Society and any

other. But this group, the NCCS,

did not give to any one agency as

against the others, priority of op-

portunity, superiority over them or

exclusiveness of work assumed. All

were and are on an equal footing.

(6) The ecclesiastical authorities desig-

nated Archbishop Spellman as Mili-

tary Vicar and the president of Notre

Dame University, (afterward raised

to the episcopacy) Bishop John F.

O’Hara as the Military Delegate.

(7) Then, having an organization to su-

perintend all Catholic agencies and a

national ecclesiastical authority in

control and the corporate integrity

of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

being duly recognized, the Superior

Council sought and held a confer-

ence with the chairman of the NCCS
and the Military Delegate, Bishop



4 WE CAN! WE MUST!

O’Hara to discuss what part the So-

ciety could take in the war picture.

(8) As a result of that confernece a

formal letter was addressed by

President Gillespie to the Military

Delegate outlining what our Society

was able to do and what it was will-

ing to do. To that letter the Bishop

responded, in part, as follows:

“Your proposal to offer the fa-

cilities of the St. Vincent de

Paul Society to assist Army and

Navy Chaplains in their work

has my hearty approval. I am
pleased to hear that you have

had a favorable response from

20 percent of the Catholics now

in service.

* * * *

Your proposal to furnish assis-

tance through home Conferences

and to organize camp groups is

heartily recommended. It is un-

derstood that the Conferences

will be discreet in any work at-

tempted in camp and that they

will bear in mind the reasonable

restrictions imposed by Army

regulations.”

(9) Here then, we have our charter and

our chart; our authorization to do

the work and a plan as to what we

should do.



WE CAN! WE MUST! 5

(10) Into this plan as above indicated

some circumscriptions immediately

entered with the utmost enthusiasm.

Others stood off, some suggesting

they knew not what to do, others

seemingly challenging the hierarchy

and the governing body of our or-

ganization in the plan suggested,

others still pleading they lacked the

time and the money and others the

opportunity and the personnel to

attempt any such work but the plan

herein and hereinafter discussed in

one form or another as a total plan

or as a part of a plan has been tried,

has been found feasible and depends

only upon the willingness of the

Vincentians to do real Vincentian

work in keeping with the Vincentian

rules, practices and traditions.

We ask your serious attention now to
some remarks by Brother James H.

Callahan, of Brooklyn in a paper read at

our last annual meetings on the subject,

“The Armed Services and the Vincentians

—Suggestions for Spiritual Action”, and
following that article we reprint the

splendid paper also read at the annual

meetings in Kansas City by Rev. Martin

J. Nealis on the subject, “The Armed

Services and the Chaplain”.



THE ARMED FORCES AND THE
VINCENTIANS

SUGGESTIONS FOR SPIRITUAL

ACTION

It may be stated conservatively, that

the number of Catholic men in service

is greater than our proportionate part

of the population of the country and that,

of the men in service, the number of

Catholics who are commissioned officers,

is proportionately less. Each of us knows

scores of boys in his own neighborhood

who are now in some branch of the serv-

ice. Most of them were fine, upstanding

fellows who in civil life lived good moral

lives, attended regularly to their religi-

ous duties and received the Sacraments

frequently. Others for various reasons

were careless in the performance of their

religious duties and attendance at Mass

with reception of the Sacraments by

them was infrequent. It should be the

purpose of our Society to assist the boys

who regularly attended Church and re-

ceived the Sacraments to continue doing

so and to make every effort to lead back

to better ways of living the boys who

have been careless. The uncertainty of

their future is so great that no effort

should be spared to make impossible for

each of them to be so prepared that the

sudden ending of his life may not be a

spiritual calamity for him.



WE CAN ! WE MUST ! 7

Usually our work has started with ma-

terial assistance to a distressed family

and out of our giving this material assis-

tance, have come our opportunities for

spiritual work. Our men in service, how-

ever, are not in this category. On the

spiritual side, however, conditions seem

to be different, and it is in that direc-

tion from the experience gained from its

almost one hundred years of life in the

United States, that our Society is best

adapted to serve and can serve with the

greatest and most satisfying results.

It is to the splendid men, the Chap-

lains, that our boys, thousands of them

away from home for the first time in

their lives, turn for help and our Society

is peculiarly organized to give the Chap-

lain assistance so that he may be relieved

of matters which can be done for him by

laymen and may thus have additional

time for those which he alone can do.

