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.”
In August 1944, Miep Gies opened the “secret annex” in her employer’s office building where Nazis had just arrested her boss, Otto Frank, who was hiding there with his family — wife Edith and daughters Margot and Anne.
Peter Chappetto, an Army infantry officer who died in World War II, has no grave near his boyhood home in Astoria, Queens, nor at any other military cemetery overseas. The second lieutenant was buried at sea. His family, including a nephew, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Raymond Chappetto, honor his memory for a park named for him — Chappetto Square.
The St. Kateri Institute, based in Williamstown, Massachusetts, is raising money to replace a bell blasted from one of the towers of the Urakami Cathedral in the Aug. 9, 1945 attack on Nagasaki.
Bill LaCovara, a Navy veteran of World War II who is nearing age 100, has slowed down considerably since Flag Day last year. He mostly spends his days at home. So this year, LaCovara’s fellow members of Knights of Columbus Council #11449 brought Flag Day to him.
With a beatification Mass for the Ulma family set for Sept. 10, the Vatican emphasized that all nine members of the Polish family are considered martyrs, including the child that was born during the massacre.
There are numerous stories of Catholics from Nazi-occupied countries who put themselves at risk to save the lives of Jewish people, said Jolanta Zamecka, vice chair of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
Bill LaCovara of Astoria rattles off names, dates, and places of every major naval engagement in the Pacific during the last two years of World War II. He was there, serving aboard two destroyers — USS Wadleigh and USS Prichett. He was honored on Flag Day, June 14, at his parish, Immaculate Conception – Astoria.
Pope Francis formally recognized the martyrdom of an Italian priest shot by Nazi soldiers after they discovered he was helping his parishioners hide about 100 Jews.
Each year, St. Francis de Sales Parish in Belle Harbor honors Pvt. Daniel O’Connor, an honor student from the parish’s Catholic academy. He died with more than 600 servicemen, including the famed “Four Chaplains,” in the sinking of the troop ship Dorchester during World War II. The parish will honor Pvt. O’Connor again at noon, Sunday, Feb. 5, during the parish’s annual Mass for the Dorchester’s dead.
