Idaho State Chaplain

My Brother Knights,

I hope this message finds you well. Just recently I was with the delegates who were supposed to go to the Supreme Convention in Washington D.C..  However, with the CoronaVirus, it was a virtual Convention this year and we met up at a hotel in Pocatello. The last day we had a small retreat where we watched a few videos from the series on Formed.org called “Kapaun’s Men Virtue Series.” It is based on the life of Fr. Emil Kapaun, a Catholic Priest and U.S. Army Chaplain who was captured while giving aid to wounded soldiers during the Korean War and died in a Prisoner of War Camp in 1951. What an incredible man! Even though many of the soldiers knew they were going to die, Fr. Kapaun inspired them to keep going.  Many soldiers who survived said, “He gave us a will to live.” “Even in the darkest hours when he would offer a prayer service, he could make a mud hut seem like a grand cathedral.” Even in these hard times Fr. Kapaun lived his faith and brought these men hope, a hope that came from his relationship and faith in Jesus Christ. Even after Fr. Kapaun died in the camp, he told the men to keep on fighting the good fight, and they did to the best of their ability, many of them actually surviving the camp.

As we continue to live our lives in these difficult times, may we the Knights of Columbus bring hope to those who have lost the will to live. May we like Fr. Kapaun, allow the divine heartbeat of the Risen Jesus to beat again anew in our own lives, that we can share this hope with others. To borrow the words of Pope Francis, “In all those places where the grave seems to have the final word, where death seems the only way out. Let us proclaim, to share and reveal: Vivat Jesus! Jesus lives! He is living and wants to rise again in all those faces that have buried hope, buried dreams, buried dignity…. May we the Knights of Columbus allow His tenderness and His love to guide our own steps and may we allow the beating of His heart to animate everything that we do“ (Excerpt from Homily from the Mass of the Easter Vigil 2017 in the Vatican Basilica, Rome).

God Bless and Vivat Jesus,
Fr. John