Servant of God Father Emil Kapaun, Soldier, POW, Priest

In keeping with our CAT theme of honoring great Catholic Americans, the fourth of July brought to my mind the Servant of God, Father Emil Kapaun, whom I had first read about on The American Catholic website. The most highly decorated military chaplain in American history, Father Kapaun died at the hands of the Chinese Reds in a prisoner of war camp during the Korean War.

Early Vocation

He was born on a farm near Pilsen, Kansas, in 1916. The first son born to pious Bohemian parents, Emil was a hard worker who from his earliest years exuded every indication of a priestly vocation. He was very blessed to have devout parents who encouraged his vocation and to have a paternal pastor in Father Sklenar who helped him pay his way through the seminary in the tough times of the Depression. In fact, after his ordination in 1940, he was assigned to assist his pastor at his home parish in Pilsen. He also served as the Auxiliary Chaplain at Herington Air Base nearby Pilsen.

After assuming the pastorship of the parish when Father Sklenar retired, Father Kapaun began to grow uneasy about shepherding the souls of his relatives and of so many others that he knew from his childhood. The bishop, who had helped him through the seminary, sympathized, allowing Father Emil to volunteer for a chaplainry in the Army.

Army Chaplain

The twenty-eight year-old-priest began training for the service at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, in October of 1944. He and one other chaplain had 1900 servicemen and women under their spiritual care.

kapaunIn April 1945, Father Kapaun was sent to India and Burma. It was here that he found his life’s calling, with the soldiers, the missionaries, and the poor. Every month he would travel about two thousand miles, offering Mass and hearing confessions, in tents, or even on the hood of his jeep; wherever the troops were scattered he found a way to reach them. In a letter to his bishop he revealed how happy he was and how close he felt to God. Within just a year’s time, with their own money and the generous gifts of the troops, the American chaplains were even able to build a church and a school for missionary priests and nuns.

In January of 1946, Father Kapaun was promoted to Captain. In May, however, with the end of the campaign in Burma, he was ordered to return to the states with the soldiers.

The next two years were a sacrifice of holy obedience. The veteran chaplain who longed to be with the troops in the field had to sit in a classroom at Catholic University in Washington D.C. and earn an M.A. degree in education in order to have the accreditation to teach in diocesan high schools. So, for about two years, Father Kapaun was back doing parish work, this time at St. John Church in Spearville, Kansas. But there was trouble brewing in Korea, and with the word that the United States was going to commit to the defense of South Korea against the Communist North, Chaplain Captain Kapaun received permission to re-enlist in the Army.

In 1950, there were 80,000 American troops in occupied Japan. These men didn’t enlist to defend their country from enemy attack, but because, being poor and uneducated, the military provided better employment than they could find in the marketplace. These young men did not realize they would be called to fight in Korea in a conflict that would take 33,000 of their lives.

Korea

Although he served a few months with these soldiers in Japan, Father Kapaun left with the bulk of them for Korea in July of 1950. Because the Reds in the North had for a long time prepared for their invasion of the South, the United Nations and South Korean forces were often in retreat before them. When the American troops became more organized they put an end to these losses and moved the offensive northward. Victory would have come easy had not the Chinese Army come to the aid of their comrades.

The war now grew more fierce and deadly. Tens of thousands died in defense of freedom and in opposition to the cruel tyranny that follows Communist aggression. Father Emil served with the 35th Brigade who trained at Fort Bliss, Texas. These men were fierce combatants and always had their place in the front lines. His fellow soldiers recalled later how courageous and charitable Father Kapaun was. He would find out where other troops were and, whenever possible, he would take off in his jeep or on foot to minister to them, hear confessions, baptize converts, pray with the distraught, and if possible say Mass. Offering Mass became a problem because many times his Mass kit and jeep (a makeshift altar) would be lost to enemy fire. Most of his time was now dedicated to preparing the mortally wounded to meet God. He gave last rites and final Holy Communion to thousands of the dying. Twice bullets came so close to blowing his brains out that they shattered the cigarette he had hanging out of his mouth. When things were a little less risky he would be seen carrying water and fresh fruit on his back into a camp of dehydrated soldiers, always doing whatever it took, whatever he could, to alleviate the suffering of others. In September of 1950, Chaplain Kapaun was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for bravery. Two months later he was a prisoner of war.

Prisoner of War

It happened during an offensive that took about three hundred of the 8th Calvary Regiment across the border into the North in pursuit of the enemy. The Reds, however, vastly outnumbered them and, circling around, surrounded them on every side. The courageous and holy chaplain had the highest respect of his men and when he counseled them to surrender they abided by his prudent advice.

