This photograph appeared in the pages of the Scranton Tribune on June 7, 1944. It shows a group of women gathered to pray at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton, Pennsylvania as Allied troops stormed ashore a day earlier on June 6 – D-Day.

This scene was common across the Coal Region that day as churches opened their doors for special services and Americans as a whole hoped for the success of their soldiers and sailors against Nazi defenses on the shores of Normandy.

Bishop William Hafey of the Scranton Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church summed up the meaning of the day and its solemnity in a statement that was published in local newspapers:

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The invasion has begun.

With a trust that knows no doubt we address our humble prayers to Jesus and beg the intercession of His Blessed Mother for the successful completion of this crusade of liberation and for the establishment of a just and Christian peace.

We need no calculating war analysts to warn us of the terrible toll of life and limb that is certainly to be expected in so tremendous a task. To arouse our people to emotional outbursts by the clanging of bells seems unnecessary and unwise, solemn is the occasion.

But that every citizen of America should kneel in humble supplication and prayer before God at so eventful an hour is most necessary and proper. Today, as every day, Catholics of the Diocese of Scranton will find their churches open.

And within each church Christ in his Eucharistic Presence will be waiting to receive their prayers on behalf of our brave boys who are giving their all for the defense of right and justice on the battlefields of the world.

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Read more about D-Day and the Coal Region

The Coal Region on D-Day | June 6, 1944

Private Harvey L. Adams | Killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944

Letters from War – Reflections on D-Day and the fighting in Normandy, June 1944

“It’s your life at stake all the time” – A paratrooper from the Coal Region on D-Day

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