en the Austrians were unable to break through against the Italians in the Isonzo Valley in October 1917, the troops fired some 100,000 grenades containing the poison gas Phosgene.
Photographs of the attack show horrific scenes — corpses who had been struggling with inadequate gas masks, soldiers lying next to dead horses and rats, Italian troops who were gassed while playing cards or shaving. Some 40,000 died in the attack. Emperor Karl later described the gas as “very effective”.
There’s also the unfortunate business of Kurt Krenn, the Austrian bishop who led the campaign for beatification, who’s been forced to resign:
He bore administrative responsibility for a seminary in Lower Austria where sexual abuse was rife. Photographs were recently published of seminary priests kissing and fondling their students and 40,000 images depicting paedophile acts were found on the seminary computer.
It’s the recent history of the Catholic church condensed into one story.
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