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by Duane Hyland
We celebrated Memorial Day in May, and this Tuesday, we will celebrate our nation’s Independence Day. The first day honors those that gave their last full measure of devotion to our country, and the second honors those who pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to free our nation of British rule. It seems an opportune time to ask - has a Catholic Priest ever won the Medal of Honor, sometimes wrongly referred to as the Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military honor? And, if so, who was the first?
Five Catholic Priests have won our nation’s highest award that recognizes a member of our military that “distinguishes himself (or herself) conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty
- While engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States;
- While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or
- While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.”
Lieutenant Commander Fr. Joseph Timothy O’Callahan, S. J., was the first Priest to win the Medal of Honor. You do not often think of a person having “claustrophobia, high blood pressure, and near-sightedness” to be serving in the military, let alone as having the physical stamina and coolness under pressure needed to perform the acts of heroism usually required to win the Medal, but win it, he did.
Fr. O’Callahan entered the naval service in 1940, leaving his post as a philosophy and mathematics professor at Boston College and The College of the Holy Cross. He initially served as a Chaplain in the Naval Reserve, but after the United States entered World War II, the Navy assigned him to various ships. His last naval assignment came through on March 2, 1945, and was the U.S.S. Franklin, an Essex Class aircraft carrier. On March 19, 1945, in the final few months of the war, a Japanese pilot dropped two bombs on the Franklin, severely damaging the ship and killing over 800 crewmembers. In the aftermath of the bombing, Fr. Callahan, according to his citation, “groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets, and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever-increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led firefighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts, despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them. Serving with courage, fortitude, and deep spiritual strength, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the FRANKLIN to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port.”
After the war, Fr. O’Callahan returned to his teaching positions. He passed away in 1964. At his Medal of Honor ceremony, the Franklin’s captain, Captain Les Gehres, told Fr. O’Callahan’s mother, “I’m not a religious man. But I watched your son that day and I thought if faith can do this for man, there must be something to it. Your son is the bravest man I have ever seen.”
Let’s keep Fr. O’Callahan in our minds as we navigate the jagged edges and raging fires we encounter in our lives. All of us, at times, have been afraid, lost, and stressed, and it is then that we would do well to remember Fr. O’Callahan’s example, place our trust in Jesus, and carry on as He directs and inspires us.
The other Priests to have won the Medal of Honor are Servant of God Captain, Fr. Emil J. Kapaun, United States Army, for his service in the Korean Conflict – the Vatican is currently evaluating his cause for Sainthood and to be formerly declared a Martyr for the Catholic faith; Major Charles Joseph Watters, United States Army, for his service in the Vietnam Conflict; Servant of God, Lieutenant Fr. Vincent Robert Capodanno, United States Marine Corps, for his service in the Vietnam Conflict, and Captain Angelo J. Liteky, United States Army, who later left the Priesthood and became the only person to ever return their Medal of Honor to the Government, as a protest against our nation’s continued involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War.
Read more about these priests here: https://aleteia.org/2020/08/09/these-5-catholic-priests-earned-the-medal-of-honor/
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