Chase Kear

Chase Kear (born c. 1989) had an inexplicably full recovery after a pole vaulting accident left his life in the balance. His survival has been attributed by his family to a miraculous intervention on the part of the late Catholic priest... [more]

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Chase Kear -- Vatican investigates miracle recovery

Written by JJ on

Chase Kear
Chase Kear came down the wrong way in a horrific pole vaulting accident back in October. Doctors didn't think he would survive, yet alone recover as well as he has.

His family is attributing Chase's recovery to the miraculous intervention of the late Catholic priest and army chaplain Father Emil Kapaun. If they're right, that means the Vatican will dub Kapaun a saint. They've sent a representative from Rome to investigate.

From the Wichita Eagle:
Prompted in part by what the Kear family has said publicly, and partly by a preliminary investigation begun by the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, a Vatican investigator named Andrea Ambrosi will arrive from Italy in Wichita on Friday.

He will investigate on behalf of the church in Rome whether 20-year-old Chase Kear's survival qualifies as a miracle; whether he survived a severe head injury last year in part because his family and hundreds of friends successfully prayed thousands of prayers to the soul of Father Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain from Pilsen, Kan., who died a hero in the Korean War.

Ambrosi, a lawyer by training, is coming here to thoroughly "and skeptically" investigate whether Chase's story is a miracle, said the Rev. John Hotze, the judicial vicar for the Wichita diocese. The church requires miracles to elevate a person to sainthood.