Vatican investigator Andrea Ambrosi thinks Emil Kapaun has a real
shot at being named a saint by the Catholic Church in a few years.
As a lawyer, he says this with a few caveats attached: He has not yet closely studied all 8,268 documents that will
be shipped to Rome now, documents that tell the story of Father Kapaun’s
deeds and sacrifices in the Korean War. He will spend the next two
years studying them as he writes a report to the Vatican.
“But he saved so many people’s lives, lived his final days in a
prison camp, died so young . . . already by itself, it all says
something great about him that you don’t need to read. You know it.
“He showed that there was not just a devil working on the battlefields of the war, but something else.”
Ambrosi on Friday took part in the Mass and the ceremony at
the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Wichita that
closes the Wichita diocese’s investigation on Kapaun. Ambrosi himself
helped tie a big red ribbon onto the top of the 3-by-3-foot box that
will now be sent to Rome.
If Kapaun is beatified, it will take one more recorded
“alleged miracle” — other than the four the diocese has already reported
— to elevate the former Pilsen, Kan., farm boy to sainthood, Ambrosi
said. He would become the third American-born saint.
The process, if Kapaun achieves sainthood, could take four to
five years. But Ambrosi is confident that the documentation on Kapaun’s
case is far more compelling and detailed than other cases he has seen.
Ambrosi, speaking Italian, said through his translator and
assistant, Madelaine Kuns, that he has spent 37 years investigating
hundreds of reported miracles all over the world involving potential
saints.
He was leaving Wichita this weekend to go to Montreal to
investigate still another case.
Only six or seven of these people are
now saints or about to be.
One reason he’s excited about Kapaun’s candidacy is that it is
unique compared with the hundreds of other cases he’s investigated.
It
is much more action-packed and detailed than most of the other cases
he’s investigated or that are currently pending for the Vatican to
decide.
Most of the cases he has looked at involve “very holy” priests
and nuns who have miracles attributed to them. But the Kapaun story, he
said, is much bigger and involves far more deeds of heroism, sacrifice
and action.
About Kapaun’s chances, he said, “I’m not worried.”
He also thought it “incredible” that Kapaun has such a vocal
and devout following in Wichita.
Several Catholic parishes and many
parishioners pray for Kapaun’s intercession with God every week at
Masses, and many people call upon his intercession in prayers when loved
ones become ill.
Ambrosi will study the documents, which include dozens of
interviews, letters and testimonials from prisoners of war from the
North Korean prison camp where Kapaun lived for seven months before he
died.
After that, he will hand over his “posito” to the Vatican’s
College of Cardinals. A posito is as detailed and as rigorously
researched as any advanced thesis in higher education.
After that the documents and his posito will be evaluated.
There will be more work required, and another miracle will need to be
found.
But if all goes well, the pope in four to five years might
decide whether a well-remembered Kansas war hero becomes remembered for
something more.