This can be accomplished in great

part by the formation of Camp Confer-
ences throughout the country in the man-

ner in which the Buffalo Council es-

tablished one at Fort Niagara. Every

fort, Navy Yard or camp has a personnel

which is somewhat permanent. Some

camps are merely induction points where

recruits are equipped and then moved to

another camp for training. Even at an

induction camp, the Camp Conference
can do great work.



8 WE CAN! WE MUST!

At a fort in Maine of fourteen units

the Chaplain cannot visit these units

once in two weeks. He is organizing a

Camp Conference with at least one mem-
ber at each outpost. These men will re-

port to him of cases needing special at-

tention and he will have many hours of

his time released for his work.

* * * *

Many Vincentians are in service and

many of them have reported to Chaplains

with offers of their help. Every Confer-

ence should write to its members to do

this at once and around these experien-

ced men, a Conference can be formed

readily. Out of their meetings will come

their work, in fact, more than they can

handle. One Committee learned that some

boys are apt to have a spiritual let-down

after settling into a Military routine and

a Vincentian in their barracks can arouse

them from their lethargy. Such work re-

quires many qualities, but the need will

produce the men, if the organization is

started. It is an anomaly that our Socie-

ty which was started by young men,

should now be carried on largely by the

efforts of older men. Out of Camp Con-

ferences, hundreds of younger Vincent-

ians will be recruited who will carry on

our work, when the war has ended,

bringing to it a true spirit of charity

which was indeed born of fire.



WE CAN! WE MUST! 9

Officers strive for good moral life

among their commands. For this reason

alone they will assist the Chaplain in

every way possible, because one man can

spoil a squad and one squad will disrupt

a platoon. Hence, when a Chaplain finds

a man who is troubled about home con-

ditions, he endeavors to bring him out of

his difficulties.

If the Chaplain will write to the Con-

ference in the man’s parish he can secure

a complete and confidential account of

conditions. In the average Conference it

is likely that some member will know the

family, but if not, it is an easy matter to

get the facts and send them to the Chap-

lain.

* * * *

It is surely not our purpose to trespass

upon the lands of the Red Cross, but ra-

ther to assist that great organization.

This may readily be accomplished because

it is obvious that Vincentians can deal

with a Catholic family with great under-

standing and sympathy, a point which

was advanced by a Protestant Chaplain

in New England.

The distribution of rosaries and prayer

books or missals has been a vexatious

problem and its solution is imperative.

At a recent induction, there were 111

men of whom 52 were Catholics, yet 92
kits consisting of rosary, medal and pray-

er book were passed out. Under this



10 WE CAN! WE MUST!

plan, the men who have not been attend-

ing to their religious duties are reached.

Their names are not on the Church rolls

or lists and they are unknown to the

Church, yet at the moment of departure,

a most solemn one for them, they have

an opportunity to equip themselves prop-

erly and from the results achieved, they

accept it avidly. Vincentians in Camp

Conferences can follow up this beginning.

One of our oldest works has been the

visiting of hospitals and there will be, sad

to say, many such opportunities all over

the country.

* * * *

Certain objections have been raised

about our participating. Some Conferen-

ces state that they have no funds. None

is needed for the matters suggested here.

Many splendid works are already being

carried on, particularly that of letter

writing.

It is doubtful that any charitable or-

ganization’s purpose and work are less

understood than ours. While we do give

material assistance to families and in-

dividuals who are in need, that is done in

accordance with the Rule of the Society

of St. Vincent de Paul.

Unfortunately many consider the So-

ciety merely as an agency for the distri-

bution of alms and food tickets.

Camp Conferences working through the



WE CAN! WE MUST! 11

Chaplains in proper coordination with

Parish Conferences at home, can bring

about international recognition and ap-

preciation of our real work by all, Catho-

lics, Protestants and Jews alike. Ours is

an endeavor to achieve that charity of

which St. Paul wrote which might well be

considered our corporate purpose.

A militant body of Vincentians, work-
ing zealously within our Armed Forces

and spreading that message of St. Paul

among their fellow soldiers, can help to

break down those racial, religious and

class hatreds which now beset us and

plant the seeds which, when peace comes,

will bear the fruits of true charity in the

hearts of their fellows and overcome the

hatreds from which our world suffers to-

day and out of which comes the present

holocaust.

