By WILLIAM “BILL” KIRST
For Cross & Flag – 70 years of serving God and His People
E
very year on Veteran’s Day a memorial Mass is offered in Pilsen, Kansas in honor of the small town’s most renowned citizen, FATHER EMIL KAPAUN, a Servant of God. Father Kapaun was a military hero in the Korean war who was captured by the enemy and died in a POW camp. Last year he was nominated by the Secretary of Defense MONSIGNOR JEROME SOMMER for our nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor. This year’s Mass in Kansas was particularly memorable because it was concelebrated by MONSIGNOR JEROME SOMMER, who was a classmate of Father Kapaun at the Kenrick Seminary in Saint Louis, MO. Both were ordained on June 9, 1940.
M
onsignor Sommer at age 95 is the second oldest living Catholic military chaplain in the country and has been a priest for over 70 years! (The retired Archbishop of New Orleans, Philip Hannan, is the oldest chaplain at age 97.) Monsignor Sommer now lives in the Regina Cleri home for retired priests in Saint Louis, MO but remains active in his priestly duties, and visits friends around the country. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI numbered him among the “Apostolic Protonotaries Supernumerary”, the highest level among the Monsignors. Monsignor Sommer’s vocation started in the sixth grade when he stated his intention was to follow his older brother – then
a seminarian – to the priesthood. After ordination he served as a hospital chaplain and associate pastor – then his life changed. In early 1945, the Archbishop of Saint Louis (Cardinal Glennon) sent him a letter instructing him to apply for a commission as a chaplain in the US Army. Weeks later he was in the Army and his orders read: “for a duration, plus 6 months”. For Monsignor Sommer the “duration” lasted 29 years! Months after commissioning and attending chaplains’ school he found himself on a troop ship in the Philippines and scheduled to be part of the invasion force on the Japanese mainland. The invasion did not happen as the Japanese surrendered. However, he did land on Japanese soil as part of a peaceful Army of Occupation. (continued on page 32) spring / 2011 /
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