The hero priest

Richard A. Sokerka

A memorial Mass for Maryknoll Father Vincent R. Capodanno, U.S. Navy Chaplain, will be celebrated Sept. 4 in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. on the 52nd anniversary of his death on a battlefield in Vietnam.

We highlight this yearly memorial Mass because it gives us the opportunity to reflect on the heroic life of this priest. His story is one that should never be forgotten.

A native of Long Island, once he discerned his vocation to be a priest, he decided to become a Maryknoll missionary. After his ordination in 1958, his first assignment was in Taiwan. After six years, he was transferred to Hong Kong. But in 1965, he felt a call to be a chaplain with the U. S. Marines in Vietnam, and after training, he arrived in Da Nang. His one request was to always be in the field with his fellow Marines.

On Sept. 4, 1967, a North Vietnamese Army, numbering more than 2,000 men, ambushed Marine Company D, and surrounded it. The priest was with Company M, which was ordered to help the surrounded Marines.

In the heat of this battle where the Marines were greatly outnumbered, Father Capodanno jumped into service, carrying wounded Marines to safety, going back and forth giving Last Rites to dying men and bringing in more of the wounded. When he saw machine gunners open fire on a medic, he rushed to him. At that moment, a bullet from the machine gun entered the back of his head, killing him instantly.

When his body was returned to Da Nang, the doctors found 27 bullet wounds in his body, and he was missing fingers on his right hand. Most of the bullets had entered his back, because he was busy tending to the men who needed him and protecting them from further injury.

In 1969, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” and in 2006, the Church recognized him as a Servant of God, to begin his cause for canonization.

All these honors are well deserved but the words of a fellow Marine point to why Father Capodanno richly deserves to join the Communion of Saints: “He gave his life. No one can do any more than that — that’s what Christ did … The only way I can justify it is that he did it because that is what he had to do, and if he is going to be a priest and a Christian there really can’t be any other way.”