By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
The news is often filled with the dispiriting and sometimes discouraging news of priests committing the same sins as many others do. The scandal of a man of God even going so far as abusing others is a very heavy cross to bear, and not only for the victims and their families. The work of the Church to prevent abuse and to stop abusers before they victimize anyone involves every one of us.
Everyone is called to holiness but, all the same, we expect more from our priests. The one who teaches the Gospel to others must be striving to follow it himself every day. Because priests fall and today every detail of their sins is made public we must learn and teach all the more about the many selfless and courageous priests who have lived up to the call of Jesus Christ to follow Him.
Fr. Schmitt was one of those priests.
This priest and Navy chaplain was back in the news recently as The Washington Post reported September 29 on the identification of the remains of this hero 75 years after he offered his own life at Pearl Harbor to save others.
Michael E. Ruane wrote:
“The remains of a courageous Navy chaplain who helped shipmates escape from the stricken battleship USS Oklahoma after it was torpedoed at Pearl Harbor have been identified almost 75 years after he perished in the attack.
“The bones of Lt. j.g. Aloysius H. Schmitt, a Catholic priest from St. Lucas, Iowa, were identified by experts with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency as part of a project to put names with the remains of those who died on the ship December 7, 1941.
“Fr. Schmitt’s corroded chalice, with a cross etched in its base, and his waterlogged Latin prayer book were recovered from the wreckage months after the attack.
“But his body and the bodies of most of the sailors and Marines recovered were too jumbled and decomposed to be identified at the time.
“The Oklahoma’s loss of life at Pearl Harbor — a total of 429 sailors and Marines — was second only to the 1,100 lost on the USS Arizona, which remains a hallowed historic site. The Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II.”
The article goes on to note that Fr. Schmitt was one of 10 children in a farm family. Schmitt graduated from Loras College, then called Columbia College, in 1932.
“‘Just amazing,’ Steve Sloan of Dubuque, a great-nephew of Fr. Schmitt’s,” told The Washington Post, stressing that on December 7 it will be 75 years since he died.
“ ‘The interest in his story, and the interest in the whole event, is far bigger than I ever anticipated,’ Sloan said in a telephone interview. ‘The calls we’re getting, the people who are talking about it.’
“Fr. Schmitt, 32, had just said Mass that Sunday morning when the Oklahoma was hit by at least nine Japanese torpedoes and grazed by several bombs, according to reports in the National Archives.
“The battleship, which had a complement of about 1,300, quickly rolled over in 50 feet of water, trapping hundreds of men below decks.
“Thirty-two were saved by rescue crews who heard them banging for help, cut into the hull and made their way through a maze of darkened, flooded compartments to reach them.
“Others managed to escape by swimming underwater to find their way out. Some trapped sailors tried to stem the rushing water with rags and even the board from a game. One distraught man tried to drown himself.
“A few managed to escape through portholes — saved by brave comrades such as Fr. Schmitt, who is said to have helped as many as 12 sailors get out of a small compartment.
“He was posthumously given the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.”
The medal citation says he got caught in the porthole as other sailors tried to pull him through. Fr. Schmitt had already rescued others.
The citation reads: “Realizing that other men had come into the compartment looking for a way out, Chaplain Schmitt insisted that he be pushed back into the ship so that they might escape.”
And: “Calmly urging them on with a pronouncement of his blessing, he remained behind while they crawled out to safety.”
The Washington Post reported: “Most of the dead were found in the wreckage during the months-long salvage operation, especially after the Oklahoma was righted in 1943, according to the Arlington, Va.-based DPAA. They were eventually buried as ‘unknowns’ in a cemetery in Hawaii.
“Last year, the Pentagon exhumed the remains of what are believed to be 388 of them. Sixty-one rusty caskets were retrieved from 45 graves. Numerous caskets contained the remains of several individuals.
“And with the help of enhanced technology and techniques, experts have been gradually making identifications. More than a dozen have been made since the project began. The remains are being studied at special labs in Hawaii and Omaha.
“Fr. Schmitt was identified with the help of DNA retrieved from a skull bone and matched with that of a relative, the DPAA said.”
The priest’s chalice and prayer book have been held at Loras College. When the book was found in the ship shortly after the attack, it was still marked for the December 8 readings.
According to the Whispers in the Loggia blogspot, Fr. Schmitt was honored by having a destroyer bear his name — the USS Schmitt — commissioned in 1943 by the Navy and which served until 1967.
Christ the King Chapel at Loras College held a vigil for Fr. Schmitt on Friday, October 7, followed by a memorial Mass and funeral, with full military honors, on Saturday, October 8, in the chapel, where Schmitt was then buried. Christ the King Chapel was built after the war as a memorial to him. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz attended the chapel’s dedication in 1947.
Please share this story with your priests and with young people.
Fr. Schmitt uplifts all of us and reminds us why the Lord provides the faithful with priests. And let us all continue to fast and pray for our priests, especially on Fridays all year.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
@MCITLFrAphorism
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(Join me on a pilgrimage to Fatima for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions in October 2017. Email me at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com for details or visit proximotravel.com and enter my name where directed to get details and sign up.)
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