Fallen Catholic chaplain receives highest military honor
In this Sunday’s psalm mourning becomes dancing in the certainty of divine rescue. Catholic priest Emil Kapaun served as a military chaplain during the Korean War, caring for and sustaining his fellow soldiers who hoped for rescue during their imprisonment in a harsh POW camp. Kapaun, who died in the camp, was awarded posthumously . . .
In this Sunday’s psalm, mourning becomes dancing in the certainty of divine rescue. Catholic priest Emil Kapaun served as a military chaplain during the Korean War, caring for and sustaining his fellow soldiers who hoped for rescue during their imprisonment in a harsh POW camp. Kapaun, who died in the camp, was awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony Thursday. The priest from rural Kansas is also a candidate for sainthood.
President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest military honor to Kapaun’s next of kin to commemorate the Army chaplain’s acts of personal bravery during the Korean War, both on the battlefield and in a POW camp. For years POWs who survived the camp have pushed for Kapaun’s wartime actions to be recognized. Now it seems they’ve been heard by both church and state.
Kapaun, born in 1916, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Wichita at age 24. Four years later he joined the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. He left for Japan and Korea in 1950 with the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division. Roy Wenzl, a Wichita Eagle reporter and the coauthor of Kapaun’s biography, said Kapaun worked alongside other soldiers digging latrines and foxholes and risked his life time after time to save the fallen.
Kapaun saw several battles during the war, and in each one he would run outside the perimeter to save wounded soldiers despite pleas from his fellow soldiers to remain in safety. But during the Battle of Unsan, Kapaun’s regiment was surrounded by a sea of Chinese soldiers. Kapaun refused to escape and leave the his men and was captured on November 2, 1950.
The Americans were forced to march, with little to no food, in sometimes sub-zero temperatures, to what is now North Korea. They ended up in the Pyoktong POW camp. Inside the camp, hunger, disease, and the cold preyed upon hundreds of soldiers. Dysentery ran wild and the inmates’ only option for water was melted snow.
Despite the miserable conditions, Kapaun flouted camp rules to aid his fellow prisoners, stealing food and medicine, praying with them, leading them to resist indoctrination, and shaping containers out of roofing tin to boil water. “He led by example. He picked lice off of soldiers when no one else would,” Wenzl said.
When he fell ill, camp guards treated Kapaun roughly and isolated him in a ramshackle hut the POWs called “the death house,” where he received no care. “Hey, Mike, don’t worry about me,” Lt. Mike Dowe recalled him saying. “I’m going to where I always wanted to go and I’ll say a prayer for all of you.”
As the Chinese guards were taking him, Kapaun blessed them and asked for their forgiveness. Two days later, on May 23, 1951, he passed away, seven months after arriving at the camp. In 1993 the Vatican declared Kapaun “a Servant of God,” which officially opened his sainthood cause.
Homily help: It is rare and gratifying when both church and state can recognize an individual, but Chaplain Kapaun exemplified the best traits of a priest and a patriot. Roy Wenzl, the coauthor of Kapaun’s biography, wrote a series about him for the Wichita Eagle that parishioners may find inspiring.
President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest military honor to Kapaun’s next of kin to commemorate the Army chaplain’s acts of personal bravery during the Korean War, both on the battlefield and in a POW camp. For years POWs who survived the camp have pushed for Kapaun’s wartime actions to be recognized. Now it seems they’ve been heard by both church and state.
Kapaun, born in 1916, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Wichita at age 24. Four years later he joined the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. He left for Japan and Korea in 1950 with the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division. Roy Wenzl, a Wichita Eagle reporter and the coauthor of Kapaun’s biography, said Kapaun worked alongside other soldiers digging latrines and foxholes and risked his life time after time to save the fallen.
Kapaun saw several battles during the war, and in each one he would run outside the perimeter to save wounded soldiers despite pleas from his fellow soldiers to remain in safety. But during the Battle of Unsan, Kapaun’s regiment was surrounded by a sea of Chinese soldiers. Kapaun refused to escape and leave the his men and was captured on November 2, 1950.
The Americans were forced to march, with little to no food, in sometimes sub-zero temperatures, to what is now North Korea. They ended up in the Pyoktong POW camp. Inside the camp, hunger, disease, and the cold preyed upon hundreds of soldiers. Dysentery ran wild and the inmates’ only option for water was melted snow.
Despite the miserable conditions, Kapaun flouted camp rules to aid his fellow prisoners, stealing food and medicine, praying with them, leading them to resist indoctrination, and shaping containers out of roofing tin to boil water. “He led by example. He picked lice off of soldiers when no one else would,” Wenzl said.
When he fell ill, camp guards treated Kapaun roughly and isolated him in a ramshackle hut the POWs called “the death house,” where he received no care. “Hey, Mike, don’t worry about me,” Lt. Mike Dowe recalled him saying. “I’m going to where I always wanted to go and I’ll say a prayer for all of you.”
As the Chinese guards were taking him, Kapaun blessed them and asked for their forgiveness. Two days later, on May 23, 1951, he passed away, seven months after arriving at the camp. In 1993 the Vatican declared Kapaun “a Servant of God,” which officially opened his sainthood cause.
Homily help: It is rare and gratifying when both church and state can recognize an individual, but Chaplain Kapaun exemplified the best traits of a priest and a patriot. Roy Wenzl, the coauthor of Kapaun’s biography, wrote a series about him for the Wichita Eagle that parishioners may find inspiring.
Source: Caleb K. Bell for Religion News Service