Heroic chaplain

Richard A. Sokerka

With Veteran’s Day this Saturday, the story of Father Joseph Lafleur, a World War II chaplain, in a recent edition of the National Catholic Reporter, should give us pause to remember and to pray for all veterans who have served their country with honor.

Father Lafluer received two Distinguished Service Medals and Purple Heart for bravery. His selfless life of service to his nation and to his God has raised the possibility that his home Diocese of Lafayette, La. will examine his life that may lead to filing a petition of a cause that could eventually lead to his canonization.

During the war, Father Lafleur served as a chaplain in the Army Air Corps at Clark Field in the Philippines. It is a little known fact that after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, they also attacked Clark Field. During the sneak attack, Father Lafleur ignored his own safety to aid the wounded and give absolution to the dying.

For his bravery, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. When given the chance to go back to the States, he refused, saying, “My place is with the men.”

In 1942, he was on the island of Mindanao with the last of the American troops who surrendered to the Japanese and was taken with “his men” as a prisoner of war.

He endeared himself to his fellow POWS with his selflessness. When his captors reduced the amount of medicine and food, he sold his watch and glasses to locals to get these items. He gave weak prisoners his own rations. He contracted malaria several times, but refused medicine because someone else needed it more. He volunteered on brutal work details to spare the weak. His care for others over self was credited by POWS from keeping a “survival of the fittest” mentality from setting in.

In 1944, with American planes regularly bombing Japanese strongholds in the Philippines, the enemy decided to send the POWS to Japan, lest they be liberated by advancing Allied forces. So on Sept. 7, Father Lafleur and 750 American POWs were put on a ship that was part of a convoy.

American intelligence believed the ships were transporting Japanese troops — not POWs — and a U.S. submarine torpedoed the ship with the Americans on it. Father Lafleur, emaciated, with his hair and beard hanging past his neck, and wearing only a loincloth, insisted all the men in his hold get out before he would evacuate. The last anyone saw of the priest, he was helping men get out. Because of his efforts, nearly 100 men escaped and swam to shore where Philippine guerillas hid them until a Navy submarine rescued them.

The heroism of this priest was highlighted at the 2017 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, by Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA: “He drew on his virtue to care for, protect and fortify the men imprisoned with him. Many survived because he was a man of virtue who gave unstintingly of himself. To speak of the greatness of our country is to speak of men and women of virtue who gave of themselves for the benefit of all. We build for a new tomorrow when we draw from that wellspring of virtue.”

A hero who gave his life for others, Father Lefleur’s courage and faith should be an inspiration to every American this Veterans Day and always. May he one day be acclaimed among the holy saints of the Catholic Church.