IFTTT Autopost 
Today, we look at a 20thCentury missionary hero, Vincent Robert Capodanno.
Vincent was born in February of 1929 in Staten Island, New York. In 1957, he became a Maryknoll missionary priest.
After serving in the mountains of Taiwan and in Hong Kong, Fr. Vince received permission to become a military chaplain. After completing chaplaincy school, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy Chaplain Corps and sent to be a priest for the U.S. Marines in Vietnam in 1966.
Fr. Vince had a fierce loyalty to the Marines he served, and he always wanted to be with them whenever and wherever they needed him. In time, he earned the nickname “The Grunt Padre.”
As Americans were celebrating Labor Day in the United States on September 4, 1967, Fr. Vince went with the Marines who were being decimated by North Vietnamese soldiers. Though he was badly wounded, he refused to leave. Instead, he anointed the wounded and cared for the dying until he, too, was killed in the gunfire. He was 38-years old.
In December of 1968, the Secretary of the Navy notified Fr. Vincent’s family that he was being given the Medal of Honor. The citation reads, in part:
“In response to reports that the 2nd Platoon of M Company was in danger of being overrun by a massed enemy assaulting force, Lt. Capodanno left the relative safety of the company command post and ran through an open area raked with fire, directly to the beleaguered platoon. Disregarding the intense enemy small-arms, automatic-weapons, and mortar fire, he moved about the battlefield administering last rites to the dying and giving medical aid to the wounded. When an exploding mortar round inflicted painful multiple wounds to his arms and legs, and severed a portion of his right hand, he steadfastly refused all medical aid. Instead, he directed the corpsmen to help their wounded comrades and, with calm vigor, continued to move about the battlefield as he provided encouragement by voice and example to the valiant Marines. Upon encountering a wounded corpsman in the direct line of fire…he was struck down by a burst of machine gun fire. By his heroic conduct on the battlefield, and his inspiring example, Lt. Capodanno upheld the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the cause of freedom.”
Fr. Capodanno has been honored by having a ship named after him as well as chapels and monuments in Iraq, Vietnam, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and several American states. The biggest honor, though, was being named “Servant of God” on May 19, 2006. That means that Fr. Capodanno is now on the way to becoming a Saint of the Catholic Church. You can read more about this Maryknoll missionary priest in the excellent book by Fr. Daniel Mode called The Grunt Padre.
