History
History of Canadian Military Chaplaincy
The religious order of Recollect priests came with the French explorers. The first non-Roman Catholic church service was conducted onboard a ship in Baffin Bay in 1576 by Chaplain John Wolfall of the Frobisher expedition. Over the years, British chaplains, many of who remained in this country, played a significant role in bringing the 
Protestant religion to Canada. Most chaplains were Anglican but not all. Among the force that captured Louisbourg and Quebec were Scottish regiments. These had their own padre and so the first Presbyterian services began in 1758 at Louisbourg and in 1759 at Quebec under the leadership of military chaplains. It was not until 1802 that Roman Catholic padres were at last permitted to serve in the British Army. Of course, long before that time, Roman Catholic soldiers and their priests had served. In 1776, Father John McKenna was on the payroll of the Loyalist Highlanders of New York and in 1798 the Rev. Edmund Burke, later Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia, went with soldiers to the Niagara Peninsula.
THE BOER WAR
A small number of Canadian chaplains served on active duty in the Boer war but disbanded when it was over. The Rev. P.M. O’Leary, VD, of the Royal Canadian Regiment, was the only Roman Catholic. O’Leary, who received faculties for the occasion from the Vicars of Western Cape Colony and Orange River, was close to the men. When they were under fire he was everywhere: encouraging this one and praying for that one. The bullets didn’t seem to bother him and everyone respected him.
WORLD WAR I (1914-1918) – ORGANIZATION
Maj Steacy WWI
In 1914, the Canadian Contingent was quickly assembled to go to France. Hundreds of clergy followed their soldiers to the assembly point at Valcartier. At first, no chaplains were to go. Then, the minister of Militia, Sir Sam Hughes, chose 33 chaplains, six of whom were Roman Catholic. It was only in 1917 that a Roman Catholic priest, Rev. W.T. Workman, was made assistant Director in London. This lack of sensitivity to the religious needs of the Roman Catholics would be a contributing factor to the formation of separate Protestant and Roman Catholic services in 1939. During the First World War, 524 clergymen served in the Canadian Chaplain Service (CCS). Of this number 447 served overseas in Flanders, Siberia and the Mediterranean.
At first, the chaplains were misunderstood. They were used to look after canteens and entertainment. Eventually these duties were handed over to auxiliary forces such as the YMCA and the chaplains moved forward into the trenches. Years of suffering and sorrow stripped away every personal disguise and every religious trapping. Denominational barriers faded as the chaplains called upon every spiritual resource they could muster to meet the challenges of suffering and death. Later, Padre Fallis reported: “… never do I sing “Hold Thou Thy Cross before my dying eyes, shine through the gloom and point me to the skies”, without mists coming to my eyes and I see a picture etched on memory’s wall of a handsome lad “going west” in Hell Fire Corner dressing station in the Ypres Salient”.
AFTER THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Canon Frederic Scott WWI
After the First World War, the Directors office in Ottawa closed down and the Canadian Chaplain Service dropped out of existence. Civilian religious organizations lost interest in the military, although many ex-chaplains joined with units of the Non Permanent Active Militia. Many of them went to camp with their units in the summer and paraded with them when they had the opportunity. Most rendered good service as they were able, but few were able to render a complete service. Writing about the inter-war years, Padre Hepburn reported “that it was a definite weakness that there was no Chaplaincy authority in Ottawa to control appointments in consultation with Church Authorities and to direct and coordinate the activities of these chaplains”.
WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)
In the chaotic months following September 1939, Canada’s military leaders fought to rebuild a fighting force that had largely disbanded after the First World War. The last thing on the military mind was the chaplain service. Enter: Church of England Bishop George Anderson Wells, Bishop of the Cariboo and to this day the most decorated chaplain in the British Commonwealth. From his home in Victoria, through high-ranking Militia contacts, Wells offered to serve in any capacity. Within weeks he was on his way to Ottawa, with his First World War files in hand, to re-establish the chaplain service. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops was already organized. They could not tolerate serving under the same conditions as they had faced in the previous war. Months before, Defence Minister and Quebec city MP, “Chubby” Powers, had gone to the Quebec Church to request the use of the large Quebec churches as possible air raid shelters. Bishop Roy had bargained for a separate chaplain service. A deal had been struck and to Well’s surprise, Bishop Nelligan had been named to establish a parallel Roman Catholic chaplain organization.
WORLD WAR II – ROLE
Padre Seaborne WWII
The first chaplains overseas were experienced men who had served in the First World War. It was not until D-Day that a steady stream of younger men was provided for front line soldiers. Most of the activity in the Royal Canadian Air Force took place at home. There was a lot of flying training and a lot of crashes. Often it was the chaplain who took the bad news to next of kin and loved ones. Overseas, RCAF chaplains stayed close to the aircrew. In bomber command they would see the boys off and would wait for their return. There having been no Canadian naval chaplains prior to this war, those who served with the Royal Canadian Navy looked for ways to help. Someone decided that they could free officers for hard sea duty if they volunteered to censor mail. As the size of the navy grew this became an interesting but impossible task. Chaplains came to realize that the real place for them was with the men in action and, as the size of the ships increased, were able to go to sea.
By the end of the war, the senior chaplain of the third Division was able to report: “The fighting during October, as we concentrated on canals, dykes, etc. was marked by extreme difficulty in handling the wounded and the dead. To hear chaplains tell how they would “cat walk” across canals and dykes, stealthily crawl to where a lad was lying wounded, dress his wound, help to load him, then crawl all the way back, made one feel that every last padre should be awarded a medal”.
