Retired Colonel Robert DeSousa, right, with Catholic War Veterans Post 707 member Retired Colonel Greg Smith at an Army function.Catholic War Veterans Post 707 doesn’t have a physical address, but it has a faith-filled servant leader who has built a vibrant community of more than 50 veterans across the Harrisburg Diocese that aids each other’s journeys in faith.
Retired Colonel Robert DeSousa, who served in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard for 28 years, is the commander of Central Pennsylvania Post 707 of the Catholic War Veterans (CWV).
“We are a new post. We’ve only been on the books for three years,” said DeSousa, 65, who attends St. Lawrence Parish in Harrisburg and is a Knight in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
“Three years ago, I was asked by the state commander for the Catholic War Veterans if we would reorganize and reform a post, which we did.”
DeSousa also serves as an attorney for Eckert Seamens in Harrisburg, was the state director for former U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, and was a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the state’s Civil Division chief. He is also chairman of the board of the Army Heritage Center Foundation, based in Carlisle.
Yet his efforts within CWV become a place where he can directly link his core, his Catholic faith, with one of the most critical parts of his life, one which still finds itself in service to people across a wide geography.
“We have members that are everywhere from Union County to the north, Adams County to the south, Schuylkill County to the east and out to Cumberland County in the west, and we have some members who are further than that,” he said.
“We simply meet and concentrate on veteran issues and supporting the Diocese and veteran issues throughout the Diocese. We seek to exemplify the ideals of our Catholic faith as we defend the Constitution.”
Acting on those ideals includes, but goes beyond, prayer during CWV meetings which are held in Harrisburg but also include virtual pathways for veterans to attend from far away.
Retired Colonel Robert DeSousa, commander of Catholic War Veterans Post 707, speaks at an event of the Army Heritage Center Foundation in Carlisle. DeSousa is the foundation’s Chairman of the Board.“We always begin and end our meetings in prayer. We continually pray for the repose of the souls of veterans. We pray for those who are in harm’s way, and we try to foster that sense of belonging among veterans of the Catholic faith,” DeSousa said.
That sense of community spreads from veterans who have just returned home from service to those who fought in wars seven decades ago.
“If you look at Post 707, we have as our oldest member a 94-year-old Korean War veteran, right through to a current member who just came back from a deployment to the Horn of Africa,” he said.
“Our Korean War veteran was raised a Protestant, but seeing a field Mass, seeing men kneeling in the cold during the Latin Mass, he was so moved that he wanted to discover more, and ultimately converted to the Catholic faith.”
DeSousa’s military service experience began later than most, at 32 years old, during the 1990s when fewer reservists were expected to see combat.
“I didn’t realize that you could go directly into the reserve component,” he said about the reason why he didn’t enter earlier in life.
He initially didn’t link his military service and his faith, but that sense grew within him over his 28 years of service.
“I didn’t see it at the time as a vocation, as God per se calling me to do this,” he said.
“But within the parameters of our faith is that sense of giving to others, of serving. It’s what motivated me to serve. Certainly being Catholic and having the Catholic faith was an important part of that.”
DeSousa’s career saw him in shorter-term duty in Germany and Egypt before participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom for a year with the 213th Regional Support Group in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
As God is for many in combat, the Lord anchored him as a source of hope in the midst of the horrors of war.
“It was always important to me when we were deployed, or when we were even in home station, always be able to get to Mass on Sunday and take advantage of that type of offering,” he said.
But one trip during his duty especially affected his faith journey.
“When I was deployed to Iraq, I had the opportunity to go to what was the ancient city of Ur. This is where Yahweh speaks to Abram, Abram becomes Abraham, and he leads his people out,” he said.
“I remember very specifically for me how different the preparation is in Lent, where we say ‘Remember man thou art dust and unto dust shalt thou return.’ In the Middle East, seeing how fine dust is there, what a dust storm is there, that had a profound effect on me.”
Now, he lives his Catholic faith through serving those who served, raising money for needs in the Holy Land, helping the Ancient Order of Hibernians restore cemeteries where Irish immigrants were not initially given proper burial, and helping groups that bring military personnel to the Sanctuary of Lourdes in France.
All this plays a part in helping provide a continuing cornerstone of faith to veterans’ experiences.
“Whether you’re deployed to a combat zone where you’re under threat, whether you’re a sailor out at sea, or whether you’re just suffering from loneliness,” he says, “having the ability to have a prayer life, having the Sacraments, provides an anchor.”
(Jay Sorgi is a freelance reporter for The Catholic Witness. Photos courtesy of Colonel Robert DeSousa.)
By Jay Sorgi, The Catholic Witness
