Dublin prelate recalls anniversary of World War I
August 06, 2014
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin recalled the centenary of the beginning of World War I during Mass on August 3.
“The young soldiers caught up in war were men and women of courage and valor and idealism,” he preached. “The ideals they defended were noble ideas, but war itself is always horrible and leaves all those who become caught up in war marked for life by the inhuman experiences they endured.”
Referring to a diocesan priest who served as a war chaplain, Archbishop Martin said that “Father Gleeson’s diaries show how the faith of his soldiers not just kept them going in the face of the horrors of war, but gave them the hope that they would contribute to the building of a different society where nations and peoples would learn to speak the language of peace and of hope. We owe it to their memory to keep that ideal of peace alive in a troubled world.”