WORLD WAR II – PRISONERS OF WAR
Canada’s most famous padre POW of the Second World War was Honorary Major John Weir Foote, VC. He served with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry from Hamilton and was captured on the beach at Dieppe. Newspapers of the day called him Padre X of Dieppe. The men called him “an angel of mercy”. No one will ever know how many people Foote helped that day. The wounded he carried to the landing craft owed their lives to him. When given a last chance to escape, Padre Foote chose to remain on the beach, because that is where his services were most needed. Years later, when the Victoria Cross was awarded, he placed the medal in his regimental museum. He said that many of the men who fought that day deserved the award as much as he did.
POST-WAR TIMES
Bishop GA Wells WWII
At the end of the Second World War, Roman Catholic military services were celebrated at St. Patrick’s Basilica. Protestant and Jewish servicemen worshipped at Lansdowne Park. Following worship there was a great parade through Ottawa streets. This became an annual tradition as chaplains organized worship at St. Patrick’s and Chalmers United Churches, while the Canadian Legion was responsible for the parade that followed the services. As the years passed it became more difficult to fill the churches with military personnel. Eventually the worship was dropped in favour of prayers at the National War Memorial. The whole War Memorial celebration was and still is run by the Legion. In its early stages, when senior Protestant and Roman Catholic chaplains argued over parading service persons of their religion to the other’s service, the Legion threatened to go ahead without them. Eventually, common ground was found and the present arrangement developed.
On 9 August 1945, the Governor General in Council authorized the establishment of the Canadian Chaplain Services Protestant and Roman Catholic. On 1 October 1945, the Adjutant General issued an order setting up chaplain services, with an establishment of 137 Protestant and 162 Roman Catholic chaplains.
Servicemen just back from the war wanted to get on with their lives and military bases began to fill up with young wives and children. Greatly reduced in numbers, the chaplains devoted most of their time to finding accommodations. Some housing was very temporary. Permanent married quarters started to be built, followed by schools and grocery stores. Temporary chapels, some of them joint Protestant/Roman Catholic, were arranged and more experienced wives conducted cooking and sewing classes. A Divine Service Book was developed by the Protestants to keep the order of worship from becoming a problem. For Roman Catholics, the Military Vicariate was established in 1951.
KOREA (1950-1953)
For Canadians, Korea was largely a UN policing operation. A lot of time was spent preparing the Canadian contingent for deployment. Determined not to make the same mistakes in Korea as they had done in Hong Kong, Canada spent a lot of time preparing her soldiers for this conflict. This meant that the navy was on station long before Canadian soldiers were available. Messages were sent out from Ottawa to clergy who had been combatants in the Second World War. Only a few volunteered to go. One of these was Captain Ray Cunningham. He already held a commission from the previous war, but was the first chaplain who had permission to have substantive instead of honorary rank. Due to long periods of static warfare, permanent camps were established behind the front, and there was a lot of patrolling. At first chaplains were assigned to units in such camps, but later chaplains would rotate to the front lines. As in previous conflicts, the most successful chaplains were the ones who were closest to the men.
BUILDING COMMUNITY
Padre Michelle Staples blesses Lay Readers at their installation.
To meet the needs of the service personnel and their families at home, chapels were being built. Conservative quarters were added to the Roman Catholic design and intended to be a residence for the priest. Christian education was to be conducted in the DND owned public schools. With chapels came the related problems of who was to pay for what and of what would happen to offerings collected at the services of worship. Basically, DND paid for the chapels, although specific speciality items such as flowers and choir music, would be paid for by the congregation. This left a fair amount of money and a variety of solutions have been formulated over the years. Initially, a large percentage of the offering was sent to Ottawa for missionary purposes and to cover the costs of the chaplaincy’s relationship with the civilian churches.
PEACE SUPPORT OPERATIONS
Padre Bezanson leads worship in the field
Canada, as one of the architects of UN peacekeeping, was one of the nations that provided a contingent when the United Nations Emergency Force was dispatched to Egypt in 1956 to be a buffer between Egyptian and Israeli forces. Canadian troops subsequently served in the Congo, in Egypt, in Cyprus and on the Golan Heights. In addition, Canadian military personnel have served on an International Peace Commission in Vietnam (1973) and an International Peace Force in the Sinai (1986). Chaplains have been consistently present with troops in the former Yugoslavia, Haiti, Rwanda, the current UN mission in Afghanistan, and other theatres of operation to provide pastoral care and spiritual support.
UNIFICATION OF THE CHAPLAIN SERVICES
Padre Park at sea
A partial integration of the three chaplain services (land/sea/air) took place in 1958. Chaplains General (RC) and (P), with the rank of Brigadier-General (or equivalent) were appointed. In 1967 the Reorganization Act of the Armed Forces became law. The three chaplain services became the Chaplain Branch (P), and an identical process occurred within the Chaplain Branch (RC). With the arrival of integration, chaplains would not necessarily spend their entire career with one element. They were required to serve in sea, land, or air environments, as the exigencies of the service necessitated. New Branch badges and insignia were approved, and Onward Christian Soldiers became the March Past of the Branch.
On 21 April 1986 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Spirituali militum curae, in which he established norms for the government of Military Ordinariates. For the Roman Catholic chaplaincy this was significant, as it was elevated from a Vicariate to an Ordinariate, and received the appointment of a full time Bishop responsible for the spiritual welfare of all Roman Catholic military members and their families.
Officiating at a Ramp Ceremony
Due to the shortage of ordained catholic clergy, the Military Occupation Classification (MOC) Pastoral Associate was created in 1986 to provide for the pastoral needs of Roman Catholic military personnel and their families. The MOCs of Pastoral Associate and Chaplain (RC) were amalgamated in 1997 to create a single Roman Catholic Chaplain MOC, thereby allowing access to all Chaplain Branch positions to ordained and lay RC chaplains.
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