Laurence J. Kenny letter to Pope Benedict XV - April 19, 1918

Transcript

Saint Louis University GRAND AVE. AND W. PINE BOUL. St. Louis April 19th 1918. To His Holiness, Benedict XV, The Vatican, Rome In Care of the Commission for Information about Missing Soldiers. Dear Holy Father, - The work of heavenly beneficence which your Holiness's Commission for Finding Missing Soldiers is accomplishing is not unknown in these distant parts of the earth. In fact one of St. Louis's daily papers gave a whole page account of its workings some months ago. But the fact is that as yet all this goodness seems to be as something so far from us that it is as it were in distant ages or in another world. I am writing today to ask your holiness to find for us two St. Louis physicians of whom no word has come to their mothers for more than a month except the most painful of messages that they are missing after the battle. What a thrill of gratitude will annihilate the intervening space between us and being your holiness to the heart of St. Louis, if your Commission is able to send word to these mothers through us that their sons are safe. Even if the word be that the young men have given the last possible sacrifice for their country, this sorrowful message will carry a peaceful solace as well as glory to hearts now torn with anxiety. The enclosed account from the St. Louis Post Dispatch of April 16th gives all the information obtainable as to the whereabouts of the doctors when the battle began. I am rather inclined to think they were near St. Quentin than in Flanders, but they were certainly with the British forces. It would not be worth while adding that these doctors are not, so far as I know, of our holy faith, except for the purpose of preventing a false inference that might lead the pursuit astray, this fact will, I am sure not lessen the zeal of your Commission from their efforts to diminish the sorrows of the world. Your Holiness very humble son in Christ, Laurence J. Kenney