On Monday, March 3, we'll discuss the 75th anniversary of the start of the Korean War--and most of all Venerable Emil J. Kapaun's brief, heroic service in Korea--at the top of the second national hour of the Son Rise Morning Show on EWTN, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.
On June 5, 1950, war in Korea was declared after Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. I'm not going to go too much into the causes and course of the Korean War in this post or the time we have on the air, because it's a complicated history, involving the Soviet Union, China, MacArthur, Truman, and M*A*S*H. The latter is all I knew of the Korean War for many years!
Venerable Father Emil J. Kapaun had returned to service as a Chaplain in 1948 at Fort Bliss and then went to Japan in 1949. He had previously served as an Army Chaplain in Burma and India in 1945 and 1946 and was promoted to Captain. After release from active duty, he returned to the USA to study at the Catholic University of America from 1946 to 1948, earning his M.A. in Education. But instead of teaching, he wanted to return to active service.
So Kapaun was in Occupied Japan with the Eighth Cavalry Regiment of the First Cavalry Division when the war was declared and he went to Korea on July 15, 1950. As the website devoted to Father Kapaun's Cause here in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas states:
During the next four months, Chaplain Kapaun tended to his chaplaincy duties with fierce devotion. All the while he experienced first-hand the horrors of the Korean War: hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers, men utterly exhausted and shell shocked from battle, South Korean refugees fleeing their homes, extreme heat and mosquitoes in summer and wet, rainy days during the fall, frequent lack of sleep and food, and the constant nerve-racking noise and confusion of battle.
He quickly earned a reputation for being a fearless soldier who risked his life to minister to the men fighting on the front lines. Along with praying with men in foxholes and saying Mass on the battlefield (oftentimes using the hood of his Jeep as the altar), Chaplain Kapaun would risk his life to administer the sacraments to the dying, to retrieve wounded soldiers, and to bury the dead--ally and enemy alike.
For rescuing a stranded and wounded soldier, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with a "V" device for valor.
When the Chinese People's Voluntary Army entered the war, however, Chaplain Kapaun and members of the Eighth Cavalry Regiment's 3rd Battalion were captured during the Battle of Unsan. Father Kapaun said his last Masses on November 1, All Saints Day, 1950 and he was captured on All Souls Day, November 2 and force-marched to Sombakal and then Camp 5 at Pyokton.
Until he was taken to the camp hospital in May 1951, suffering from a blood clot in one leg, malnutrition, dysentery, and pneumonia, Father Kapaun served the others in the camp physically, morally, spiritually, and sacrificially. He led an Easter Service (not a Mass) on March 25, and died on May 31, 1951. The men who survived the conditions of Camp 5 remembered his valor and service, and when the Korean War ended on July 27, 1953 with the UN Armistice they were released, they shared stories about him. They also brought back the Crucifix carved by Major Gerry Fink, a captured Marine Pilot, who was Jewish, when he came to Camp 5 after Kapaun had died.
As the diocesan website notes:
It is due to the dedication and determination of Father Kapaun’s fellow prisoners of war that we know of his story today. Already awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in battle, Chaplain Kapaun was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during and after the Battle of Unsan. After years of clamoring that this medal be upgraded, the President of the United States [Barack Obama] posthumously awarded Chaplain Kapaun the Medal of Honor on April 11, 2013.
I saw the Crucifix Major Fink carved every day when I attended Kapaun-Mt. Carmel High School here in Wichita, Kansas and have been to able participate in several events associated with the return of his remains in September 2021 (his tomb is in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception), and a couple of symposia on his service and Korean War history.
In March 2024 the Kansas Legislature passed a law authorizing a statue of Kapaun in the Kansas Capitol Building. On February 25, while in hospital for treatment of double pneumonia, Pope Francis declared Father Kapaun to be Venerable! Deo Gratias!
If you are looking for a different devotion for the Stations of Cross for Lent, the office promoting his cause has a booklet with meditations based on Chaplain Kapaun's time in the prison camp. Please note: Intended solely for private devotion. Created by the Father Kapaun Guild. Imprimatur by Bishop Carl A. Kemme of Wichita.
Here's the update on the Cause for Kapaun on the diocesan website:
This Decree is a formal recognition that, after a life of virtue, Kapaun freely and voluntarily made the supreme act of charity: offering his life for his fellow prisoners of war. "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," says Jesus (John 15:13).
The publication of the Decree opens the door for the investigation of alleged miracles needed as supernatural evidence to further the cause. One miracle will need to be approved for beatification. A second approved miracle, occurring after the beatification itself, will be needed for canonization as a saint.
Over the years we have received testimony of several instances of alleged miraculous intercession by Father Kapaun. Some of these potential miracles date back nearly two decades, while others occurred very recently. One or two will be sent in detail to the Dicastery for Saints in Rome for review by both theologians and medical experts before papal approval is given. This process will likely take many years before beatification could happen.
Venerable Father Emil J. Kapaun, pray for us!
Image Credit (Public Domain): Father Emil Kapaun celebrating Mass using the hood of a Jeep as his altar, Oct 7, 1950
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