IFTTT Autopost 
Today’s missionary hero is Emil Kapaun, an American of the 20th Century.
Emil was born on April 16, 1916 near Pilsen, Kansas. His parents were Bohemian immigrants.
In 1940, Emil was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas. After serving in parish ministry, in October of 1944 Fr. Kapaun became a chaplain in the United States Army. With one other chaplain, he ministered to 19,000 service men and women. Later, he served in India and Burma and was promoted to captain in January of 1946. In May of 1946, he returned to the United States and was discharged from the Army. He then earned a Master of Arts degree in education at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1948.
In September of 1948, Fr. Kapaun re-enlisted in the U.S. Army as a military chaplain and left the United States in December 1949, never to return. After serving in Japan, he was sent to Korea, a month after North Korea had invaded South Korea. Fr. Kapaun found himself in the thick of battles. Continually, he served the men by celebrating Mass with the altar being the front end of a jeep, hearing confessions, baptizing soldiers, caring for the sick and injured, and constantly encouraging the men.
In November 1950, Fr. Kapaun refused to leave some men who were injured in battle. As a result, he was captured by the North Korean soldiers. He and other prisoners of war were marched 87 miles to a prison camp near Pyoktong, North Korea. In the camp, Fr. Kapaun continually encouraged his fellow prisoners not to give up hope. He dug latrines, gave away his meager food to others, and picked lice off the prisoners who were too sick to do it for themselves.
One of the things Fr. Kapaun was most noted for was his great ability to steal food for those who were hungry. In fact, a television movie that was made about him in 1955 was called “The Good Thief.”
Fr. Kapaun encouraged the men with prayer, good words, Scripture, and a healthy sense of humor. At times, he was brutally punished for disobeying orders from his captors. Sometimes, for example, he would be forced to spend the night sitting naked in subzero weather.
When his Communist captors forced him to into a mandatory re-education camp, Fr. Kapaun calmly rejected every theory they put to him. His Communist captors, knowing of his tremendous influence over other prisoners, were very afraid of him.
When the Chinese overtook the area, they were a little bit more lenient with the prisoners than the North Koreans had been. But Fr. Kapaun developed a blood clot in his leg in 1951. That, coupled with dysentery and pneumonia, made him weaker and weaker. Finally, the Chinese moved him to a hospital where he died of pneumonia on May 23, 1951. He was buried in a mass grave near the Yalu River.
Stories about Fr. Kapaun’s incredible heroism and powerful influence on the men began to be told overseas and in this country. Soon, hospitals and schools and military buildings and chapels and Knights of Columbus councils began to be named after him.
In 1993, Emil Kapaun was named “Servant of God” by the Catholic Church, the first step in the process of canonization.
On April 11, 2013, President Barack Obama presented the United States’ highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor—to Fr. Kapaun’s nephew, Ray Kapaun. As President Obama said, “This is an amazing story. Father Kapaun has been called a shepherd in combat boots. His fellow soldiers who felt his grace and his mercy called him a saint, a blessing from God. Today, we bestow another title on him – recipient of our nation’s highest military decoration.”
President Obama noted, as Fr. Kapaun’s military captors were sending him to isolation without food or water to die, Fr. Kapaun looked at the guards and said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The world has forgotten what courage really means. Courage is how many you save, not how many you kill.