Pope moves Kansas-born military chaplain closer to sainthood

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has advanced the sainthood cause of Father Emil J. Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain who gave his life ministering to fellow soldiers in a North Korean prison camp.

Among a series of decrees published by the Vatican Feb. 25, Pope Francis recognized Father Kapaun’s sacrifice as an “offering of life,” a category distinct from martyrdom that the pope established in 2017.

The category and its requirements for sainthood are explained in the apostolic letter, “Maiorem hac Dilectionem,” which comes from the Gospel according to St. John (15:13): “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

The recognition brings Father Kapaun closer to beatification, pending verification of a miracle attributed to his intercession.

Although Pope Francis remained hospitalized for treatment of double pneumonia, he authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decrees during a meeting Feb. 24 with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute secretary of state.

Emil Kapaun was born to Czech immigrant parents in Pilsen, Kansas, in 1916, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wichita in 1940. He initially served in his hometown parish before joining the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps in 1944.

Father Kapaun served as a chaplain during World War II and the Korean War. He was captured in 1950 during the Battle of Unsan by Chinese forces after choosing to stay behind with the wounded. While imprisoned, he ministered to fellow POWs, provided medical assistance and stole food to help alleviate their starvation. He succumbed to malnutrition and pneumonia on May 23, 1951, in the Pyoktong prison camp.

In 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Father Kapaun the Medal of Honor for his valor.

The Vatican said Pope Francis also approved the dicastery’s decision to approve the canonizations of Blessed José Gregorio Hernández, the Venezuelan “doctor of the poor” who provided medical care to the impoverished and was killed by a motorist in 1919, and Blessed Bartolo Longo, an Italian lawyer who founded the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei and died in 1926.

The Vatican announcement said Pope Francis had decided to convoke an ordinary consistory of cardinals to discuss their canonizations.

Pope Francis also recognized the “offer of life” of Salvo D’Acquisto, an Italian military police officer who sacrificed his life during World War II. Following an explosion that killed two German soldiers in 1943, Nazi forces threatened to execute 22 Italian civilians in retaliation. To save them, D’Acquisto falsely confessed to causing the explosion and was executed by firing squad.

The three other decrees Pope Francis signed Feb. 24 recognized:

— The heroic virtues of Miguel Maura Montaner, a Spanish diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of Custodian Sisters of Eucharistic Worship, created to promote Eucharistic worship and support impoverished churches, who died in 1915.

— The heroic virtues of Father Didaco Bessi, an Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Rosary, dedicated to educating orphans and caring for the sick, who died in 1919.

— The heroic virtues of Kunegunda Siwiec, a Polish laywoman who joined the Carmelite Third Order and experienced profound spiritual visions, devoting her life to prayer and service. She became known for her spiritual wisdom, with many traveling to seek her counsel and guidance before her death in 1955.

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