Local pastor was first to say mass at Notre Dame Cathedral after 1944 Liberation of Paris

Local pastor was first to say mass at Notre Dame Cathedral after 1944 Liberation of Paris

The following is a story that appeared in the July 20, 1966 edition of The Evening Press in Binghamton. Monsignor Leonard J. Fries died on May 21, 1985 at the age of 74. He had been pastor at Christ the King Church in Endwell for the previous 15 years.

The Rev. Leonard J. Fries, pastor of Vestal’s Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church has said many Masses in many places during the last 25 years.

Perhaps the one that most people will remember was offered in the Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, Aug. 26, 1944 just after the city was liberated from the Germans.

There were only about 300 American soldiers in the cathedral’s side chapel when Father Fries went to the altar, but what gave that Mass its special significance was the fact that it was the first celebrated since the liberation.

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A best-selling book, “Is Paris Burning?” has recounted the incident. One of the authors, Larry Collins, called Father Fries about a year before the book was published to hear his recollection of the Mass.

The priest remembers it as a highlight during his duty tour from Utah Beach to Germany with the Fourth Army Infantry division.

“Our division went into the city and we asked the rector of the cathedral if I could say Mass,” he remembers.

The rector agreed, notices of the Mass were sent to all troops in the city and trucks were dispatched for use by those who wanted to attend.

Father Fries remembers that there was less tension in the troops during the Mass then at any time during the European campaign.

In fact he remembers that the liberation of Paris “was quite a spur for the troops because they fought so hard since Normandy,”

He also remembers that Paris was supposed to by bypassed in the battle for France. “It was only after the breakthrough at Saint-Lo that we got the orders to go in.”

The day was one of celebration for Parisians and soldier alike but ended for the Fourth Division the next day with orders to move out.

“After that we drove right through France and across the Rhine River,” Father Fries said.

The priest, a 1928 graduate of Union-Endicott High School, has served at St. John the Evangelist and St. Patrick’s churches in Binghamton and St. Joseph’s Church in Sanitaria Springs, among others, since his Army discharge in 1945.

He became pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in 1962.