(OSV News) — When Chase Kear first learned about Father Emil J. Kapaun in eighth grade, he had no idea that the Kansas military chaplain on the path to sainthood would change his life forever.
“He’s been around me in one way or another my whole life,” the 37-year-old from Colwich, Kansas, told OSV News. “And I never knew it.”
Nearly 20 years ago, Kear was in a life-threatening pole vaulting accident. He unexpectedly survived after his family, parish and people worldwide prayed for the intercession of Father Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain in World War II and in the Korean War. Their prayers came after Father Kapaun’s cause for sainthood opened in 1993.
Today, Kear’s recovery could contribute to the cause of Father Kapuan, who was declared “Venerable” last year. For the next step — beatification — he needs a miracle accepted by the church as having occurred through his intercession. In general, a second such miracle is needed for canonization.
Kear shared the story of his incredible recovery with OSV News nearly five years after Father Kapaun’s remains were returned to Kansas. He remembered injuring his head as a college student while pole vaulting — a sport where athletes use a pole to propel their bodies over a horizontal crossbar. Surgeons sprang into action and removed a third of his skull and roughly 10% of his frontal lobe in an attempt to save his life.
As people turned to Father Kapaun on his behalf, Kear surpassed expectations just by surviving. Less than two years after his accident, he began pole vaulting competitively again. He earned a bachelor’s degree and then a degree in structural aircraft assembly while working at a major aerostructure manufacturing company. On the 13th anniversary of his accident, he married the love of his life. Today, they have three sons.
The accident
Kear remembers Oct. 2, 2008: the day of his accident. A sophomore at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas, Kear flew higher than 14 feet into the air while pole vaulting during practice.
“I jumped off the ground and swung upside down, and it just rolled in like butter — it just flexed so easy,” Kear said of his pole. “I remember the thought going through my head, ‘This could be really good or really bad.'”
When he turned to land on his back, his head flung into the ground.
“I hit my head and saw that white flash … when you see stars,” he said. “So I was conscious for at least a small amount of time — long enough to feel my head where it hit, and it moved.”
The injury
He passed out, and when he woke up, he was in the hospital.
“The injury itself was not my skull cracking,” he said. “It was my brain smashing into the inside of my skull and essentially bruising my brain.”
As his brain swelled, doctors worked to relieve the pressure and prevent the bruise from spreading, he said. They removed a part of his skull that ran from the middle of his forehead to the back side of his right ear. They also trimmed his brain tissue.
Doctors did not expect him to survive the surgery, he said. If he did, recovery was unlikely.
The recovery
The prayers for Kear began immediately after his accident, when his aunt placed him on the prayer line at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Colwich. The parish, which had a devotion to Father Kapaun, prayed for the priest’s intercession.
“The Father Kapaun prayer in our parish, it was a prayer we prayed for the sick and dying on the prayer line,” Kear said. “If you were on that prayer … you were kind of on death’s door.”
Father Kapaun, a celebrated U.S. Army chaplain and captain who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2013, lived from 1916 to 1951. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, in 1940, he repeatedly risked his life ministering to soldiers. He died at age 35 in a prisoner-of-war camp at Pyoktong, North Korea.
People worldwide prayed for Father Kapaun’s intercession after Kear’s brothers started a Facebook support group page asking for prayers.
“I started doing things in hours and days that (for) most people with the severity of that injury, it would have taken weeks or months or years to do, if ever again,” Kear said. “One of the aspects of the miracle being investigated is the speed and extent of the recovery.”
In all, Kear spent more than a week in a coma and more than a month in the hospital.
A special connection
Kear first heard Father Kapaun’s story when the priest’s younger brother, Eugene, and his wife, Helen, spoke to Kear’s eighth-grade religion class.
Kear later learned he had many connections to Father Kapaun. Kear’s grandfather had been friends with Eugene. After his grandfather died, Kear’s family found a box of his newspaper clippings that revealed he had been following Father Kapaun’s story in real time.
More than a decade after his accident, Kear also bought a house that happened to be adjacent to a house Eugene built and owned.
The accident, Kear said, strengthened his faith “a millionfold.” Today, he still prays for Father Kapaun’s intercession.
“I just pray for him to be with me and to guide me,” he said. “Help me make the right call.”
In 2021, when Father Kapaun’s remains were returned to Kansas, Kear was there. He attended the priest’s funeral, which took place three days before his own wedding.
“I went from the absolute worst case scenario to where I am now — and it’s still amazing to me,” Kear said. “I couldn’t do that alone.”
Katie Yoder is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Maryland.
