Father Kapaun was a farm boy in Kansas who enlisted as a chaplain. He served in World War II and in Korea, where he was captured while heroically staying behind with wounded men and later died in a prisoner of war camp. After the war, soldiers who knew him and those who only heard about him, told stories of a man of courage and compassion that (we believe) prove he's a saint.
Stansifer interviewed many veterans, but he also had access to some amazing primary sources with stories of Father Kapaun I'd never heard, and I try to read everything about him.
I had a few quibbles with the text. I was disappointed the author used the term "native" to refer to the people of some Asian countries where Father Kapaun was stationed. These weren't quotes from letters or documents of the time, but author's words. It felt disrespectful to me. I also felt like sometimes it was difficult to tell if the author was quoting someone else. Sometimes there were quotation marks. Sometimes the text was indented. Sometimes an entire section seemed to be from an interview or a letter, but there weren't any quotations or indentations, so I wasn't sure. He also mentions at one point that a pope invokes papal infallibility at a canonization Mass, which is not official church teaching. (I'm married to a theologian, so I can't let that go.)
Despite my pickiness, this is an excellent book for the adults in your life. I ultimately decided my upcoming eighth grader (Level 4) would read A Shepherd in Combat Boots, which is sadly out of print. Both are good, but A Shepherd in Combat Boots is a little less graphic in its descriptions of war and the prison camp, so I thought it a better fit for a middle school student.
I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I purchased this book. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links.
