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Cardinal William O'Connell celebrates an outdoor Mass at the Knights of Columbus building at Camp Devens in 1918. Pilot photo/courtesy Archdiocesan Archives

From the Archdiocesan Archives

Remembering Boston's World War I chaplains

Friday, November 7, 2025Culture

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In the months that the U.S. was preparing for and fighting in the First World War, Cardinal O'Connell and the clergy of the archdiocese were determined to uphold the rights of Catholic soldiers to be fortified and sustained in their faith ...

As we celebrate Veterans Day this week, we remember the important work of the chaplains who ministered to the Catholic men fighting in the First World War. Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day and celebrated the end of World War I when the armistice with Germany went into effect on Nov. 11, 1918. In 1954, President Eisenhower renamed the observance to Veterans Day, calling upon citizens to honor all American veterans, living and dead, on this holiday.
The First World War broke out after years of growing anti-Catholic sentiment in the U.S., according to Lord, Sexton, and Harrington in their "History of the Archdiocese of Boston." The influx of Catholic immigrants seemed to pose a threat for the status quo, where Protestants represented the majority of Americans, and there was a flurry of inciting newspapers and pamphlets against Catholic Americans.
Despite this public animosity during the first few years of the war that was raging overseas, Cardinal William O'Connell remained focused on prayers for peace, calling for unity among Americans. When the U.S. entered the war on April 6, 1917, he pledged the archdiocese's support for the national war effort and asserted the loyalty of Catholic Americans to their country.

A system for providing military chaplains was not yet adequate at the start of World War I; as the American Army rapidly mobilized, a numbers problem became apparent. Camp Devens, a major training facility for the army in Ayer, was built during the summer of 1917. According to the Fort Devens Museum, over 100,000 soldiers trained at the camp. The nearby parish, St. Mary's in Ayer, was tasked with tending to tens of thousands of Catholic soldiers and the thousands of men who built the camp. When training began, there was no chapel in which to say Mass, there was pushback from the commanding officers against allowing the Catholic men to go to Mass instead of a general service, and there were not enough priests and not enough time in a busy training schedule to tend to every Catholic at the camp.
With so much work to do, Cardinal O'Connell gave Father Thomas P. McGinn of St. Mary's "permission and authority to make whatever arrangements you can for attending to the Spiritual needs of the Catholic soldiers who will be in Camp near Ayer." He appointed Father McGinn as post chaplain and created an advisory board to help him, as found in the Chancery Files at the Archives. Cooperation with the Knights of Columbus, the dioceses of Boston and Springfield, and the Army saw that the tens of thousands of Catholic soldiers that passed through Camp Devens could attend Mass and have their confessions heard.
A similar struggle to that at Camp Devens was playing out throughout the U.S. Army. According to correspondence held in the Chancery Files at the Archives between Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, Father Lewis O'Hern of the Catholic University of America, and Cardinal O'Connell, in 1917 there should have been 53 Catholic chaplains serving in the Regular Army, out of 144 chaplains allotted for all religious denominations. However, there were only 16 in service -- showing a dire need for recruitment. O'Hern asked Cardinal O'Connell to send four priests, and priests from our diocese sent in applications to be chaplains.
Even so, the clergy couldn't keep up with the rapid growth in demand for more chaplains. The normal number of men in a regiment tripled to 3,600, while the law still only provided one chaplain per regiment. O'Hern and representatives from other Christian denominations pushed legislation to allow for more chaplains in the army, though the proposed bills seem to have languished in Congress.
In the months that the U.S. was preparing for and fighting in the First World War, Cardinal O'Connell and the clergy of the archdiocese were determined to uphold the rights of Catholic soldiers to be fortified and sustained in their faith while fighting for our country, even when snared by logistics and downtrodden by a lack of support from the government. In a sermon to the 101st Regiment at Camp McGuinness in Framingham on Aug. 31, 1917, Cardinal O'Connell encouraged the attending soldiers fighting for peace and justice that God was always with them. And, he says, "I may not go with you in person ... to strengthen and guide you on your pilgrimage. But, in my stead, your chaplain will be beside you to give you the Bread of Life, to keep your hearts and minds pure, and your souls strong against temptation."

SAVANNAH MILLER IS AN ASSISTANT ARCHIVIST FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.