n the fall of 1984, Msgr. John Vesey was a Maryknoll missionary working with the indigenous people of southwestern Guatemala, but he became deathly ill with pneumonia. While bedridden, he slipped in and out of consciousness.
In moments of lucidity he saw, standing over him, Sister Alba Estela Orellana and her fellow Carmelite nuns. The Guatemalan sisters helped him minister to the Tz’utujil people of Santiago Atitlán. But Msgr.
The cause for sainthood for Maryknoll Father Vincent Capodanno, a U.S. Navy chaplain killed ministering to wounded Marines on a Vietnam War battlefield, has moved slightly forward, say those advocating canonization for the man they called the “grunt padre.”
On the 55th anniversary of his death in Vietnam, Maryknoll Father Vincent Capodanno was remembered at a Mass celebrated in his hometown in a chapel that bears his name.
Members of the Father Capodanno Guild recently were startled by a recommendation from Theological Consultants for a “suspension” of the chaplain’s cause for sainthood. The consultants said more information is needed to support the new “offering of life” path to sainthood established in 2017 by Pope Francis.
For the way he lived, and the way he died, there are those who believe that Father Vincent Capodanno deserves to be beatified and ultimately canonized as a saint.
