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a basic education for the troops, which enabled the men to have a better chance for successafter their service to the army had ended. They fought racism in the form of segregatedofficers’ dining hall, and unequal pay for themselves and for their troops. African Americanchaplains were an important factor in raising morale and hence combat effectiveness. 50Onward Catholic Soldiers: The Chaplainry, the U.S. military and the Catholic Church duringthe World WarsMy slogan to the chaplains with the troops is ‘Keep them praying.’ In many places chaplainsgather together a group of soldiers between attacks and kneel with them in prayer. A rosaryaround one’s neck for occasional fingering and a rifle in hand is a combination of power thatneither Jap nor Devil can resist.-- Chief of ChaplainsWilliam Arnold, 1942 51The relationship of the U.S. Catholic Church and its military chaplains during the course of the twoworld wars offers an interesting point of comparison as the chaplains were members of a religionthat began the period as an out-group, but by mid-century had achieved a firm place in the Americanestablishment. During this entire period, Catholic chaplains reflected the patriotism, sense of dutyand heroism that made them important strategic communicators in times of war and in times of peace.At the beginning of World War I, the Catholic Church in America was viewed by suspicionby the Protestant establishment, including the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, WoodrowWilson, and his State Department. As Church historian Peter D. Agostino noted, “liberal paranoia”about a “subversive Catholic monolith loyal to papal Rome” was tied to a presumption in the liberalpress and by Allied statesmen that the Holy See favored the Central Powers, which led them to fear“the disruptive potential of the American Catholic population.” In fact, although Pope Benedictallowed Catholic priests to serve as chaplains in the military of the liberal Italian republic, it is alsotrue that the Holy See was willing to let “governments preoccupied with their internal unity”—i.e., the United States—believe that Rome had such subterranean control, if the suspicion wouldultimately favor the Holy See’s own negotiations with the Italian state to resolve the Roman Questionon Catholic terms. As a result, “accusations against the Church and defensive Catholic responsesstrengthened boundaries separating Catholics from other Americans.” In an interesting juxtapositionto the politically-supportive role the U.S. government supposed Catholic and other denominations’chaplains were to play in the Great War, “(t)he liberal ideology embodied in the international nationstatesystem had no place for the Church, a strange international institution that Wilson, good liberalthat he was, insisted ought to attend to purely spiritual affairs.” 52The U.S. entry into the war led the American Catholic episcopacy to offer a ringing endorsementof Wilson’s action. “The bishops reminded their people that obedience to civil authorities was aduty, and the National Catholic War Conference, created to mobilize Catholics, became an effectiveorganization in the U.S. war effort,” D’Agostino noted. “American Catholic nationalism grew inresponse to the insecurity Catholics felt as their fellow citizens attacked the Holy See and questionedCatholic loyalty.” 53 The National Catholic War Council, forerunner of the National Catholic WarConference (known today as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops), was placed under thecontrol of the fourteen American archbishops. Its mission “was to cooperate with other denominationalgroups under the general supervision of the government to coordinate Catholic activities ranging50Lamm, op. cit., p. 85.51February 21, 1942 letter to Rev. Thomas F. McBride, St. Michael’s Rectory, Troy, New York, Box 57, Folder: “Military Affairs: Chaplains, 1942-1945,” National Catholic Welfare Council General Administration Series, ACUA.52D’Agostino, Transnational Catholic Ideology from the Risorgimento to Facism,” (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), p. 104-105, 111-112, 116.53D’Agostino, op. cit., p. 115.54Gerald P. Fogarty, The Vatican and the American Hierarchy from 1870 to 1965 (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1982), p. 214.Security and Defense Studies Review 2009/Edición 2009/ Edicão 2009/ Volume 9, Issues 1 & 2 125