At all our meetings we pray for the

beatification of our founder, Frederic

Ozanam. He was a layman who like most
of the members of this Society, had to

provide for his own family and devoted

his extra hours to works of charity. Nev-

er since its foundation has this society

had such an opportunity for work as it

has today. France, where it was founded,

is lost temporarily, but in the United

States, England, Ireland and Australia,

we can still function. Our work will give

tremendous impetus to the movement for

the beatification of our founder.



THE ARMED SERVICES AND

THE CHAPLAIN

Catholic America is sending her sons

to war and she will send them until peace

with justice shall be established among

men. It is not because she loves strife

that she is offering her youth on the altar

of sacrifice, but because she loves justice

and liberty. Her sons are not driven to

the conflict but are enlisting in response

to a call which comes from a power which

is ordained by God. Patriotism is founded

in charity, love of God and love of man

for the love of God. In gratitude to Him
for giving them America as their home,

for the preservation of that homeland and

its institutions, Catholic America has

taken up arms in this war. No sounding

of trumpets leads the march of Catholic

manhood to the induction centers and to

the training camps. The men go quietly,

with grim determination, understanding

the serious work which they undertake.

They appreciate fully the meaning of the

phrase ‘Tor The Duration”. Whether or

not they shall return to their America is

in the hands of God. They are resolved

that their America shall be preserved.

Living or dying, their offering of service

and of life is a dedication to the fulfill-

ment of that purpose.

What manner of man is the Catholic

American in the armed service of our



WE CAN! WE MUST! 13

Country? He is not changed overnight by

enrolling himself in the Army or Navy.

He is the same son, brother, husband,

father, who yesterday lived in our home.

His character is unchanged. He has not

lost his love for home, for his father and

mother, his brothers and sisters, his wife

and his children. That love is intensified

through separation. He has the same vir-

tues, the same weaknesses which have

been his since first we knew him. He goes

into the service humbly, accepting the

community life of the soldier and sailor

as a necessary routine through which he

must pass in order to do his share in the

winning of the peace. He has a deeper

love for home and home folk than he ever

dreamed could be, not as a sentimentalist

but as a realist. More than we at home

ever thought could be, in absence we are

dear to his heart.

The Soldier or Sailor goes through the

strenuous drill of the training camp. He

whom we trained for the arts of peace,
whom we had hoped would be our joy and
consolation and support in life is now

trained in the art of war. He whom we
had prepared to occupy an honored place

in life is now learning how to deal death

in order that we may live. There is no
glamor or glory in the training. There

is little in it to inspire in men higher

ideals of life. It is accepted as necessary,

so that it may be the means to a victory



14 WE CAN! WE MUST!

which may restore to man the deferred,
but not lost, opportunity to seek the real-

ization of those ideals. There is much in

the discipline, in the preparation for in-

flicting death and for self-preservation,

that would debase man, but there is a

power which can counteract and counter-

attack successfully all the moral, spiritual

evil which, if left unopposed, may de-

humanize the man in our armed forces.

He leaves home and family and even

country in the service of his government,

but he does not leave his God, and his

God does not desert him. In the Catholic

American there are three loyalties, to

God, to America and to family, expressed

by a Louis of France as “God, France and

Marguerite”. His loyalty to them never

wavers, never wanes. He may be far from

country and home, but never from God.

Truly, in the service he is nearer to his

God and Savior than he was in his life

at home. He knows not when he may be

called to be judged by divine justice and

mercy. He is consecrated a man of sacri-

fice, Christ-like in life and in death in

his willing offering of his life for the

welfare of his country and of his fellows.

He sanctifies his life in the service by the

daily offering of all his thoughts, words

and deeds in union with the intentions

of the Sacred Heart of the homeloving

Jesus, for the salvation of his soul and

for the accomplishment of God’s will



WE CAN! WE MUST! 15

through the trials of war. He unites him-

self daily with his Christ on the Mass-

altar Calvaries for the redemption of

mankind from the evil powers which

range through our world, and for the se-

curity of man’s right to worship Christ

the King, triumphant, in the years yet

to be. By the influence of word, example

and encouragement, he returns other

souls from the ways of sin to the ways

of right living. He becomes a light-bear-

ing leader to those who are without the

fold in guiding them to the unity of

Faith. In life he is truly a son of God,

a co-heir with his redeemer of the king-

dom of peace, founded on justice and

mercy. He will be a warrior, but, despite

the teachings of those who know not war,

he will be not a man of hate, for few

are more merciful than the American

who fights unto death for his country,

none more charitable towards an enemy

than the Catholic who serves in the

Armed Forces.

