The Case for the “Grunt Padre” Moves to Rome!

The Archdiocese for the Military Services announced at the end of May that the four year archdiocesan inquiry into the life of Vietnam War hero and U.S. Navy Chaplain Father Vincent Capodanno has been completed. The findings of the tribunal now go to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, for them to decide if his case will proceed to the next step. Father Capodanno was known affectionately as the “Grunt Padre” because he was always with his marines in the worst of conditions, laying his life on the line and sustaining numerous injuries to minster to them. As he lived, he died, on the battlefield in the Que Son Valley, during Operation Swift, bringing the sacraments to dying servicemen, gunned down by enemy fire just yards away.