Part 2 of 5
by Bob Sullivan
The Father Kapaun Pilgrimage started 15 years ago with a small handful of people, including Father Eric Weldon, who knew a few things about Father Kapaun and who wanted to help his cause for canonization in some way.
On June 2, I joined 275 pilgrims and scores of volunteers such as our own John and Debbie Crotty, for the 14th annual Father Kapaun Pilgrimage. Many of us were on our first Kapaun pilgrimage but others were on their 14th pilgrimage as a pilgrim and/or volunteer.
I had first heard of Father Kapaun when Carmen and I took our family to the Midwest Catholic Family Conference about 10 years ago. I remember buying a Father Kapaun holy medal and a bumper sticker. After getting home, I started hearing more and more about the heroic priest from the small town of Pilsen, Kan. Then I heard that his remains had finally been identified 70 years after his death, and that his remains were finally going to be flown from Hawaii to receive a hero’s burial in Kansas. The more I learned about Father Kapaun, the more I wanted to honor him, and in doing so, honor the One he honored by his words and deeds as a priest and chaplain.
John Crotty, known only as “Dr. J” by the pilgrims, encouraged me to go on the pilgrimage. He’s been involved as a pilgrim and now volunteer since 2014. He often used phrases like, “cake walk,” “easy as can be” and “anyone can do it.” I think he spends a lot of time in the confessional. 1
Due to my bout with my pulmonary embolism and collapsed lung last fall, I was not sure if I was up to walking 60 miles, but echoes of “anyone can do it” bounced around in my head, so I signed up.
The first day of the pilgrimage called for a 22-mile walk, so I thought that if I could finish the first day, I could probably handle the next three. My buddy and fellow Bishop Neumann alumnus, Jimmy Noonan, joined me for the pilgrimage. He had walked much more than me, including a 22-miler a couple of weeks before the pilgrimage. My longest walk before the pilgrimage was 7 miles.
Our fellow pilgrims were from all over the United States from the age of infancy to what appeared to be people in their 70s (though I knew better than to ask). There were also many Nebraskans. Many of the pilgrims had very personal stories about how Father Kapaun had touched their lives, including some miraculous intercessions now being reviewed by the Vatican. One of Father Kapaun’s gifts (charisms) was his ability to relate to common people, both as a parish priest and as a chaplain. It is obvious that he still has this gift going into the eighth decade after his death.
The temperature never reached 80 on our first day, and the humidity was very low with a light breeze to comfort us as we walked. Past pilgrimages had not been so blessed.
As we walked, we chatted with each other, pilgrims on their first pilgrimage, pilgrims on their fifth pilgrimage, and volunteers who had been pilgrims in the past. We also prayed, observed periods of prayerful silence and reflection, and paused for the Father Kapaun Stations, as the pilgrimage chaplain, Father Hecker, read to us about Father Kapaun’s life, the purpose of pilgrimage, and invoked the saints as we prayed for Father Kapaun’s canonization. Most of all, I offered up the increasing discomfort as redemption for certain people I had spiritually taken with me on the pilgrimage such as my family, David, various friends, and those on the pilgrimage.
Father Kapaun and his fellow prisoners had no comforts on the Death March of 1950. They marched in bitter cold, under the threat of torture and death if their guards suspected the slightest resistance or weakness. Regardless of that, Father Kapaun carried the sick and injured prisoners nearly the entire way, with little rest, encouraging the other uninjured soldiers to take turns so fewer Americans would be executed for moving too slow. In contrast, we only had to carry a little water in our light backpacks, and we had the best gear, fresh fruit, energy bars, endless water, and great conversation and support from everyone around us. We also had a huge hot meal and our tents, chairs, showers, and cots, waiting for us at the end of the day. A blister, a pebble in your shoe, and some tired legs are certainly things to offer up for the redemption of others. Countless souls benefited from the redemptive suffering of Father Kapaun on the Death March in 1950.
We arrived at our first camp site at about 5 p.m. on the first day with Dr. J. and others cheering as we turned down the lane to a large Kansas farm. The host family had not only hosted the group every year of the pilgrimage, they had family members who had Kapaun stories of their own, including the miraculous birth of a grandchild when all the signs of an all too familiar miscarriage had the doctor certain that they had lost yet another child before birth.
After dinner that night, the nurses laid down a huge mat, and tended to all the blistered feet the pilgrims had. The lines were long, but not nearly as long as the patience and compassion of the nurses. I fell asleep at 8:30 and slept until volunteers woke everyone up at 6 a.m. to get ready for Friday’s Mass.
1 Actually, I’m the one who should go to confession. John never said any of these things, these were merely voices in my own head, much to Carmen’s dismay.