With our men go the ministers of God,
the dispensers of the mysteries of Christ,

leaders and yet comrades of our fighting

men. In training camps and stations,

with the marching divisions, in the ships

that sound the ocean depths, that course

the sea, that fly near the Heavens, in

the bleak lands of the north, through the

jungles of the Pacific Islands, over the

sands of the tropics, in the prison-camps



16 WE CAN! WE MUST!

of the Philippines and Japan, in defeat or

in victory, in humiliating suffering or in

glorious triumph, their Chaplain-Priests

are with our men, living the life, endur-

ing hardship with them, sharing danger

with them, sending them to the throne of

mercy, dying with them and for them.

Pearl Harbor, the Coral Sea and the Hea-

vens themselves can tell how Priests have

died for our America. The Chaplains are

at their Posts because they are other

Christs. They teach their men, our men,

to live the Catholic, sacramental life in

camp. They, with the assistance of our

Catholic Soldiers and Sailors, preserve,

protect and defend the faith. Their good

example gives courage to those who must

endure all because they themselves endure

together with their men. Only God knows

the spiritual good which has come from

the close association of Priest-Chaplains

with Catholic men since the war came to

America. The souls who have returned to

the service of their Lord, the spread of

Eucharistic devotion, the many personal

sacrifices made by men with an over-full

schedule of duties to attend Holy Mass,

the eager and grateful response to the

recently granted privilege of afternoon

and evening Mass, the sanctification of

the union of souls whose abiding confi-

dence that God will grant that their love

for each other may be eternal, these have

resulted from association and spiritual



WE CAN! WE MUST! 17

comradeship of our Chaplains and our

men, a relationship closer than can exist

in parish life.

Willingly have our Priests offered

themselves for the service of the servants

of America. If our Catholic Soldier and

Sailor veterans are to be the hope of our

Nation, our Chaplains will lead them as

defenders of the Church and of the free-

dom to worship God in America in days

to come. For them, and for the millions

of Catholic Americans, who are and who

are to be the crusaders in this war for

righteousness, may you Vincentians do all

that you can, to encourage them, to aid

them in solving problems of adjustments

made necessary by separation from their

families, to furnish them with the means

of advancing in grace before God.

Above all, remember them in your

prayers, that they may fight manfully,

that they, with God’s help and under the

angel guardianship of the Michael whose

feast is celebrated today, may live to
share in the blessings of victory and

peace which must come to a people whose

help is in the name of the Lord and whose

eternal trust is in God.



CONCLUSION

Now we have heard what the Council
can do and we have heard what the

Chaplain needs. Let us turn our thoughts

now to what the Conference can do.

1st—Conferences may make up such a
program as is most suitable to their

own local set-up but that program

should be substantial and not superfi-

cial. It must be planned to secure real

results and not just to avoid a better

program because perhaps it is a more

onerous one.

2nd—Members of a Conference who be-
cause of parochial conditions are not

able to carry out a definite substantial

Vincentian program should join the

Special Works Comifiittee of their

Council having charge of war activities

and give to the Council the energy they

are not permitted to give to the Con-

ference.

3rd—Of course each Conference must
have one representative on the Partic-

ular Council War Committee which
shall see to it that whatever Camps or

service hospitals are within the cir-

cumscription are properly attended to.

4th—The following Conference program
Is prepared to meet the tenor of our

membership, increase the tempo of

Vincentian activity while avoiding du-



WE CAN ! WE MUST ! 19

plication of work and conflict with

other agencies but offering full oppor-

tunity for the Vincentians to create

some record that will be of historical

value to the Society and of spiritual

value to themselves.

(a) Conferences and members remem-

bering that by their rules in their

charity they are non-sectarian and

therefore whenever they can with dis-

cretion they should help their neighbor.

The members should keep this thought

in mind particularly in this present

program.

(b) Each Conference should secure a

list of all the service men in their par-

ish not only Catholics but all others .

This should not be difficult; it is no

state secret who our soldiers are, nor

is it a great privilege for anyone to

give you the names of those who are

fighting for us.

(c) With such assistants as the Confer-

ence members can obtain they should

conduct a house-to-house canvass find-

ing out what homes are willing to take

a special interest in one or more serv-

ice men whose names and addresses
will be supplied. These names should be

discreetly assembled so that the soldier

will receive letters from those with the

same common background as he him-
self occupies.



