This week, the Father Vincent Capodanno Guild is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the "Grunt Padre's" arrival in Vietnam. It is a special anniversary, as it coincides with Holy Week, and is connected to a novena for the progression of Fr. Capodanno's cause for canonization.
The priest's nickname refers to military use of the word "grunt" for those who do the hard, dirty work of soldiering.
According to the Facebook Page of the Guild, there has been some recent movement of note:
Update on the Cause for Canonization for Father Vincent Capodanno
We have good news. Answers to questions posed by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome have been submitted and a review is planned for May. This is a very important review and Archbishop Timothy Broglio has requested prayers and approved a Novena for use by the faithful. The Novena and video recording of Father Daniel Mode (author of the Capodanno biography, The Grunt Padre) leading the prayers are available on the Guild website at www.capodannoguild.org/prayers/ .
Although we encourage the faithful to pray any day or time that suits them, we plan to start our Novena on Monday, March 30th, during Holy Week. You may recall that Father Vincent arrived in Vietnam during Holy Week in 1966. So, this Novena is starting during Holy Week 60 years later.
The intention of this novena will be "Lord, if it be Your will, continue to advance Father Capodanno’s Cause within Your Church, that his witness may strengthen and inspire all. Fr. Capodanno, pray for us!"
Who was the "Grunt Padre"?
Fr. Capodanno grew up in Staten Island, New York and after a year at Fordham, he entered the Maryknoll Missionary Seminary in Ossining, New York, and was ordained a priest on June 14, 1958.
Initially sent to serve the Aboriginal people in the mountains of Taiwan, by 1965 he was appointed as a lieutenant in the Navy Chaplain Corps and was assigned to the First Marine Division in Vietnam.
He is most famous for the following heroics during the Vietnam War, as narrated by Zoe Romanowsky for Aleteia:
In the midst of the firestorm, Fr. Capodanno made his rounds — giving Last Rites, comforting the injured and dying, and even giving up his own gas mask, all while wounded in the face and hand himself. As he went to help another wounded brother, just yards from an enemy machine gun, he was shot 27 times in the back and killed.
Fr. Capodanno was named a Servant of God in May of 2006 and his cause is currently under investigation and will hopefully lead to him one day to being named a saint.
