Military chaplain cleared for possible sainthood

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A military chaplain who was killed in 1967 during the Vietnam War has been officially declared a “Servant of God,” which sets him on a path to possible sainthood.

Vincent Capodanno, popularly known as “the Grunt Padre,” received the designation during a Mass May 21 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Father Vincent, as he was known to his eight siblings, was a Maryknoll missionary who left the safety of a parish in Taiwan in 1966 to serve as a chaplain in Vietnam. Sixteen months after he arrived in the country, he was killed while caring for a wounded Marine in a raging battle. To be named a saint, Capodanno’s intercession would have to be found responsible for two miracles.