Non-Catholics have been supplying much of the crucial testimony about the Korean War heroics of Emil Kapaun, a Catholic priest from Kansas who’s being considered for sainthood.

Most of Kapaun’s former prisoner-of-war friends are Protestants, and another is a lapsed Catholic who left the Catholic church years ago.

The Vatican is sending one of its top sainthood investigators to Wichita this weekend to examine more evidence the church says could solidify Kapaun’s candidacy for sainthood. Kapaun, a native of Pilsen in Marion County, died in a North Korean prison camp in 1951.

The former POWs tell investigators that Kapaun was killed by the guards not only for rallying them to resist communist brainwashing but for defying camp guards who banned all religious activities.

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Associated Pres Information from: The Wichita Eagle