Advocates for Father Capodanno’s sainthood hopeful cause will gain momentum at Vatican

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (OSV News) — As supporters of Maryknoll Father Vincent Capodanno’s canonization cause marked the 60th anniversary of the late Navy chaplain’s arrival in Vietnam in 1966, there was renewed hope that the effort was gaining momentum.

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is expected to decide whether to recommend to Pope Leo XIV that he declare Father Capodanno venerable in May. In the meantime, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services approved the creation of a novena for Father Capodanno’s cause.

While the novena took place from March 30 to April 7, to coincide with Holy Week, Father Daniel Mode, who wrote the novena, encourages the faithful to continue to pray it.

“It was an honor to do that,” said Father Mode, a Navy chaplain who is part of the historical committee for the canonization cause. “You can pray (the novena) anytime between now and May, or even after May,” he told The Tablet, the news outlet of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Father Mode wrote the novena with the Father Vincent Capodanno Guild, a 4,000-member organization helping to promote the cause.

Father Capodanno, a Staten Island native who served as a chaplain during the Vietnam War and was killed in 1967, was declared a “servant of God” in 2006, when his sainthood cause was officially opened. If he is declared venerable, it would mark the second step in his cause.

In general for the next two steps, beatification and canonization, a miracle for each step must be accepted by the church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint.

Father Capodanno arrived in Vietnam during Holy Week in April 1966 and earned the nickname of “The Grunt Padre” for his insistence on living, eating and sleeping in the same conditions as the Marines — known as grunts — with whom he was serving.

He was killed by enemy fire while trying to shield a wounded corpsman with his body during an attack by the North Vietnamese in the Que Son Valley in central Vietnam on Sept. 4, 1967.

His sainthood cause was officially opened on May 19, 2006, by the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, with Father Mode as the original postulator. At that time, he began the process of putting together the “positio” — the primary document to be presented to the Vatican outlining why the person is deserving of sainthood.

Among the documents used for the “positio” was Father Mode’s book “The Grunt Padre: Father Vincent Capodanno, Vietnam 1966-1967,” published in 2000.

“As you can imagine, it is a huge document that includes everything; testimonials, baptismal certificates, timelines,” Father Mode said of the “positio.”

However, the dicastery suspended the canonization process in May 2022 and requested additional information about Father Capodanno, he noted.

Specifically, the dicastery wanted to know more about his life as a priest, “because there were questions about his obedience,” Father Mode told The Tablet. In addition, the dicastery wanted to know about his relationship with his superiors and whether his final sacrifice — using his body to shield an injured Marine from gunfire — was really a free spiritual offer from the heart or simply a patriotic gesture.

To answer the questions, Archbishop Broglio established a second historical commission (the first one was originally formed at the start of the canonization process), which got to work.

The second commission’s answers were submitted in May 2024.

As he awaits the dicastery’s decision, Father Mode said he is optimistic.

“I am always hopeful,” he added.

Mary Preece, vice postulator for Father Capodanno’s cause, said she is hopeful as well. “He walked among us and radiated Christ to so many,” she told The Tablet. “It is us who would benefit from naming him as a saint. But ultimately, God decides.”

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