chapter 1 | to love and serve
First Chaplain
in american jesuit history one of the first to serve as a chaplain in the military was none other than the renowned fr. john mcelroy, s.j., founder of boston college. For reasons pragmatic and political rather than religious or spiritual, President James Polk was anxious to have Catholic priests appointed as chaplains to American troops in the war against Mexico.
W
ith the help of three Roman Catholic bishops, he was able to secure the services of Fr. John McElroy, S.J. at the age of 64 and Fr. Anthony Rey, S.J., who was 39 years of age. The nature of their appointment was spelled out in a letter to Fr. McElroy from the Secretary of War W. L. Marcy. “It is proper that I should apprize you that the existing laws do not authorize the President to appoint and commission chaplains, but he has authority to employ persons to perform 4 such duties as appertain to chaplains.” Marcy had requested Fr. McElroy for his views of what those duties might include and he was evidently pleased that Marcy expressed them in his letter to General Zachary Taylor, notifying him of their assignment. “…it is his (Polk’s) wish that they be received in that character (as chaplains) by you and your officers, be respected as such and be treated with kindness and courtesy – that they should be permitted to have intercourse with the soldiers of the Catholic Faith – to administer to them religious instruction, to perform divine service for such as may wish to attend whenever it can be done without interfering with their military duties, and to have free access to 5 the sick or wounded in hospitals or elsewhere.”
After a long and difficult journey Father McElroy arrived in Matamoras, Mexico where he remained for a little more than ten months in 1846 and 1847 during which time he had been almost constantly sick, suffering from a hernia condition. This became so painful that some six months after his arrival in Matamoras he was unable to mount a horse to carry him around to the various hospitals. Still it was in the various army hospitals that most of his apostolic work was accomplished. His routine involved daily Mass in a covered shed which served as a sacristy, visits to the various buildings used as hospitals, other visits to either troops moving up to support the U. S. Army or returning units awaiting discharge. As if this were not enough, in whatever time he could spare, he began classes for the children of both merchants and Army personnel and giving instructions to converts to Catholicism. But apparently because of his age and physical condition, in April 1847 he was directed by his religious superior to return to Georgetown as soon as convenient. (His fellow chaplain, Fr. Anthony Rey, S.J., had been murdered by highway robbers in 1847 during this conflict.) Before his return he reflected on his ministry in Mexico and on the good that can be accomplished in serving as a chaplain
4 John McElroy, “Chaplains for the Mexican War – 1846,” Woodstock Letters, 15, 200. 5 Ibid., 201.
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