May 22, 2009
The Bishop's Forum
Memorial Day 2009
by Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger
There are some very troubling issues confronting us these days at the local, national and global levels.
These all pale as one experiences the cemeteries of the fallen citizens of our country who have given their lives to preserve the freedom we enjoy.
In 1966 I led a group of 17 high school boys on a camping trip through Western Europe. I had insisted from the outset that we would visit an American National Cemetery in Europe as a teaching moment. We planned to visit two cemeteries where American Soldiers lost in World War II are buried. First we went to the National Cemetery in Anzio, Italy and then again in Luxembourg where General Patton is buried.
One of the boys had an uncle, Philip White, who had died during the Second World War in the skies over southern Italy. He was buried in the American National Cemetery in Anzio near the treacherous Anzio Beachhead where so many other young Americans died at the hands of the Germans.
On a brilliant afternoon with incredibly blue skies and equally blue Mediterranean Sea we visited the American National Cemetery at Anzio. As we entered the manicured cemetery through massive bronze gates, my eyes were mesmerized with the vision of thousands of Christian crosses intermingled with Stars of David. The lens of my camera was incapable of capturing the view that human eyes can. The view was breathtaking.
At the end of the vast expanse of grave stones was a most impressive monument dedicated to all the Americans buried there. On the monument chiseled in marble is an angel cradling in his arms the limp body of an American soldier. That vivid image I will never forget!
Meanwhile, my exuberant and precocious lads ran to the office and, without permission from the caretaker U.S. General retrieved a card indicating the site of Philip White’s grave. We met the General later who was so thrilled to see American teenagers visiting the cemetery they could do no wrong.
In a matter of very few minutes, there we were at Philip White’s grave. It was an especially poignant moment as the young men had so quickly located the grave of an uncle of one of my seventeen charges. We prayed for Philip White and all our soldiers who had died alone so far from home. “Greater love than this . . .”
How proud I was then and am now of those who have given their lives for us whom they never knew.
At the same time how sad I was then and am now! Most of us are incapable of comprehending the price paid for our freedom by our young brothers and sisters in that war and all wars!!
Next Week: Memorial Day Part II