Holy See Decrees the “Offering of Life” of Korean War Hero Father Emil J. Kapaun

WASHINGTON, DC — The Catholic Church now recognizes the “offering of life” of the Venerable Father Emil J. Kapaun, CH (CPT), USA, a U.S. Army chaplain who suffered an agonizing death 75 years ago in a North Korean Prisoner of War (POW) camp at the service of fellow captive soldiers. On Monday, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree that Father Kapaun “offered his life” prematurely out of Christian charity. The decree opens the path forward for Father Kapaun’s Beatification.

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D, Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, commented:  "It was a great joy to read the news this morning of the approval by the Bishop of Rome that Father Kapaun indeed sacrificed his life here in order to give life to others.  At the Archdiocese we are looking forward to the next steps in this process to offer another witness of faith for the Church universal."

Father Kapaun died on May 23, 1951, incarcerated, six months after he and members of the Army’s 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division were taken prisoner in battle by Chinese communists at Unsan, Korea. His fellow prisoners remember the fearless priest from Pilsen, KS, in the Diocese of Wichita, for the way he intervened to save the life of a wounded U.S. soldier: the soldier was lying in a ditch as an enemy combatant stood over him aiming to fire a fatal shot; Father Kapaun nudged the gun barrel aside, picked up the soldier, and carried him by shoulder on a long wintry march to the POW camp, where he gave some of his own clothes to warm those shivering in the cold; and he snuck past guards to forage rice and potatoes from surrounding fields as his fellow war prisoners starved on tiny rations of millet, corn, and birdseed during their long months of captivity.

Father Kapaun posthumously received the Medal of Honor in 2013.