Seventy years after his death at the age of 35 on May 23, 1951, in a North Korean prisoner-of-war camp, the remains of Catholic U.S. Army chaplain and Medal of Honor recipient Father Emil J. Kapaun, Servant of God, are finally back home in Kansas. On Friday, U.S. Army Forces Command Chaplain Father Rajmund Kopec, CH (COL), USA, and U.S. Air Force Major Kristina Roberts, Father Kapaun’s grandniece, escorted the flag-draped casket on a commercial airline flight to Wichita from Hawaii, where the priest-hero’s remains had been interred among unknown Korean War soldiers at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific after North Korea turned them over to the United States following the 1953 armistice. In March, a U.S. government forensics team identified Father Kapaun’s remains through a DNA match.
Livestreamed Events on EWTN
Vigil for Father Emil J. Kapaun – Tuesday, September 28 at 8:00pm ET
Mass of Christian Burial for Father Emil J. Kapaun – Wednesday, September 29 at 11:30 am ET (encore presentation at Thursday, September 30 at 12:00 am ET)
