The Rev. Vincent Capodanno who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in Vietnam was recently declared a Servant of God by the Vatican, the first step in the process of canonization. Father Vincent, left his diocese in Taiwan to join the chaplain service of the US Marine Corps. After attending Chaplain’s School in Newport, RI, he was assigned to a detachment operating in the Quang Tin Province. In the midst of a firefight, Father Capodanno was tending to a wounded medic when he began to draw fire from enemy combatants. While caring for the injured soldier, Father Capodanno shielded his body and was strafed in the back 27 times.

Archbishop for Military Services Edmund O’Brien will name a postulator, the church official who is to see out the process of canonization and fulfill the required investigations to achieve sainthood. Overseeing the process will be the Rev. Daniel Mode, a Maryland priest who wrote his doctoral dissertation and eventually a book, “The Grunt Padre,” on Father Capodanno’s life and story. That investigation process, the most important step in eventual canonization, can take years and decades to complete.

For a full report see http://domapp01.shu.edu/depts/affairs/Setonian.nsf/0/E83FC5AE2FE56C3A8525713A...