Father Emil Kapaun celebrates Mass using the hood of a Jeep as his altar on Oct. 7, 1950. | Credit: Public domain
Renowned Korean War military chaplain and Kansas native Emil Joseph Kapaun was declared “venerable” by Pope Francis on Tuesday.
The Holy Father on Monday met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State, at Gemelli Hospital where the pope is currently undergoing medical treatment to approve decrees from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints for six men and one woman currently on the path to sainthood.
Kapaun is one of five servants of God who will be proclaimed venerable by the Catholic Church. The others are Italian layman Salvo D’Acquisto; Miquel Maura i Montaner, a 19th-century Spanish priest; Italian priest Didaco Bessi; and Kunegunda Siwiec, a Polish laywoman who died in 1955.
The Holy Father approved Kapaun and D’Acquisto based on their “offering of life.” In 2017, the pope introduced the “offering of life” category to the causes of the saints, which recognizes those who have persevered to closely follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and serve others “voluntarily and freely” until death.
Kapaun was born in Pilson, Kansas, on April 20, 1916, and ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wichita on June 9, 1940, after completing theological studies at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis.
After serving as a pastor for his home parish and as an auxiliary chaplain at the Army airbase in Herington, Kansas, Kapaun discerned a call to minister to military personnel. In 1944, he was granted permission by Bishop Christian Winkelmann to become a U.S. Army chaplain.
Outside of the U.S., Kapaun was assigned to posts in Burma and India in the final years of World War II and in Korea following the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. There he brought the sacraments to troops, tended to the injured, and prayed with soldiers in the foxholes. At times he celebrated Mass on the battlefield using the hood of a jeep as a makeshift altar.
During the Battle of Unsan, Kapaun was captured along with other soldiers and taken to a Chinese-run prison camp in Pyoktong, North Korea. While there, he regularly stole food for his fellow prisoners and tended to their spiritual needs despite a prohibition on prayer.
After being taken to what prisoners called the “death house,” Kapaun died on May 23, 1951, after months of malnutrition and pneumonia. Before his death, Kapaun was recognized for both his holiness and bravery while in active service.
In March 2021, after 70 years, the skeletal remains of Kapaun were identified among 866 other unknown Korean soldiers buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. These remains were handed to American forces in 1954 by North Korea. Kapaun’s funeral Mass was held on Sept. 29, 2021, at Wichita’s Hartman Arena, where more than 5,000 people came together to remember him.
Pope Francis on Tuesday also approved the canonizations of two laymen: Venezuela’s Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros and Italy’s Blessed Bartolo Longo. The Holy Father has called for a consistory to prepare for the upcoming canonizations.
By Kristina Millare
This article was originally published by The Catholic News Agency on February 25, 2025.
