Bishop Larry Silva blesses the casket of Father Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army Korean War chaplain and candidate for sainthood, during a memorial Mass Sept. 23 in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace. (Photo courtesy: Dann Ebina)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Father Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain, is pictured in an undated portrait. (CNS photo/St. Louis Review)
Hawaii bid aloha to Father Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army Korean War chaplain and candidate for sainthood, with an evening Mass celebrated by Bishop Larry Silva Sept. 23 in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace honoring the priest who died 70 years ago in a North Korean prisoner of war camp.
The occasion was the transfer of Father Kapaun’s remains from Punchbowl’s National Cemetery of the Pacific to his home Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, where a tomb has been prepared for him in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Among those who were in Hawaii to accompany the remains back to Kansas the next day were Bishop Carl A. Kemme of Wichita; Scott Carter, coordinator of the Father Kapaun Guild; Father David Lies, vicar general of the diocese; Ray Kapaun, Father Kapaun’s nephew; and the priest’s niece, U.S. Air Force Maj. Kristina Roberts.
Father Kapaun is remembered for his selfless and courageous service attending to soldiers on the front lines of battle and, after he was captured in 1950, caring for and bolstering the morale of his fellow prisoners of war while himself enduring a brutal captivity. He died in prison on May 23, 1951.
The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on March 4 this year that it had identified the priest’s remains among those of unidentified soldiers long interred at the national cemetery.
Hawaii Knights of Columbus guard the casket of Father Emil J. Kapaun, a candidate for sainthood, at a memorial Mass Sept. 23 in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace. (Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
In the cathedral, Father Kapaun’s remains were contained in a polished dark wood closed casket. Barely noticeable was a metal “dog tag” ID with his name punched on it attached to the rear handle by a small chain. A small table held a folded and framed American flag. On the floor by the table was a simple arrangement of lilies; on the other side, a lit Paschal candle.
Ray Kapaun said the return of his uncle’s remains left him “extremely emotional” and that he could hardly believe he was witnessing the return home of his long-lost relative.
He said the identification of the remains earlier this year was the “biggest surprise.”
“It was not expected,” he said. “I am very proud, but very humbled” to be related to so saintly a man.
He said Father Kapaun was considered a saint by many long before his remains had been found. He said his reputation grew with each story told of him by fellow prisoners of war who had witnessed his fearless charity.
In welcoming the congregation, Bishop Silva noted that this was the second time the bones of a saintly priest had been unearthed from a Hawaiian grave and given a cathedral sendoff back to his homeland. The first was St. Damien in 1936.
Bishop Carl A. Kemme of Wichita, Father Kapaun’s home diocese, speaks at the Mass. (Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
Everyone in the cathedral, including priests and bishops, was masked because of the coronavirus pandemic. Socially distancing only allowed about 75 people in the church.
Fourteen priests, including several military chaplains, concelebrated.
The liturgy included hymns in Hawaiian, English and Latin led by a single cantor. Members of the extended Kapaun family read the readings and presented the offertory gifts.
The homilist was Father Wayne Schmid, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita and a chaplain himself for more than 20 years who said he owed his vocation to Father Kapaun.
He said he had drawn inspiration from Father Kapaun ever since he read a book about him in high school.
“Father Kapaun is a saint for our times,” he said. “He is a model to be emulated by priests, by chaplains.”
“He has been an influence on my life the way he lived his life totally and completely” for Christ, Father Schmid said. “No task was too low for him.”
“He was Christ’s presence wherever he was called to serve,” he said. “Father Kapaun ministered as Christ ministered. He treated everyone equally and all the same. What better example for the world today.”
In remarks after Communion, Bishop Kemme thanked Bishop Silva for arranging the Mass to “send us back to Kansas with the grace of the sacrament.”
He called it “a momentous and historic occasion for our diocese.”
“How blessed I am to be here,” he said. “Six bishops (before him) had longed for this day. We have been praying for this and it has come to pass, the answer to our prayers.”
He said that thousands of people have been anticipating the return home of Wichita’s saintly hero. Father Kapaun is “truly a hero now all over the world,” he said.
Bishop Kemme noted that this was his first trip to Hawaii and joked that he discovered Kansas and Hawaii have nothing in common — except that now both are the “land of saints,” a reference to Hawaii’s St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope.
Of Father Kapaun the bishop said he was “confident in his powerful intercession,” which will be needed for the miracles required for his beatification and canonization. He said the potential saint already had blessed Hawaii with his decades-long anonymous rest at the National Cemetery of the Pacific.
Ordained a priest for Wichita on June 9, 1940, Father Kapaun served as a U.S. Army chaplain in World War II and the Korean War with the rank of captain.
Father Kapaun’s cause for beatification and canonization began in 1993, giving him the title “Servant of God.” His case is being reviewed by the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes in Rome.
At the time of this 2017 video, Father Kapaun’s remains had not been found. They are now back in his home state.
From an isolated grave to a place of prominence
Photograph of “funeral procession to U.S.A.T. Republic – going down Bishop St.” Photograph taken from the corner of Bishop Street and S. Beretania. People line both sides of the street watching the procession which includes military personnel and the casket accompanied by men dressed in dark suits. (Photo: Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America)
The bones of Father Kapaun are not the first remains of a potential saint to pass through the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace on their way from an isolated grave to a place of prominence.
Eighty-five years ago, on Feb. 3, 1936, the remains of Father Damien were similarly honored in the church with a solemn farewell Mass. His coffin, unearthed in Kalawao, Molokai, a week earlier, and newly encased in a gleaming koa casket, left Honolulu from Pier 5 on the U.S. Army transport ship Republic headed for a niche at St. Anthony Church in Louvain, Belgium, his birth country. The first stop was San Francisco where more accolades awaited.
Photograph of a group of men “placing remains in improvised hearse.” The men lift Fr. Damien’s casket into a vehicle parked in front of a church as a group of clergymen including Bishop Alencastre watch. The Bishop stands to the left of a man wearing a white uniform and a sword. He holds a biretta in his hands. (Photo: Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America)
That day, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported, “For 47 years, his body has lain in a grave at Kalawao, but it is now to go to his native Belgium whose king had transmitted to the United States the request of his people that the priest’s bones be returned there.”
Earlier, at the Molokai hero’s disinterment, Hawaii Bishop Stephen Alencastre said, “Today his native country, which gave him to us, claims him. His country desires to bestow upon him honors which cannot be given him in this remote island spot.”
The cathedral was packed, the newspaper said, with both Catholics and Protestants.
Another parallel: the Honolulu Advertiser that day wrote, “Also going on board the Republic today will be the ashes of six Army airmen who lost their lives in the crash of two bombers over Luke Field (Ford Island) January 21, to be taken to their families on the Mainland.”
