By Christopher Miskimon
Father Emil Kapaun served as a U.S. Army chaplain during the Korean War. His acts of bravery sound almost like legends. He tended to troops on the battlefield and was captured because he refused to leave their side. On the forced march to the prison camp, he carried a wounded soldier. Once there, he tended to the injuries of his fellow POWs, often scrounging extra food for them or giving them portions of his own rations. If a soldier became sick, he cared for them and washed their clothes. When his North Korean captors gave lectures on communist ideology, he argued with them calmly, refuting their theories and statements. Kapaun strove constantly to keep up the spirits of the other prisoners. For all this he was treated harshly by his captors and died on May 23, 1951. For these selfless acts Kapaun was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
The story of this stalwart priest is revealed in this detailed biography. Kapaun touched the lives of many soldiers and they remembered him; their accounts are used liberally in this book. The volume also looks at current efforts to canonize Kapaun as a saint. The book will be of interest to anyone interested in the power of faith under the terrible circumstances of war
The Miracle of Father Kapaun: Priest, Soldier and Korean War Hero (Roy Wenzl and Travis Heying, Ignatius Press, San Francisco CA, 2013, 160 pp., photographs, appendices, bibliography, index, $17.95, SC)
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