The Grunt Padre

 Father Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll Missionary, served as a marine chaplain during the Vietnam War.

At the time there was a written policy that if a soldier received three purple hearts, he would be sent home within 48 hours.

On September 4, 1967, Labor Day, Father Capodanno was serving with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, when they were ambushed by the North Vietnamese. 500 marines took fire from 2500 North Vietnamese Army regulars. When Father Capodanno arrived on the scene casualties were high and he immediately set to work ministering to the wounded and dying.

Early in the day, an enemy bullet all but shattered his right hand. A corpsman patched him up as best as he could and called for a medical evacuation. But Father refused to be taken out, saying he had work to do.

A few hours later, a mortar exploded near him and ripped his left arm to shreds leaving it hanging useless from his side. Once again he was patched up and once again he refused evacuation.

He continued working, moving slowly from wounded to dead to wounded, using his left arm to support his right as he gave absolution or administered Last Rites. Suddenly he saw a corpsman knocked down by fire from a machine gun. The corpsman was shot in the leg and couldn't move. Understandably, he started to panic.

Father Capodanno ran over to him and positioned himself between the injured boy and the automatic weapon. It is an unwritten rule of war that unarmed chaplains are not to be fired upon. Nevertheless a sudden burst of fire from the machine gun riddled the chaplain from the back of his head to the base of his spine.

With his third purple heart of the day, Father Vincent Capodanno, the “Grunt Padre,” went home.

“Father C.” knew that to live as a Christian is to live a life that is constantly moving and active, a life of faith based on what God has taught us, and a life based on the knowledge that we will one day be called to account for ourselves. This is the life of a pilgrim.

Knowing who we are in God's eyes can give us a tremendous sense of inner peace and strength. This allows us to be faithful to the work God has sent us here to do, no matter how hard it gets.

We live here as strangers and guests, seeking a homeland that is beyond our present experience. But in receiving Christ we have been given a glimpse of our heavenly homeland, we know it is there and we know that one day we will reach it.

This is a truth of Christian life. We are immortal and what we do in this life will matter very much in the life to come.

God does not leave us in uncertainty. Although we may be severely tested in our faith, God has given us assurances of our final destination. If we are attentive, God provides us with signs to let us know that we are on the right path. But even so we do not put our faith in signs and miracles, but on the faithfulness of God who always keeps His promises.

And along the way we are given missions and assignments based on our gifts. We carry out these assignments best when we never lose sight of the fact that we may be called to account for ourselves at any time, when we live every moment with our eyes fixed on the light of eternity.

We can only maintain our sense of justice and righteousness if we look beyond this passing temporal world to the eternal embodiment of those ideas, the Living Lord, Jesus Christ.

Not all of us will experience the horrors and trials of war, but every one of us faces challenges and temptations and hardships. Each of us has a mission to accomplish in this life, in spite of the difficulties we encounter.

Pax Vobiscum

May God who has offered healing and strength through the hands of the His only Son, Our Lord, and through Christ's many servants, grant me the favor of His healing hand through the intercession of His servant, Father Vincent Capodanno, priest, missionary, and chaplain, who always sought to heal and comfort the wounded and dying on the field of battle. May I be granted this request on my own field of battle I pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

More information for Father Capodanno's Cause for Canonization may be found at www.Capodannoguild.org