More on Fr Byles


BBC Essex has an article about Fr Byles whom I wrote about the other day. They have the above photo of a plaque in St Helen's Church in Chipping Ongar where he was Rector for eight years. The article also tells of a memorial plaque that is to be unveiled at Rossall Public School in Fleetwood, Lancashire, by Bishop Michael Campbell on 2 May in the school chapel.

See: Titanic 100: The Essex priest who refused to leave passengers

The article in the Catholic Herald by Fr Stewart Foster has now been put online: The priest who prayed the rosary and heard Confessions as the Titanic sank

In the combox, Steve T. reminds us that there were three priests on the Titanic, as well as a Jesuit scholastic who left the ship at Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland. (See: The Priests Aboard Titanic.) Fr. Juozas Montvila and Fr. Joseph Peruschitz also refused places on the lifeboats and continued to minister to the people as the ship went down. I presume that they gave general absolution at the end, once it was no longer possible to hear any more confessions. That would be a situation when General Absolution would be licit.

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