Outrages on the French Clergy
The town of Roye was occupied by the Germans on the 7th September. On the morning of the 9th a burial was taking place. At the very time when the service was being held in the church, a French machine-gun came into the town and forthwith began to fire at a German outpost which had taken up a position in the town hall. The Germans rushed madly into the church, to the number of about fifty, and, to the great indignation of those who were present, seized the two officiating priests and the two choristers. Still clad in their sacred vestments, the priests were led into the line of fire of the French machine-guns, and it was only by a miracle that they escaped the bullets. In the sequel, the machine-gun could not keep up its fire and had to leave the town.
During this time the crowd had escaped from the church by the sacristy and the adjoining gardens, and the coffin remained alone without celebrants or congregation. The Germans did not release their victims. They compelled the two priests and the two choristers to get into a motor, forcing them to remain standing, and brought them like that to Chauny, where the German general staff was installed. Their intention was doubtless to intimidate the villages through which this wretched party passed.
At Chauny the two priests and the two choristers remained for more than twenty-four hours without food or drink, and were kept prisoners for three days. Their release was only brought about through the intervention of the professor of German at the college of Chauny, who by dint of parleying and negotiation had them set at liberty; they returned to Roye, where they were believed to be dead.
In the diocese of Cambrai six priests were first of all killed by the Germans. The assassination of the Abbé Delebecque, of Valenciennes, which followed, must be described in detail.
On the 16th September this priest was coming back from a service which had taken place at Dunkirk for the repose of the soul of his father, who had died in the month of August. He was riding a bicycle and was carrying some letters written by soldiers. He was stopped by a patrol and accused of espionage. He was sentenced the same day at midnight. In spite of his denials and of the obvious proofs which he gave of his good faith, the council of war, consisting of officers, condemned him to death. Handed over to the charge of the German military chaplain, he passed the night in prayer before the Holy Sacrament in St. Nicholas Church. Then, having given confession and received the sacrament, he set out bravely at 5.30 on foot to the Dampierre Column, on the way to Denain.
As he went he was repeating the prayer for the dying. When he reached the spot fixed by the Germans he sent a letter to his mother, then knelt down and said to some people present that he gave his life for France. At six o’clock the Abbé Delebecque fell, hit by twelve German bullets.
A hole fifty centimetres deep was made and he was thrown into it. As the end of his cassock protruded, a civilian came and placed some stones upon it in the form of a cross, and some women threw flowers on the tomb of this martyr. Finally, the Superior of Notre Dame College, who had the German military chaplain lodging with him, with some difficulty got his consent to the body being given back to him, that suitable burial might be given to it.
On the other hand, the Curé Fossin, of Vareddes, was shot on the charge of having signalled to a French troop from the top of his belfry.
In the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle two curés were also shot, M. Thiriet at Deuxville and M. Barbot at Rehainviller.
But the most horrible outrage inflicted upon people dedicated to God was that suffered by two nuns in a commune of the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. They were handed over defenceless to a soldier’s lechery. “The pledges which we have given,” writes the French Commission of Inquiry, which denounces this crime in its report, “prevent our making known the names of the victims of this disgusting exhibition, or of the village in which it took place, but the facts have been revealed to us under oath and in confidence by most trustworthy witnesses, and we take the responsibility of attesting their authenticity.”