When thinking about reverent places to celebrate Holy Mass, the hood of a battered Willys Jeep in the middle of a muddy cornfield might seem, at first glance, near the bottom of the list.
The setting today seems very unusual to us, but in the midst of the brutality and misery of the Korean War, it showed how Venerable Emil Kapaun did his best to feed the souls of American soldiers while serving alongside them as their chaplain.
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The iconic “Jeep Mass” photo, the last known photograph of Father Kapaun—who would die a few months later in a Chinese prison camp—turns 75 this month, taken on October 7, 1950, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The photo stands as one of the most well-known and beloved images of its protagonist, Father Kapaun, born in Kansas (United States), who is well on his way to being declared a saint.
Scott Carter, coordinator of the Father Kapaun Guild in Wichita, Kansas, told the National Catholic Register that the “Jeep Mass” photo is one of the only dated photographs of Father Kapaun in Korea. It was taken in a field on the South Korean side of the border with North Korea, less than a month before Father Kapaun was taken prisoner.
In the image, Fr. Kapaun is standing in position praying (“with hands outstretched”), in front of his kneeling assistant, Private Patrick Schuler, during Mass; He wears not only his priestly vestments, but also muddy combat boots. As chaplain, Father Kapaun provided the sacraments to the men in his care wherever and however he could.
Far from being a cardboard image from another century, the content of the photo, in a very real way, is still alive today. The daughter of the kneeling soldier in the photograph, Peggy, comes and walks around the Pilgrimage of Father Kapaun each year in honor of Father Kapaun, Carter said. And throughout the country still held occasionally “Jeep Masses” to honor Father Kapaun and give thanks for his holy priesthood and sacrifice.
“I think in many ways, (Fr. Kapaun’s message) is hope. And it’s not something we talk about, but hope is a fundamental need for us as human beings. Even to face each day, we need it. And a lot of times we can get it from our environment, but for a lot of people it’s hard to find it in our time or in our culture. … He was determined to bring it everywhere,” Carter said.
Pursuing the priesthood
Emil Kapaun was born in 1916 and grew up relatively poor on a farm in the rural town of Pilsen, Kansas, about an hour north of Wichita. The striking—and at that time totally new— parish church of San Juan Nepomuceno It was the parish of Kapaun and it nourished his Catholic faith and his interest in the priesthood.
From a young age, Father Kapaun was enthusiastic about the idea of being a missionary in distant lands, but finally, with the advice of his parish priest, he decided to seek the parish priesthood. Upon his ordination in 1940, the bishop assigned Father Kapaun to his home parish in Pilsen, but he soon felt the call to serve his fellow young men in the Army when the United States entered World War II.
It took him several years to convince his bishop to allow him to enter the Army and serve as a chaplain, and he was eventually sent to Burma and India in the final years of the war, although he saw little combat. However, he attended to the spiritual needs of the soldiers and showed great humility, not wanting to be recognized for what he did, but doing it because it was the right thing to do.
After World War II ended, the bishop sent Father Kapaun to Washington, DC, to earn a master’s degree in education at The Catholic University of America. He served for more than a year at an Army base in Texas before being sent to Japan in 1949 as part of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, as tensions boiled on the Korean Peninsula.
When war broke out on the peninsula in late June 1950, Father Kapaun was among the first American troops sent. He gave himself tirelessly and cheerfully to the men in his care and endured a series of near-death experiences, including a time when a sniper shot his tobacco pipe out of his mouth. At one point, his Mass equipment and Jeep were destroyed, and Father Kapaun began carrying the Blessed Sacrament, confession stole, holy oils, and equipment to celebrate Mass wherever he went.
On the night of November 1, All Saints’ Day, Father Kapaun’s unit was ambushed by an overwhelmingly superior force of Chinese troops at the Battle of Unsan. It is likely that Father Kapaun saved 30 or 40 men that night by pulling them out of the trenches and to safety.
Several of the men, including Father Kapaun, were eventually captured and taken to a prison camp in Pyoktong, North Korea. That winter, the men endured hunger, freezing temperatures, and torture at the hands of their captors.
Many of the prisoners of war who survived the camp speak of the countless ways in which Father Kapaun physically and materially helped his comrades, but above all they praise his unwavering hope and optimism.
“Everything he did to instill hope in the men, from the most basic level of taking care of their needs—stealing food for them, feeding them when they themselves didn’t want to eat, or picking lice off their bodies—all those things taught them a little bit about their dignity and that they were worth it. Visiting the men, when I’m sure they were isolated and alone, and trying to just bring some joy or laughter with jokes; and obviously praying with them too, especially when they I wasn’t supposed to do it,” Carter said.
After seven months in the camp, sick and despondent due to malnutrition, pneumonia, and his tireless dedication to his companions, Father Kapaun died on May 23, 1951. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2013.
Like so many prisoners of war in Korea, Father Kapaun’s body was lost and remained unidentified for years, until March 2021, when his skeletal remains were identified among 866 other unknown Korean soldiers buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
After a triumphant but solemn return In the United States, Father Kapaun’s funeral Mass was celebrated on September 29, 2021 at Hartman Arena in Wichita. More than 5,000 people gathered to honor and remember him. Today he is buried in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita.
The Archdiocese of the Military Services He opened the cause for canonization of Father Kapaun in 1993, and the Diocese of Wichita took it up again in 2008. In February 2025, the late Pope Francis declared Father Kapaun “Venerable,” meaning that he lived a life of heroic virtues. If the Vatican verifies that a miracle can be attributed to his intercession, he will subsequently be declared “Blessed.” (A handful of possible miracles attributed to Father Kapaun’s intercession are currently being considered, Carter added.)
If Kapaun had not given his life for his fellow soldiers, dying in that prison camp, there is a good chance that he would still be remembered today—for his bravery and also for numerous other positive attributes. But it was the fact that he kept hope alive in the prison camp, to the point of his own death, that elevated Kapaun from “very impressive and inspiring” to truly holy, Carter said.
Today, Father Kapaun’s courageous and selfless love serves as an inspiration to Catholics everywhere, especially young people and Catholics in Wichita, where his image is almost omnipresent. As a “house” priest on his way to the altars, he offers the Diocese of Wichita a joyful and unifying focal point and a model to “cheer” and imitate.
“A lot of times people say that the sense of peace they have after praying with (Fr. Kapaun) is something very deep and powerful. And obviously that’s something that the men on the battlefields were also talking about: that he brought peace in the midst of all that chaos and suffering and fighting,” Carter said.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in National Catholic Register.
Jonah McKeown
Jonah McKeown is a writer for the National Catholic Register. He was previously a writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He has a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, radio producer and videographer.