EWTN will be airing The Miracle of Father Kapaun at 4:30 CST on Veterans Day, Friday November 11, 2011.

Friday, 05 August 2011 10:42

By Christopher M. Riggs

The big wooden crate of documents promoting the cause for beatification and canonization of Father Emil Kapaun has arrived in Rome, but Father John Hotze’s work isn’t over.
Nonetheless, he said he was relieved one phase of the project is complete.

“I had a sense of awe while thinking about what was really going on at the closing Mass. It was truly something, sitting there looking at the people I’ve met, those who were willing to work and promote his cause,” he said.

Fr. Hotze said he was also struck by the church containing people who believe their prayers have been answered through the intercession of Fr. Kapaun. “Even if you don’t believe in miracles, I think you have to admit that there is something there because of the number of people who were at the church.”

He said he was full of a sense of awe that he couldn’t put into words.

Years ago, Fr. Hotze said, when Bishop Michael O. Jackels asked him to lead the project, he said it was good that he didn’t know the extent of the project.

Friday, 21 January 2011 08:00

Holy paper pushers — Three seminarians studying for the Diocese of Wichita at St. John Vianney, St. Paul, Minn., have been compiling information for the cause of Fr. Emil Kapaun. From left are Curtis Hecker, Shawn Stockemer, and Tyler Hutchinson. Several other seminarians who assisted were back in school at the time of this photo. (Advance photo)

The basement copier next to the Roncalli Room in the lower-level of the Chancery was squeaking for several weeks over the Christmas break, but the seminarians using it gave it no rest. They had many more copies to go before their work for Father Emil Kapaun was complete.

Father Edmond Kline and a small army of seminarians have been assisting Father John Hotze in his work to prepare the mountain of paperwork for the cause of canonization of Father Kapaun. Father Kapaun, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita and a U.S. Army chaplain, died in May of 1951 in a North Korean prison camp. Fr. Hotze is judicial vicar for the Diocese of Wichita and the episcopal delegate for the Office of Beatification and Canonization for Father Kapaun.

Last June Fr. Hotze learned about another requirement regarding Father Kapaun’s communication and other records, “so I knew we had quite a job before us.” Much of the final work regarding the cause has been copying and organizing, he said.

Seminarians have been organizing and sorting all of the letters received by Father Kapaun, all the letters sent to Father Kapaun, and all the letters about Father Kapaun. Letters with difficult handwriting are being transcribed to make it easier for the officials at the Vatican to read. The seminarians have also been organizing all of the articles that have been written about Father Kapaun, a difficult task because there are so many, and many are duplicates.

“All of the originals stay in the diocese,” Father Hotze said. “But we have to send two copies of everything to the Congregation for Saints in Rome.”

Unfortunately once the basement copier gets its vacation, there is still more work to be done.

“Once we get all of this information compiled, then we form a master index of everything that will be going over to Rome with the information we send,” he said.

In addition, Father Hotze said he still has about 15 or 20 interviews to conduct that will be included with the information sent to Rome. “The interviews are of people who knew Father Kapaun. So, we still have plenty of work ahead for us.”

Father Hotze said he wasn’t going to guess as to when the work might be complete because he had already given two dates that he missed.

Being an optimist, Father Hotze said it’s not three strikes you’re out, “it’s that the third times a charm.”

Friday, 11 June 2010 11:59

Read the article on Father Emil Kapaun featured in the June/July 2010 issue of "VFW".

Supporters of the effort to authorize a Medal of Honor for Father Emil Kapaun of Kansas got another boost this week.

The office of Congressman Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, said today that he has inserted language authorizing the medal into the National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress will debate later this year.

The authorizing language will waive the provisions of current law that requires the Medal of Honor to be awarded "within three years of the date of the act upon which the award is based." Kapaun's numerous heroic actions as a U.S. Army chaplain, described for the last 60 years by surviving fellow soldiers, took place in North Korea in 1950 and 1951.

The defense authorization act is moving through both chambers of Congress. The House Appropriations Committee might begin debate as early as this week, Tiahrt's office said.

Kapaun, a farmer's son and Catholic priest from Pilsen, Kan., died at the age of 35 in May 1951 in a North Korean prisoner of war camp.

Fellow soldiers in the Korean War said he saved hundreds of lives, on battlefields where he ran through gunfire to rescue the wounded, and then in prison camps where he stole food and rallied hundreds of starving, freezing survivors to resist enemy brainwashing and stay alive.

If Congress approves the language in the Act, the Department of Defense and the President would have to concur that Kapaun deserves the medal, Tiahrt's office has said.

"The national honor and recognition earned by Fr. Kapaun for his heroism is long overdue," Tiahrt said in a statement.

"We want the Kapaun family and the remaining survivors who personally knew Father Kapaun to have the privilege of knowing his acts of courage and valor were officially honored. I will continue working to ensure this authorization language gets signed into law, so this great American hero can be properly honored by a grateful nation. Anyone familiar with the life of Chaplain Kapaun knows we should not delay in awarding the Medal of Honor to him."

BY ROY WENZL | The Wichita Eagle

Read The Eagle's coverage about Father Emil Kapaun

Audio File