Parish and school of Shrine of St. Jude to celebrate cause for canonization for Medal of Honor recipient. Fr. Emil Kapaun

May 06, 2013

Students, teachers, staff and parishioners of the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville will celebrate an outdoor Mass to honor Rev. Emil Kapaun, an Army chaplain during the Korean War whose cause for canonization is being considered by the Vatican.

Thursday, May 9, 2013
10:00 a.m.
St. Jude Regional Catholic School
Mass to be held in the main school parking lot
4820 Walbridge Street
Rockville, MD

Rev. Paul Lee, who is from Korea, is passionate about the cause for canonization for Rev. Kapaun. He and the associate pastors at the Shrine of St. Jude will be holding a special Mass for the sainthood of Rev. Kapaun outside in the main parking lot of the school. A local Jeep dealership will be providing an olive-colored Jeep to serve as the altar, just as Rev. Kapaun did.

A cause of canonization has been opened for Rev. Kapaun after many fellow prisoners of war detailed his lifesaving ministerial acts. As a chaplain on the front lines, he ministered to the dead and dying while performing baptisms, hearing confessions, and celebrating Mass from an improvised altar set up on the front end of a Jeep.

In April, Rev. Kapaun was awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House, the nation’s highest military decoration, for his heroism during combat at Unsan in November 1950 when his unit was attacked by Chinese Communist forces. Accounts say the chaplain went through enemy fire and hand-to-hand combat to provide medical aid and Last Rites to the wounded. Rev. Kapaun was captured after the battle at Unsan and died a prisoner of war.

St. Jude Regional Catholic School serves students in Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grades. The school’s mission is to educate the whole child delivering academic excellence within a Catholic community of faith, under the patronage of Saint Jude Thaddeus, the apostle, friend, and relative of Jesus.

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The Archdiocese of Washington is home to over 620,000 Catholics, 139 parishes and 97 Catholic schools, located in Washington, DC and five Maryland counties: Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s.

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