BELLEVILLE POST ESSEXNEWSDAILY.COM
MARCH 2024
VOL. 36 NO. 05
Cops & kids Belleville remembers the Four Chaplains story time
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Wrestling champions!
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St. Patrick’s Parade Guide
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By Rusty Myers Special to the Belleville Post One of the more emotional moments of the Four Chaplains Mass at St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Kearny each year is when the hymn “No Greater Love” is sung during communion. The refrain says that “There is no greater love, says the Lord, than to lay down your life for a friend.” No words can better explain the story of the Four Chaplains who were killed on Feb. 3, 1943. Each year, their sacrifice is memorialized at a mass held in their honor at St. Stephens, and the American Legion Post 105 Family of Belleville, along with other Legion families from throughout Essex County, are honored to attend. The Four Chaplains - Methodist minister Rev. George L. Fox, Reform Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Catholic priest Father John P. Washington, and Reformed Church in America minister Rev. Clark V. Poling – all served as US Army chaplains during World War II. Photos Courtesy of Rusty Myers In January of 1943, they set sail from Above, the Four Chaplains Statue at St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church New York along with 900 other soldiers in Kearny. Below, members of Belleville’s American Legion Post during headed for Greenland aboard the USAT the annual service for the four chaplains. Dorchester, a troop transport which was part of a larger convoy. The chaplains were seen handing out attend a mass in the chaplain’s honor each On the morning of Feb. 3, the ship was life jackets and helping soldiers into the year on the first Sunday in February. torpedoed by a German U-boat. The ship water, eventually giving up their own life In a remarkable addition to that, began to sink quickly. descendants of the Dorchester’s survivors jackets to save other men. Survivors of the Dorchester, of which from around the country attend, as well as there were only 230 out of 904, recall see- descendants of the chaplain’s themselves ing the four men standing arm-in-arm on – now 81 years after the vessel’s sinking. St. Stephens has the unique distinction the ship as it went down, praying and singing hymns. The chaplains all went of being a church where one of the Chaplains was actually stationed as a parish down with the Dorchester. As members of the “Greatest Genera- priest. Originally from the Roseville section of tion,” they made the ultimate sacrifice by helping save as many of their fellow serv- Newark, Father John P. Washington was iceman as they could - a testament to their assigned to Kearny in 1938, before his commitment as officers and men of faith enlistment in 1941. Because of his connection to the to serve their fellow man. To honor that sacrifice, veterans, patri- church, there is a large statue outside of otic organizations, and veteran service the four men standing and praying on the organizations from around the area gath- deck of the Dorchester, along with the er at the invitation of St. Stephen’s to See REMEMBERING, Page 3