Paul KeenanDear Editor, As historical events to commemorate the slaughter of World War I receive increasing coverage this centenary year, I am prompted to recall Mary Kenny’s article in these pages in February recounting the ministry of Fr Francis Gleeson to men of the Munster Rifles.
In that article, she relates the courageous priest’s setting aside of his own safety to bring comfort and the Last Rites to soldiers felled in no-man’s-land.
These actions were often the prologue to Fr Gleeson’s visits to bereaved families back in Ireland to bring a measure of solace there too.
Quite correctly, Mary ended with a suggestion that a monument is perhaps long overdue to the brave Fr Gleeson.
Whatever about that, one must ask if, as Ireland becomes more comfortable in marking the role of its citizens in foreign conflicts and past soldiers are celebrated, the Catholic bishops can find a way this year to mark those chaplains, like Fr Gleeson, who marched off to war with those same men to tend to them in their hour of greatest spiritual need.
Yours etc.,
Liam Gannon,
Kinsale,