Armed with Faith

In the midst of the bloodshed and political rancor of the Vietnam War, the example of Servant of God, Father Vincent R. Capodanno, MM (1929-1967), stands out, for he was motivated neither by politics, nor by personal ambition, nor by military necessity. His was the dedication of Christ’s priest to the Roman Catholic Church and to others, whether as a Maryknoll missionary in the mountains of Taiwan, as a high school teacher in Hong Kong, or as a chaplain in the United States armed forces to men on the battlefield, dying to self to bring Christ to his Marines. In their fear, despair and loneliness in the military camps, and in the mud and filth of the battlefield front lines, Father Capodanno was there, even to the point of perfectly imitating Christ by his personal self-sacrifice to save a man in the heat of battle in Vietnam on September 4, 1967. This is his story.