When the ship struck the iceberg, Fr Byles was on deck saying his office. During the panic, he helped steerage passengers up to the boat deck, helped women and children get into the lifeboats, refused a place on the lifeboat himself, went among the passengers hearing confessions, prayed the rosary with those left on board, and went down with the ship, still saying the rosary with them
I am grateful to Fr Stewart Foster who has written about Fr Byles in this week's Catholic Herald. The article is not online, only in the print edition, but there is an interview with Fr Foster at Alive Publishing.
As well as providing a heroic Catholic reference for people who are hearing a lot about the Titanic on television, it might also be worth pointing out that the popular film caricatures him by having him recite verses from the Apocalypse. It is always worth waking people up to the subtle prejudice that they normally don't notice in the mainstream media.
10 comments:
Dear Father,
Another Titanic priest of note was Fr Browne SJ, the famous photographer. With the approval of his superiors he made the first leg of the maiden voyage, from Belfast to Queenstown (modern Cobh), and took several fascinating pictures. Some wealthy folk offered to pay his passage to America, and he promptly sent a telegram from the ship to his superior to request permission. The response swiftly came back: Get off that ship now! And he did. And he lived to tell the tale of his obedience. Maybe you could throw that story into your sermon too?!
Real history is better than myth. Thank you for posting this. We need heroes.
Thanks for this, Father. I didn't know about Fr Byles, but his selfless actions worthy of more publicity.
As far as the Titanic itself is concerned, I once saw a splendid T-shirt which had a picture of the ship and the caption: "It Sank - Get Over It!"
It is always worth waking people up to the subtle prejudice that they normally don't notice in the mainstream media.
Sometimes the prejudice isn't so subtle.
When I watched TV I loved the British detective series and recently I have discovered them on YouTube.
Two new,for me, ones I have discovered are Waking the Dead and
Wire in the Blood. In almost every episode there is some element of anti-Catholicism. Last night it was Opus Dei's turn. Ordinary average people will watch these very popular programmes on TV or DVD and drip by drip will build a picture of Catholics, usually of Irish descent, being hypocrites and liars very often the murderers and priests routinely impregnating their parishioners and killing to hide the scandal being discovered. I stopped watching Cracker years ago because of this. If Jews/Judaism, Moslems/Islam were routinely portrayed in this manner there would be outrage but Catholics don't seem to care enough about the Faith to make a protest.
thank you for this Father - a most edifying story.
Has he ever been considered as a candidate for sainthood for his actions ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Browne
Fascinating story: Francis Patrick Mary Browne - Jesuit scholastic (?) photographer aboard the Titanic.
The current ITV Titanic drama managed two liturgical howlers in ten seconds - the priest saying Mass for the 3rd class passengers gave the blessing as follows: Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Moreover the veil had not been put back on the chalice. Surely these things are easy to research?
If I'm not mistaken, the Mass would have been the same as today's, that of Low or Quasimodo Sunday.
Father, there were three priests aboard Titanic, all of whom sacrificed themselves:
http://wau.org/resources/article/re_the_priests_aboard_titanic/
Oh, and Father Browne was merely a scholastic then, nowhere near ordination.
John - sigh! I agree with you that producers could easily check liturgical details: they just don't seem to think it worth bothering.
They would not make gaffes in the rules of sport and get away with it.
Oddly enough, Father, there is a TV sports gaffe regarding cricket; someone is clean bowled and everyone shouts "how's that?" I've seen it countless times. Still, cricket is the sport most resembling the Roman liturgy (pace Fr Z. who seems to think a version of rounders has divine approval).
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