Update On The TLM At Camp Lejeune
Another High Mass

Two in a row from Father Logan! I'm guessing that Fr. Bautista-Rojas is still in the bull pen warming up for the Low Mass. Anyhow, here's another photo from today's Mass, as well as a couple of other photos from around the chapel itself. (Click on photos for larger images.)


Just one of many stunning stained glass windows
Statue of St. Francis Xavier w/ Holy Relic at bottom right

Chapel façade
And for the history buffs out there, here's some of the background on St Francis Xavier Chapel (but more specifically, Father Schmitt) from the official Camp Lejeune website;
Camp Lejeune's Roman Catholic Chapel was first dedicated as St. Aloysius on 6 December 1942 in memory of Father Aloysius Schmitt, the first chaplain and first Catholic Chaplain to die in World War II. It was rededicated as St. Francis Xavier Chapel on 27 January 1943.

Each of the ten stained glass windows was designed by New Jersey artist Katharine Lamb Tait and depicts two life-size images of saints of Catholic tradition. The windows were funded as memorials to their wartime dead by the six World War II Marine Divisions, the 3rd and 5th Amphibious Corps, Fleet Marine Force Pacific, Navy personnel, and personnel of Camp Lejeune.Father Aloysius H. Schmitt. Killed In Action Dec. 7th, 1941. USS Oklahoma - Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Roman Catholic Chaplain Lt. j.g. Aloysius H. Schmitt, born Dec. 4, 1909 in St. Lucas, Iowa, was at the beginning of his naval career. Appointed as acting chaplain on June 28, 1939, he was serving his first tour of duty at sea onboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He had just finished celebrating his morning mass when the attack began. As the assault on the Navy’s fleet raged, Chaplain Schmitt went to the ship’s sick bay to minister to the injured and dying.

When the Oklahoma was struck and water poured into her hold, the ship began to list and roll over. Many men were trapped. Schmitt found his way - with other crew members - to a compartment where only a small porthole provided enough space to escape.

Chaplain Schmitt helped other men, one by one, to crawl to safety. When it became his turn, the chaplain tried to get through the small opening. As he struggled to exit through the porthole, he became aware that others had come into the compartment from which he was trying to escape. As he realized that the water was rising rapidly and that escape would soon be impossible, he insisted on being pushed back through the hole so that he could help others who could get through the opening more easily. Accounts from eyewitnesses that have been published in the Arizona Memorial newsletter relate that the men protested, saying that he would never get out alive, but he insisted, “Please let go of me, and may God bless you all.” (From Catholicmil.org)

Father Schmitt's actual medals