Servant of God Father Capodanno’s battlefield sacrifice honored at Washington Mass

Nearly 500 people gathered in Washington, D.C., Sept. 3 for a memorial Mass honoring Servant of God Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a Navy chaplain killed while ministering to U.S. Marines during the Vietnam War 59 years ago.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services celebrated the annual Mass in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the archdiocese reported in a Sept. 8 press release.

“This evening, we beg the Lord to free us from our small ideas and our limited conceptions that create divisions and build walls and make us compete against each other for medals and goals that will not last in eternity,” Archbishop Broglio said, according to the release. “We beg for the largesse of spirit that motivated Vincent Capodanno to give his all on the last battlefield of his life.”

Marines from Marine Corps Base Quantico and nearly 80 midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy attended the Mass. Tim Hanley, who served with Father Capodanno in Vietnam, joined the offertory procession.

On Sept. 4, 1967, the 38-year-old priest was ministering to outnumbered Marines who had come under attack by the North Vietnamese Army during Operation Swift in South Vietnam’s Quế Sơn Valley. Unarmed, he moved among the wounded before he was killed, as Zeale News previously reported.

In his homily, Archbishop Broglio then turned to the significance Father Capodanno’s possible beatification could hold for the Church.

“We long to see Father Capodanno raised to the altars—not because he needs the notoriety or something more lasting than the posthumous Medal of Honor,” the archbishop said. “Rather we believe that his heroism, his authentic chaplaincy, his goodness, and his example will serve to build up the Body of Christ, inspire other chaplains, and draw all of us more easily into that heavenly company in the Kingdom of God.”

Father Capodanno was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. His cause for canonization is now before the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.