WASHINGTON — A tribunal of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military
Services has wrapped up its nearly four-year inquiry into whether the life of Father
Vincent R. Capodanno, a Vietnam War hero and U.S. Navy chaplain, merits
consideration for sainthood.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who heads the Washington-based
military archdiocese, announced May 21 that the archdiocesan phase in the
Maryknoll priest's cause has concluded.
His announcement came at the end of the 23rd annual memorial Mass
celebrated to honor U.S. military members, living and dead, at the Basilica of
the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
The decision clears the way for the tribunal's findings to go to
the Vatican's Congregation for Saints' Causes for its review and a possible
decision on whether to advance the priest's cause to the next stage in the
sainthood process.
Archbishop Broglio has called Father Capodanno, who died in
Vietnam Sept. 4, 1967, one of the "great priest chaplains."
Father Capodanno, a Navy chaplain who served with the Marines,
died in Operation Swift in the Thang Binh district of the Que Son Valley. He
went among the wounded and dying, giving last rites. Wounded in the face and
hand, he went to help an injured corpsman only yards from an enemy machine gun
and was killed. He was 38.
In a biography written by Father Daniel Mode, an Arlington
priest, titled The Grunt Padre — Father
Capodanno's nickname — Marine Cpl. Keith Rounseville recounts how Father
Capodanno "was jumping over my (fox) hole, all the while exposing himself
to enemy machine gun fire to try and give aid to a wounded Marine."
"Chaplain Capodanno looked and acted cool and calm, as if
there wasn't an enemy in sight," the book says. "As he reached the
wounded Marine, Chaplain Capodanno lay down beside him and gave him aid and
verbal encouragement and telling him medical help was on the way."
Marine Cpl. Ray Harton also remembered how he lay bleeding from a
gunshot wound to his left arm. "As I closed my eyes, someone touched
me," he recounted for the book. "When I opened my eyes, he looked
directly at me. It was Father Capodanno. Everything got still: no noise, no firing,
no screaming. A peace came over me that is unexplainable to this day. In a
quiet, calm voice, he cupped the back of my head and said, 'Stay quiet, Marine.
You will be OK. Someone will be here to help you soon. God is with us all this
day.'"
In 2002, Father Capodanno's canonization cause was opened
officially. In 2004, the initial documentation for the cause was submitted to
the Congregation for Saints' Causes. In 2006, a public decree of "servant
of God" for Father Capodanno, a native of Staten Island, N.Y., was issued
by the military archdiocese.