On Aug. 16, 1917, during the brutal First World War Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres), a 44-year-old Irish Jesuit priest was killed in the line of duty. Chaplain Father Willie Doyle laid down his life for his friends, offering fellow soldiers some comfort as they lay wounded or giving them last rites as they died. His body was never found.
I have two boys, aged 9 and 11, who are big war buffs, and all my kids are history enthusiasts. It’s not unusual to have classic war movies playing in our house. War-themed board games go on for days, and battle names are rattled off regularly. Epic tales of the fight between good and evil, such as The Lord of the Rings and the Ranger’s Apprentice series, keep our boys reading late into the summer nights, often by flashlight when they’ve been told to turn off the lights. I know these boys need constant reminders of brave and noble soldiers whom they can imitate in their own life journeys.
I was reminded of Father Willie Doyle recently when the family watched the movie Greyhound (a new release on Apple TV+). Starring Tom Hanks as fictional Captain Ernst Krause, the film follows Krause as he leads a convoy of ships through the North Atlantic at the height of the Second World War, all the while being pursued by German U-boats.
The film is an intense journey through a high-stress situation (one swear word is used, but not by the main character), in which numerous men put their lives on the line for each other and for freedom. Krause is portrayed as a man who prays regularly and commands the respect of all his men. Though he knows death is a part of war, he is visibly pained at causing the loss of life, even if that life belongs to the enemy, and especially when he loses some of his own crew. Krause is an honourable man of courage and integrity, which brought to mind the similar, though real, life of Father Doyle.
We also recently watched with our boys the docudrama on the life of Father Doyle, Bravery Under Fire, produced by Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in 2018. The film details his upbringing in the suburbs of Dublin in the late 19th century, his early priesthood, and his time in the war. One of seven children of a middle-class family, Father Doyle was the third son in the family to enter the priesthood, and he had a sister who became a Sister of Mercy. Young Willie and his brothers were “typical” boys who liked to play with toy soldiers and pull pranks but also had a keen love of the poor and sought out ways to serve others.
To Raise the Fallen tells the story of military chaplain Father Willie Doyle, who laid down his life for his friends, offering fellow soldiers comfort as they lay wounded or giving them last rites as they died.
Father Doyle biographer Patrick Kenny (author of To Raise the Fallen: A Selection of the War Letters, Prayers, and Spiritual Writings of Father Willie Doyle, SJ, and founder of the website fatherdoyle.com) is the main voice in the film, which intersperses dramatizations of Father Doyle’s life with details about his character, often using the priest’s own words from the many letters and pamphlets he wrote. Before he even became a military chaplain, Father Doyle had a made a name for himself among the Irish, who admired him for his ability to reach out to the laity, especially those on the fringes of society, teaching them and calling them to holiness. Above all, he was an example of holiness himself.
Kenny writes of the young Jesuit: “From 1908 to 1915, he gave no less than 152 missions and retreats. His fame as preacher, confessor and spiritual director spread wide and far, and he had a special gift to hunt out the most hardened and neglected sinners and to bring them back with him to the church for confession. In the midst of such an active apostolate, he maintained a fervent spiritual life of union with his Eucharistic Lord, offering himself as a victim for the salvation of souls with the Divine Victim.”
Another beautiful aspect of Father Doyle’s life is that he made constant sacrifices in reparation for the sins of priests. This should hit home with today’s Catholics, who have lived through the last few years of revelations of devastatingly scandalous behaviour of some members of the clergy. Father Doyle lived his daily life in such a holy and sacrificial fashion that he didn’t think twice about risking his own life for others, whether it was his fellow priests or the soldier he didn’t even know. This is the kind of bravery I want to see in my own sons. Do I wish them to die untimely deaths? Of course not! Do I wish them to be men of character who lead others to Christ by the way they live, ready to put their own lives on the line for the good of others? Yes!
I want my boys to look to the Father Willie Doyles of the world (because I know they are out there!) and of history to be their models of manhood and priesthood. Christ showed us that the faith is worth dying for, which is not the same as going looking for a fight. Some people immediately associate the idea of a Christian soldier with the immoral acts of some bloodthirsty Crusaders or power-hungry, oppressive leaders, and indeed those did and do exist. But, like any other just cause, we can’t tarnish the whole group with the sins of a few.
We can’t let the idea of the Christian soldier be vanquished. We need to teach our children that they are soldiers on a mission, charged with the high honour of protecting the truth and beauty of our Catholic faith. Father Doyle is not the only option for inspiration for fearless and curious boys. Look up the stories of Sts. Ignatius of Loyola, Martin of Tours, Sebastian, Louis IX, Joan of Arc, José Luis Sánchez Del Río, and Father Lieutenant Vincent Capodanno, for examples of holiness and bravery in action in times of war and Christian persecution. The Christian solider is not caught up in the glory and honour of victory for self, but for the glory and honour that victory gives to Christ.
We may not need to provide our kids with swords and helmets (though what young boy wouldn’t want those?). The armour we need to give our kids is the knowledge of Scripture and Church teaching and the certitude that they are loved and cherished by an all-good God. Boys especially need examples of holy men to follow because if you have sons you know that they need to channel that innate soldier-energy in the right places! They need dads, granddads, and uncles who are faithful, kind, and brave in their daily lives. They need movie characters like Captain Krause to be models of faithful service and grace under pressure. They need selfless priests, like Father Willie Doyle, to show them the path of courage lived out in the vocation of the priesthood and on the battlefield.
Lazzuri writes from her home in Nova Scotia, where she lives with her husband, six children, and her mom. She can be reached at clarelazzuri@gmail.com
