// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Church makes sainthood case for 'WW1 hero' priest
Fr Willie Doyle was a chaplain to the 16th (Irish) Division of the British Army
A "heroic" Irish priest who was killed in World War One while trying to help injured and dying soldiers will take a step towards potential sainthood on Sunday.
Fr Willie Doyle served as a British Army chaplain during some of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, including the Somme, Messines and Passchendaele.
The Dubliner was renowned for his courage under fire, repeatedly running into No Man's Land to carry wounded troops to safety or to comfort those fatally injured.
On Sunday, the Catholic Church in Ireland will hold a special service in Mullingar Cathedral before sending thousands of documents to the Vatican to support the case for his canonisation.
World War One had been raging for more than a year when Fr Doyle volunteered to become a military chaplain to the 16th (Irish) Division of the British Army.
He served with the division for almost two years, much of that in the trenches at the Western Front, until his death at the Battle of Passchendaele on 16 August 1917.
He was killed by shellfire while going to the aid of two wounded Protestant soldiers, one of which was a young officer from Belfast - 2nd Lt Arthur Vivian Green.
Because of that, the Catholic Church in Ireland considers Fr Doyle to be an "ecumenical martyr of charity" who died ministering to soldiers of other Christian denominations.
Fr Willie Doyle was in his early 40s when he was killed at Passchendaele in 1917