Seems like a story worth noting.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A Kansas priest already under consideration for sainthood has won the endorsement of the Army's top civilian leader to receive the Medal of Honor.
The Rev. Emil Kapaun was a captain and chaplain in the Army in the Korean War and was taken prisoner in 1950 when the Chinese captured his unit. Kapaun continued to serve the men's needs, risking his life to provide them with food and water amid squalid conditions.
Kapaun, a Roman Catholic, died in a prison camp seven months later.
In one of his final acts as Army secretary, Pete Geren wrote Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., saying he agreed that Kapaun was worthy of the honor. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also endorsed Kapaun's honor.
Seven chaplains have received the Medal of Honor, including Vincent Capodanno, a Navy chaplain from New York, killed in Vietnam in 1967. In 2006, Capodanno was declared a Servant of God by the Vatican, a step toward canonization.
Helen Kapaun, the chaplain's sister-in-law, said her husband Eugene, 85, has prayed that he would live to see his brother honored.
"We hoped it would have been sooner," Helen Kapaun said Monday. "I think there were a lot of circumstances that had to be finished in God's hands. Now, it proves that he was a saintly, holy man."
Tiahrt began efforts to honor Kapaun in 2000 after reading about his life.
"It's hard to imagine living through something like that. He handled it like a saint," Tiahrt said Monday. "This is the kind of person that we ought to emulate."
Congress must approve legislation sending Kapaun's award to President Barack Obama, which Tiahrt hopes happens by year's end.
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