20 WE CAN ! WE MUST !

(d) Such families will write letters to

the service men they have thus adopted.

They will send newspapers to them and

if financially so fixed they might make

such gifts as they desire being under

no obligation however to do so and they

might render any other assistance to

the service men whom they have so
adopted as fully as they would if

they actually knew the young man be-
fore he went away.

(e) The Conference itselfmust be ready

to be of any service to the family in

demonstration of the idea so little

known even among Vincentians that

we are not a relief organization. We are
a society for charity with the Catholic

idea of Charity—love for our neighbor
embodying social and spiritual solici-

tude as well as, if not more than, the

material assistance. This thought

should be repeated time and time again

because the Vincentian himself should

get out of his system the fact that he

belongs to a charitable organization

with charity defined simply as material

relief.

(f) Periodically a great parochial or

neighborhood meeting should be held

bringing all the families and workers

together and appropriate addresses by

carefully selected speakers should be

given.



WE CAN! WE MUST! 21

(g) Every six months each Conference

should file with the Particular Council

a written report of what it has done

with an outline of what it proposes to

do.

(h) The Particular Council should is-

sue a certificate showing that a Confer-

ence has pledged itself to work as a

Vincentian unit.

(i) The Conference should hold an ex-

ecutive session with the Pastor and

Spiritual Director and discuss with

them

—

1

—

An appeal to the men of the par-

ish to become active members, hon-

orary members or benefactors of

the Society.

2

—

A reorganization of the Confer-
ence if necessary to meet the large

and exacting task being assumed.

3

—

Cooperating with the Spiritual

authorities in a definite and sus-

tained spiritual program insofar

as the whole subject is concerned.

The foregoing program is prepared

for any Conference or for any members

really desirous of cooperating to follow a

definite plan.

The time will soon come when substan-

tially all the soldiers that are to be in-

ducted shall have been inducted. The

“hip-hip-hurrah” of groups going to the



22 WE CAN! WE MUST!

trains will soon pass away. The country

as a nation and the people of it will soon

get down to the humdrum of hard, grim

effective work. Uniforms will be stripped

from those whose only interest in military

affairs was the wearing of them. People

who for publicity purposes are now en-

thusiastic about war activities and whose

names and whose organizations appear

prominently in the press will gradually

pass out of the picture.

All reasonable thinking men now know

that the status of our country in relation

to the world has forever changed, they see

that the god of war with his needles, the

airplanes, has joined the new world to

the old fashioning a fabric upon which

his spawn may sport snd breed the hate,

the havoc and the horrors he loves so

much and what that god hath joined to-

gether no man will ever separate.

Never again can America be isolated,

never again can there be freedom from

a great military set-up. For the next

hundred years it must arm not only to

protect itself but to see from an inter-

national police standpoint that other na-

tions will be restrained if possible from

plunging the world again into such hide-

ous conditions as now exist.

All this indicates a long, definite and

assured task for the Society of St.

Vincent de Paul. Military camps will be-



WE CAN! WE MUST! 23

come permanent aspects of our national

life and the "young men away from

home” will again assume the position of

one of the major problems of our Society.

What we are doing for them in peace

and war will be one thought in the quer-

ulous minds of those who from time to

time will ask us to give an account of our

stewardship of Christian Charity.

What will our answer be to the coming

challenge
—

"show us your works?” Vin-

centians! bring to a close this the first

century of our existence in America with

a blaze of charitable achievement not the

least of which shall be the giving of full

measure of your time, your money, your

thoughts and your prayers for our serv-

icemen, those blood donors for religious

and political freedom.

Vincentians of America! — we have
shown what you can — what you may —
what you must — arise ! and shout your
promise to the world — WE WILL

!



(Hlje ^nrietij nf Bittrent be Paul

of the

United States of Arnmra

in and for the circumscription

issuing this certificate

Mmbg (jterttftea
The Conference of

has pledged itself to work as a unit of

this Circumscription and in conjunction

with it according to the rules, history

and traditions of our Society

for the

spiritual, social and material help of those

now and hereafter in the military and

naval service of our country and of their

homes and their families

Jn OTUneaa Wfmnf
we have signed this

Gterttfirate*

as officers of such Circumscription the

day of in

the Year of our Lord nineteen hundred

and forty.

by"

Attest

Council

President

Secretary

This certificate to be issued on ledger paper 8x10





w* mm