by Father Victor Hoagland, CP
In the Passionist public chapel at the Immaculate Conception Monastery in Jamaica, there’s an extraordinary crucifix — a gift of the German bishops of Bavaria to Father Fabian Flynn, CP, who helped restore a broken Europe, particularly Germany and Hungary, after World War II.
A book describing his work, entitled The Priest Who Put Europe Back Together by Sean Brennan, a historian from the University of Scranton, was published in 2018.
Father Flynn was ordained in Immaculate Conception Monastery in 1931 and later served its retreat center. He went on to become an editor for The Sign magazine, a Passionist publication, and was also a frequent contributor to The Tablet, where he wrote on the European refugee crisis after World War II and the plight of Catholic leaders like Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty and Archbishop Stepinac of Croatia.
In 1943, during World War II, Father Flynn became an Army chaplain, serving in combat with the 1st Infantry Division in North Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany for 16 months. His unit eventually ended up in Nuremberg during the war trials, where Father Flynn became chaplain for the Allied participants. He also ministered to the Germans, including those on trial as war criminals. During the trial, he celebrated Mass every Sunday for both Allied personnel and German Catholics in one of Nuremberg’s war-damaged Catholic churches.
After his Army service, Father Flynn became director of the newly created Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Germany and Hungary from 1946 to 1949. Until his death in 1973, he continued to work for CRS, helping millions of refugees displaced by wars and other tragedies across Europe and beyond.
Catholic Relief Services had been established by the American bishops in 1943 to bring aid to the victims of war overseas. It was distinct from Catholic Charities, which was focused on needs within the United States.
At the end of his service in Germany, the bishops of Bavaria honored Father Flynn. But rather than giving him a medal or plaque, they presented him with a large 16th-century crucifix from their war-ravaged country — an appropriate and deeply symbolic remembrance of his ministry. He had fulfilled one of the hardest teachings of Jesus: “Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you.”
The crucifix holds a prominent place in the Passionist monastery chapel — a fitting expression of the work he did then, and a timely reminder of what we are called to do today.
After World War II, the victorious Allied countries wisely avoided the mistake made after World War I, when Germany was left bitter and impoverished in defeat. This time, they recognized that a peaceful Europe could only emerge through the development of a stable peacetime economy. America funneled a significant portion of its relief aid through Catholic Relief Services, and Father Flynn was one of the key administrators of that aid.
Historians today acknowledge the wisdom of that postwar strategy — and many caution against abandoning it. How we deal with enemies and rivals remains a hot political issue today.
People of faith, regardless of political affiliation, must hold to a higher wisdom. Jesus teaches in the Gospels: “Love your enemies, and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back. … Be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35–36).
Jesus lived by that wisdom. From the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The cross is the great sign of his teaching.
The cross in the Jamaica chapel holds the suffering Jesus — truly God and truly human. And there with him on the cross are all those whom he calls to himself: the poor who hunger and thirst, victims of war and tragedy, soldiers lost or scarred in battle, women and children without homes, the old, the sick, the frail — and yes, even our enemies and rivals.
All are there.
Father Victor Hoagland, CP, is a member of the Passionist community at the Immaculate Conception Monastery in Jamaica.