The NZDF will take to the chalice to Belgium where it will be used in services in Nieppe and Mesen/Messines as part of the commemorations to mark the centenary of New Zealand's involvement in the Battle of Messines.

On July 9, 1917, after the Battle of Messines in Belgium, McMenamin was conducting a funeral service for fallen soldiers when the enemy fired a shell into the congregation.

Six soldiers were injured, and McMenamin was killed.

He was buried originally in Belgium, but was reinterred at the Nieppe Communal Cemetery in France.

His chalice, a gift from the Petone parish, was returned to Sacred Heart Church. The chalice has been used during services ever since.

The stained glass window positioned behind the altar, in the church was dedicated to McMenamin when it was rebuilt in the 1930s.

The NZDF will take the chalice to Belgium where it will be used in a graveside service at Nieppe Communal Cemetery on June 8, and a mass for McMenamin in St Nicholas' Church later that day.

That's a day after the National Commemorative Service at Messines Ridge British Cemetery and a Sunset Ceremony at the New Zealand Battlefield Memorial.

Source

• scoop.co.nz
• home.nzcity.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: img.scoop.co.nz/ nzwargraves.org.nz

The bronze of the figure of the Risen Christ is a tribute to the Catholic military chaplains who served during World War I and in subsequent conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

It will hang on the wall of the Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Wellington.

The Unveiling will took place at the Cathedral on Monday 14 July.

Archbishop John Dew led the service.

He was joined by Bishop of Palmerston North, Charles Drennan, and Bishop of Dunedin, Colin Campbell.

This Tuesday the Bishops will lead a Pilgrimage to the grave of Fr Patrick Dore MC MID in Foxton.

Fr Patrick died of his wounds at Chunuk Bair helping the medical officer attending to other wounded soldiers. His 'most gallant conduct' was honoured with a Military Cross.

"Their ministry ensured that our soldiers who were serving their country and putting their lives at risk for our freedom were cared for in times of great danger and sacrifice, a long way from home, and isolated from families and communities," Archbishop Dew said.

"This bronze of the Risen Christ and the coming together of the Armed Forces and Catholics is a way to recognise and honour the service of so many Catholic military chaplains, priests who put their lives at risk to minister to soldiers serving in theatres of war and places of conflict or unrest," he said.

"The presence of chaplains meant that soldiers could be given pastoral care, such as Christian burial rights, the last rites in their final moments, which meant some comfort to soldiers and their families in a time of tragic loss."

"Some chaplains, as well as pastoral care, took part in active duty alongside other soldiers."

"The documented history of these men shows clearly they too displayed gallant conduct like many of their comrades that served in the Great War," said Dew.

The bronze was commissioned by Fr Brian Fletcher when he was Catholic Chaplain to Burnham Military Camp.

On closure of St Michael's Chapel, it was gathered, with other artefacts from St Patrick's Chapel Waiouru, for presentation on an appropriate occasion.

The date for commemoration was chosen as it's the anniversary of Fr Patrick Dore's MC MID death.

New Zealand Military Chaplains Roll of Honour

James McMenamin
Patrick Dore MC MID
T B Segrief
R Richards MC
T W P Price
PJ O'Neill,
P OFlynn
W J Murphy
J C Murphy
O M Doyle
N B Moloney
P J Minogue
C Lacroix
L J Daly
T Kinkead
J Duffy
T Connolly
W Skinner
L Spring
JJ Fletcher
Bishop H W Cleary OBE
J T Brennan
M J Bleakley
F S Bartley
J F M Barra
J Kingan M C
V Callaghan
W Sheely
T Hayes
T Cloher
E Ryan
E Forsman
F Cullen
J Cullen
J Mcneil
J Rolland
M Ryan
E Cashman
F Scott
J Collins
F Columb
P Cronin
M Cahill
C Crosbie
T Duffy
P Foy
G Broad
J Hally
J Henley
P Holland
J Martin
R Marlow
J Murphy
T Power
A Welsh
E Joyce
N Berridge.

Source
Supplied: NZCBC

One recalls in rapid-fire bursts how Father Emil Kapaun sneaked out of the barracks at night, risking his life to bring back morsels of food for his fellow prisoners.

Another remembers seeing the young American priest use a rock and a piece of metal to form a pan and then collect water to wash the hands and faces of the wounded.

A third chokes up when he tells of being injured and having an enemy soldier standing over him, rifle pointed; Kapaun walked up, pushed aside the muzzle and carried off the wounded man.

The military chaplain did not carry a gun or grenades. He did not storm hills or take beaches. He picked lice off of men too weak to do it themselves and stole grain from the Korean and Chinese guards who took the American soldiers as prisoners of war in late 1950.

Kapaun did not survive the prisoner camps, dying in Pyoktong in 1951. The man originally from tiny Pilsen, Kan., has been declared a "servant of God" — often a precursor to sainthood in the Catholic Church. And on Thursday, President Obama will posthumously award Kapaun a Medal of Honor. On hand will be Mike Dowe, 85; Robert Wood, 86; and Herbert Miller, 86.

"People had lost a great deal of their civility," Wood says of life in the POW compound. "We were stacking the bodies outside where they were frozen like cordwood and here is this one man — in all of this chaos — who has kept . . . principles."

Kapaun (pronounced Ka-PAWN) was so beloved that U.S. prisoners of war who knew him began calling for him to receive the military's highest honor on the day they were released from their North Korean POW camp 60 years ago.

"The first prisoners out of that camp are carrying a wooden crucifix, and they tell the story at length," says Roy Wenzel, a reporter at the Wichita Eagle who wrote an eight-part series and a book about Kapaun. "He was internationally famous and made the front page of newspapers." Continue reading

Sources

• The Washington Post
• Image: ABC News

The crucifix belonged to Bishop Henry Cleary, the Catholic Bishop of Auckland from 1910 to 1929, who took his duties right to the frontline.

In 1916, Bishop Cleary travelled from Auckland to London to seek medical treatment, intending to resign because of poor health.

Instead, he discovered there was no Catholic chaplain with the New Zealand 2nd Brigade in France and volunteered to serve on the frontline near Fromelles.

After just a night and a day of fighting at Fromelles, 1500 British and 5533 Australian soldiers were killed, wounded or taken prisoner by the Germans.

The soldiers' bodies and many wounded were left on the battlefield in no man's land - unable to be recovered and buried.

Although a temporary truce had been made with the Germans to allow the wounded to be rescued it was vetoed by senior officers, and the New Zealand troops were deeply troubled by their inability to recover and bury their comrades.

Bishop Cleary and an officer crawled out and lay in the snow amid the remains of the dead. In his diaries, Bishop Cleary comments several times on the dead lying "out there" and how the Germans used to shoot burial parties.

Just 50m from the enemy line he said a "De Profundis" over the bodies - a psalm which normally forms part of the prayers for the dead recited at Catholic funerals.

However, Bishop Cleary's wooden crucifix was badly damaged while he was in the trenches so the Kiwi soldiers gathered up spent shell cases and cobbled together a new crucifix for him. Continue reading

Sources

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara