'Fr Willie Doyle has something to say to our own time when bridge builders are scarce'

Bishop of Meath closes diocesan process for canonisation of Jesuit WWI chaplain

In the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, at the weekend, Bishop of Meath Tom Deenihan presided over the closing session of the Diocesan Inquiry into the Cause for the Beatification and Canonisation of Fr Willie Doyle, SJ.

Joining members of Fr Doyle’s family were bishops, the clergy and religious of the diocese and beyond, members of the Jesuit Order, the Defence Attaché to the British Ambassador, representatives of the Irish and British armies, and members of the general public.

Born in Dalkey, Co Dublin, in 1873, Willie Doyle entered Jesuit formation at Rahan, Tullabeg, Co Offaly, in the Diocese of Meath, in 1891. He became a military chaplain for the 16th (Irish) Division and was killed saving wounded soldiers during the First World War, on 16th August 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele, Belgium. On that fatal day a group of soldiers, lead by Lieutenants Marlow and Green, got into trouble beyond the front line and Fr Doyle ran to assist them. Fr Doyle and the two officers were about to take shelter when they were struck by a German shell and killed. His body was never recovered. Officers Marlow and Green were Protestants from the North of Ireland, making Father Doyle an ecumenical martyr of charity.

"The Church has always set before the faithful the examples of holy men and women," Bishop Deenihan said. "Throughout Ireland and beyond, despite the passing of over 100 years since his death, many have felt that Fr Doyle was another of those who, by his life and example, displayed heroic virtue: an Irish, Catholic and Jesuit priest, sacrificing his life on the battlefield as a British Army Chaplain, to bring comfort to soldiers of all denominations."

Bishop Deenihan said a recent article in The Tablet, by Melanie McDonagh, quotes the journalist Sir Philip Gibbs who described Doyle as, ‘speeding all day, hither and thither over the battlefield like an angel of mercy; his words of absolution were the last words heard on earth by many an Irish lad that day, and the stooping figure of a priest and father filled the glance of many in their agony.’

"Another tribute to him came from a member of the Orange Order who said that, ‘we could not possibly agree with his religious opinions, but we simply worshipped him for other things. He did not know the meaning of fear. He was as ready to risk his life to take a drop of water to a wounded Ulsterman as to assist men of his own faith and regiment’."

"While the ultimate sacrifice of Fr Willie Doyle was made over 100 years ago, Doyle has something to say to our own time when bridge builders are scarce," Bishop Deenihan stated. "Nationality, creed and political belief were to him secondary and subservient to being a child of God. Indeed, one can see so many of the themes of the papacy of Pope Francis in Doyle’s life: charity, generosity, bridge building and brotherhood, Fratelli Tutti! - Christians always build bridges. These themes in terms of international co-operation and community have also found expression in Pope Leo XIV.

Delivering a homily on Sunday, Fr Conor McDonough OP, a Dominican friar of the Irish Province, said the smile that never failed at Ypres was a smile well known to Fr Doyle’s friends and family, to his fellow Jesuits, to his students in Clongowes, and to all those who came to his missions for dockers and factory workers.

"He loved them all, in all the ordinary, undramatic circumstances of his early life. And the courage and self-control that he displayed in uniform were forged in the ordinary life of Christian penance, in Dalkey, and Rahan, and Milltown, and Glasgow and Aberdeen. His dedication to asceticism was combined with a profound commitment to loving his neighbour, and it is both of these dimensions of his spiritual life which came to fruition in his extraordinary life on the battlefield."

Bishop Deenihan expressed thanks to Meath diocesan priest, Navan-based Rev Dr John Hogan, the Postulator, and Dr Patrick Kenny of the Fr Willie Doyle Association, for their work on the Cause, which now goes to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome, and acknowledged the work and dedication of the members of the Diocesan Tribunal, Fr Joe Gallagher VG, Fr Paul Crosbie, PP and Fr Michael Cahill, PP; and those who worked on the Historical Commission and the Theological Commission. Last week, Bishop Deenihan sealed the official records for the Cause, in the presence of Fr John Hogan, in advance of the ceremony on Sunday.