05/22/2026
Happy Friday, and a blessed Memorial Day weekend to you all! In honor of all of those who have lost their lives in service to our country, I thought it was time to share a few articles from the 1940's related to the second world war and the war effort and how they affected St. Joseph parish. All articles shared below are from the Jasper Herald, to the best of my knowledge.
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January 2, 1942:
Jasperites celebrated the first war time Christmas since 1917 with mixed feelings and emotions. In most homes joy was occasioned by the bonus payments or dividend checks or both--distributed by the local woodworking plants following one of the most successful business years on record. It was, as usual, a day of family reunions. In many homes young men in the uniform of the U.S. fighting forces pulled chairs up to the dinner table, but in other homes sadness was occasioned by the fact that the son or brother away at camp was unable to come home on furlough. The weather did the least to dampen the Christmas Eve spirit, a cold rain falling almost continuously to make highways slippery and the distribution of gifts unpleasant for hard working Santa. Most Jasperites like residents in other parts of the nation ate their Christmas meals while the radio brought in the latest war news, much of it very unfavorable for the Allied cause.
April 3, 1942
Jasper Council No. 1584, Knights of Columbus, this week dispatched parcels containing a carton of ci******es, candy, chewing gum, etc. to each of the thirty-one members of the council now in the military or naval branches of service as an Easter remembrance. The council has also waived the payment of the membership dues of its members who are in the armed forces. The parcels went to posts scattered over the nation from coast to coast.
March 5, 1943
Bishop Joseph E. Ritter of the Indianapolis Catholic Diocese, announced yesterday a dispensation from the Lenten laws of fast and abstinence for Catholics of the diocese due to the rationing of food. "This year," says the bishop's announcement, "because of food rationing and wartime living and working conditions, it will be difficult to observe the usual Lenten fast and abstinence. Accordingly, because of the emergency, we grant a general dispensation for the entire diocese, from the obligation of observing the usual Lenten regulations for fasting and abstinence, excepting the abstinence on Fridays and Ash Wednesday. There will therefore be no prescribed days of fasting in this diocese during Lent and the days of abstinence, when the use of flesh meat is prohibited, are Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. For the duration of the war, we hereby grant also a dispensation from fast and abstinence on all Ember Days and Vigils, Friday abstinence excepted. In granting this dispensation it is our hope that all will practice some kind of voluntary corporal penance besides increasing their spiritual good works and devotional exercises. If there are such who wish to observe the usual Lenten fast and abstinence and find it possible to do so we encourage them, however they are not obliged by law to do so.......
December 17, 1943:
Rev. Urban Knapp, O.S.B., former assistant pastor of St. Joseph church here and now a navy chaplain, left here this week for the west coast to be assigned to active duty. He is to report in California next Sunday. He had been visiting his mother, Mrs. Mary Knapp, this week following his graduation of Dec. 5 from the eight week course of the navy's chaplain training school at Williamsburg, VA. Father Knapp volunteered to serve as a navy chaplain last June, while assistant pastor of St. Ferdinand church at Ferdinand. He passed his first physical exam at the Cincinnati Procurement office last July 26 at the same place. he served for 9 years as one of the assistant pastors of St. Joseph church here, and later taught a year at Marmion Military Institute, Aurora, Illinois, and one year at St. Placid's Hall, St. Meinrad Seminary, before being assigned to Ferdinand.
December 22, 1944 Church activities that related to the war effort in 1944 that were requested from the pulpit:
Old phonograph records for men in service.
Canned fruit drive for War Stricken Europe yielded 1,786 cans or 76 cartons.
U.S. war bonds and stamps.
Need for young women 14 years old & up to peel tomatoes in local canneries at .08 cents a bucket.
National War Relief appealed for clothes for people in liberated areas of Europe. Emergency clothing campaign conducted in October yielded 4,172 pieces of clothing of all types which were packed in 74 cartons weighing 3,773 pounds.
March 23, 1945:.....There is a shortage of available priests at present due to the large number who are serving as chaplains in the armed forces. Thirty priests out of this diocese alone are serving in this capacity. It was announced last week that Rev. Albert Diereman of Navigation, IN, who served several years ago as assistant pastor at Celestine before becoming an army chaplain, has been promoted to the rank of captain. He was commissioned a first lieutenant when he entered the service in May 1944. He has been at the battle front since last October, and is a member of the 309th Infantry Regiment of the 78th Division.
May 4, 1945:
Monsignor Leonard Wernsing announced Wednesday evening at the services for the boys and girls in service that when V-E Day is officially announced the bells of St. Joseph's church will be rung in recognition of the occasion. If the announcement comes in the morning or afternoon, services will be held in the church at 7:30 that evening "in thanksgiving of what has been accomplished and in prayerful petition for similar success in the big job which still remains." If the announcement is made after 7:30 PM a High Mass of Thanksgiving and petition will be offered at 7:45 o'clock the next morning.
May 11, 1945:
V-E Day: "Local church bells were rung and factory whistles were blown for about fifteen minutes Tuesday morning in observance of the end of hostilities in Europe. Services were held that day in all of the local churches. At 7:30 PM special services were held in St. Joseph's church; members of Trinity Evangelical and Reformed church attended a prayer service at 9:00 AM and a formal service at 7:30 PM and in the First Presbyterian church, prayer and worship services were held at 7:30 PM.
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Let us all take a few moments this Memorial Day weekend to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. May we never forget that "freedom isn't free."
Stop back next week for the story of a (failed) attempt to rob St. Joseph Church!
