The “Year of Father Kapaun” drew to a close with a Mass June 9 in the same chapel where the potential future saint was ordained 76 years ago.
The Most Rev. Carl A. Kemme, Bishop of the Diocese of Wichita, and the Most Rev. John Balthasar Brungardt, Bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City, joined with Wichita priests to concelebrate the closing Mass in St. John’s Chapel on the Newman University campus.
In his homily, Bishop Kemme told those in attendance that even though the year honoring Fr. Emil Kapaun was ending, the diocese’s mission to promote the cause for beatification and canonization for the Kansas priest and war hero would continue.
“Seventy-six years have come and gone since the day of his ordination . . . what has remained the same is the need for witnesses, witnesses to truth and justice, witnesses to mercy and God’s Love,” Kemme said. “And this Father Kapaun provided in a most excellent and a most heroic way.”
Bishop Kemme’s message can be viewed by clicking on the video above.
After Mass a dinner was held in the Dugan-Gorges Conference Center. During the program, Fr. John Hotze, the diocesan Episcopal Delegate for the Father Kapaun cause, gave a brief history of Kapaun and the process for his canonization.
For more information on Father Kapaun, see the following: St. John’s Chapel mural, Wichita Eagle history series and “The Miracle of Father Kapaun.”
