On Oct. 10, 1918, every priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn received a somber note from the chancery. “Reverend dear Father,” it began. “You are hereby respectfully reminded of our fraternal agreement as members of the Priests Purgatorial Society, to say three Masses for the soul of Rev. Edward A. Wallace, Chaplain, U.S.A., who died recently in France.”
When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Joyce Kilmer was 30 years old, a poet famous for writing “Trees,” and the father of five children, including a 5-year-old daughter paralyzed from polio. He didn’t have to fight in France, but he did. He deployed with the Fighting 69th Infantry Brigade just four years after converting to Catholicism.
Father Francis Duffy’s legacy as an influential New Yorker began with his service as the chaplain of the 69th New York Infantry Regiment — the celebrated “Fighting 69th” — during World War I.