It was November and the frigid air that changes the Korean mountains and valleys into a frozen wasteland was already biting to the bones. A two week march took the captured Americans 300 miles deep into North Korea to a place they called “The Valley.” During this exhausting march, when the soldiers were allowed to rest, Father Emil would stay on his frozen feet, walking among them, praying with and encouraging them.

The prison camp, number five, was a place fit for animals not men. The buildings were roughshod hut constructions with little or no heat. Temperatures dropped to forty below zero at times and, with no winter clothes or blankets, many froze to death in their sleep. The little food that they were given was anything but nutritious and the prisoners who survived the cold quickly became ill. For the sick there were no medicines. Of the 3000 American soldiers who ended up at this camp from 1950-1951, 1200 died from the cold, starvation, or sickness.

Keeping His Men Alive

Father knew that if he didn’t get food for his men they would all die. So, he learned how to move with stealth, like a cat in the dark, make off with whatever edibles he could collect, and bring them back to his starving family. On these excursions all the men would pray to the “Good Thief,” Saint Dismas, for the brave Father’s safe return — if he were caught the punishment could be death. Encouraged by their good padre, a few other brave soldiers also became skilled in holy thievery, never venturing on a mission without first invoking Saint Dismas.

Trading his watch with a guard for a blanket, the holy chaplain made socks out it for the weakest of his fellow captives. No one would know, judging from Father Kapaun’s appearance, that here was a well-educated Catholic priest who could have opted for a far easier life in a comfortable parish rectory. Not realizing who Captain Kapaun was, the Communists were not suspicious when he would make his way from hut to hut to visit the sick and secretly pray with them. A fellow prisoner who survived “The Valley” described the chaplain:

In his soiled and ragged fatigues, with his scraggly beard and his queer woolen cap, made of the sleeve of an old GI sweater, pulled down over his ears, he looked like any other half-starved prisoner. But there was something in his voice and bearing that was different — with dignity, a composure, a serenity that radiated from him like a light. Wherever he stood was holy ground, and the spirit within him — a spirit of reverence and abiding faith — went out to the silent listening men and gave them hope and courage and a sense of peace.

Final Surrender

Early in 1951, the prisoners were relocated. The new camp was worse than “The Valley.” Growing weak himself from all his self-sacrificing activity, Father Emil’s wobbly legs caused him to take a misstep and sprain an ankle. The priest, however, continued to hobble around in this condition. The sprain was severe, so severe that its abuse soon caused the ankle to become infected. A doctor from the brigade ordered Chaplain Kapaun to stay off his feet and rest. His fellow prisoners brought him aspirin, extra food, and heated bricks. Still, the infection grew more inflamed. Diarrhea ensued, and finally pneumonia.

The Red guards had no mercy for prisoners who became, in their cold eyes, too sick for care. They took Father Kapaun away to a place in the camp that they called “the hospital.” The fact that no one came out of this hellhole alive earned it another name from the prisoners. They called it “the dying place.” This is where our great hero spent the last two days of his life — in a dark, dirty room, lying on a mud floor, with no human consolation this side of heaven. On May 23, 1951, Father Emil Kapaun’s magnanimous soul was taken by the angels into the joy of the beatific vision.

With the end of the war, repatriated American prisoners told of the horrors of their ordeals. One of them who witnessed the zeal and charity of Father Kapaun testified that he was “a hero” to his fellow prisoners, “their admired and beloved ‘padre.’ He kept up the GIs morale, and most of all [he caused] a lot of men to become good Catholics.”

Besides the Bronze Star Medal Father Kapaun also received the Distinguished Service Cross, as well as many other military medals and civilian awards; but none of these compare to his being declared a Servant of God in 1993. Last year, on June 29, his official Cause for Canonization was opened by the diocese of Wichita, Kansas. Two Wichita area families are crediting Father Kapaun with miraculous cures. One of them involved the unexplainable survival of Chase Kear who suffered massive head injuries from a pole vaulting accident. When questioned by lawyer, Andrea Ambrosi, a Vatican investigator, Chase’s nuerosurgeon, Doctor Raymond Grundmeyer, told him that he considered the young man’s survival a miracle.

There are two other United States born male candidates for sainthood whose Causes are advancing in Rome: Venerable Solanus Casey, whose Cause should move quickly considering the number of miracles credited to his intercession, and Servant of God, Father Nelson Baker, from Buffalo, NY.