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| Reverse Side of the Prayer for Fr Thomas Conway. |
Because the memorial in the article looked pretty cool (see above,), this Saturday, on the spur of the moment, my son Richard and I drove to Waterbury to see if we could find it and check it out for ourselves.
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| Waterbury CT Memorial (courtesy R.Dorr) from the news article. |
Having been to Waterbury previously, i did't have much trouble finding it: it is located at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Turns out that the memorial is smaller in real life than we expected based on the news photo. Sadly, its about as big as a trash container and located at the sidewalk too. It really deserves a better setting: either in the church or with a pavilion or structure around it.
The Basilica (church) is pretty impressive. There was a wedding just finishing up so Richard was reluctant to go in but curiosity is a weakness of mine.Besides, they were only taking pictures at the other end of the church and confessions were starting anyway.
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| The interior of the Basilica. More photos at their web site. If you look closely at this photo, you might spot the wedding party near the altar. |
Later, I learned that there is another "memorial" to Fr. Conway in Buffalo, NY since he was a parish priest there before joining the Navy.
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| Bust of Father Conway at the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park. |
It was a pretty interesting afternoon and a nice time with my son.
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Links:
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-memory-of-the-last-chaplain-to-die-in-world-war-ii-remains-alive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)
https://wtbybasilica.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_the_Immaculate_Conception_(Waterbury,_Connecticut)
https://brianjosephporter.com/new-page-2/
https://buffalonavalpark.org/
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Written Sunday 18 November 2018.
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