Missionaries Are Prisoners

Of The Japs

The following is from the May issue of the journal “Catholic Missionslt will be remembered that, when the evacuation of Europeans from Bougainville was proceeding, Bishop Thomas Wade refused to abandon the care of the native people, to which he had devoted his life.

NEWS has just been received at the National Office that Bishop Wade, together with Fathers J. Hennessy and C. Conley, have been taken to Rabaul (New Britain) as prisoners of war of the Japanese, following on the recent occupation by the Japanese forces of the island of Bougainville.

The two priests, together with the Bishop, are the only three American priests in the Solomon Islands. The news is tempered somewhat by the fact that, as far as is known, all priests interned or taken as prisoners of war in the Territory of New Guinea have been placed at the Sacred Heart Mission of Vunapope. Thus the Bishop and his companions will be free to say Mass and enjoy personal liberty within the con fines of the Mission Compound. Small consolation, however, for the Bishop, who refused to take the opportunity of escaping from the Northern Solomons because he wanted to stay with the people who were his life’s work.

Father Conley is a Marist Father; Dr.

Hennessy is a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, who volunteered to work for a number of years with the Marist Mis sion in the Northern Solomons—he was due to return to America this year.