Future Saints from Staten Island?

Twice recently, I dreamt of Staten Island being a gateway to Heaven!  For someone who is not particularly taken with either symbolism or dreams, these were very pleasant.  In one, I traveled a majestic Italian path that opened on a beautiful lake reminiscent of Glendalough in Ireland.

Staten Island happens to be the final resting spot for two individuals who may well be canonized.  Brooklyn native, Catholic convert, and Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day, is buried in Resurrection Cemetery, just a few hundred feet from my own parents and other family and friends.  Staten Island native, Maryknoll priest, and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Father Vincent Cappadano is buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery.  Also on Staten Island is the Father Cappadano memorial.  Day and Cappadano are recalled as heroic, self-sacrificing, and ardently Catholic.

Though slanted, her Wikipedia entry does acknowledge that – after her conversion – Dorothy Day was opposed to sex outside marriage and “never deviated from The Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life from conception till natural death.”  However, it very much fails to convey her perspectives on abortion and contraception as assaults on the sanctity of human life and marriage/family:

• Catholic Worker, 1933: “….Three little pigs are crowded into a too-small cage, the case is brought into court, the judge’s findings in the case being that pigs should not be crowded the way subway riders are. And a family of eight children, mother, and father, are crowded in three rooms and the consensus of opinion is that they’re lucky to have that and why don’t they practice birth control anyway….”
• The Family vs Capitalism, 1936: “….in New York…, there is no diocesan provision whatsoever for the poor who are trying to observe the teachings of the Church against birth control and raise families despite their economic circumstances….”
• On Pilgrimage, 1963: “….Sex is a profound force, having to do with life, the forces of creation which make man god-like….”
• Chastity, 1966: “….the marriage act purged of impurities is the nearest thing to the beatific vision we can know…. “
• On Pilgrimage, 1972: “….birth control and abortion are genocide….”
• On Pilgrimage, 1980: “….When she [my sister] went on to exhort me on another occasion, that I should not urge, as a Catholic, Tamar, my daughter, to have so many children, I got up firmly and walked out of the house….”

Dorothy Day’s perspectives on abortion and contraception may not sit well with those who appreciate her pacifist and impoverished people’s leanings but lack a proper understanding and appreciation of Catholic Social Teaching.

September 4 marked the 55th anniversary of the death of Staten Island native and Maryknoll priest Father Vincent Capodanno, one month after it was recommended that his sainthood cause be suspended:

A New Yorker born in 1929, Capodanno was a U.S. Navy chaplain who served in the Vietnam War….When in combat he would put the well-being of Marines above his personal safety, moving among the wounded and dying on the battlefield to provide medical aid, comfort, and last rites.

After his 1967 death, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1969. His sainthood cause was opened by the Military Archdiocese, and he was declared a Servant of God in 2006. The Military Archdiocese sent the positio — a large collection of documents and evidence about Capodanno’s life — to the Vatican in 2020….

After joining the Maryknolls, Capodanno served as a missionary in Taiwan and Hong Kong from 1958 to 1965. After he successfully petitioned his Maryknoll superiors to release him to serve as a U.S. Navy chaplain, he arrived in Vietnam during Holy Week of 1966. He held the rank of lieutenant and took part in seven combat operations….

Among the objections raised by the consultants was that the positio shows little evidence of spiritual growth; that he was overly preoccupied with his appearance; concern that his order, the Maryknolls, had not pursued his cause; and that ongoing military campaigns such as the one in Ukraine make raising a military person in the Church inappropriate….

The Father Capodanno Guild, a private Catholic association that promotes the priest’s canonization cause, said the consultants’ recommendation is “not what we have been praying for” on its website Aug. 8. Nonetheless, it added, the decision is “not the end of our journey.”  (Catholic News Agency, 9/7/2022)

Is the failure of the Maryknolls to promote Father Cappadano’s canonization in any way related to discomfort with one of their own serving in the very unpopular Viet Nam War?  If so, they may need a better understanding and appreciation of the fullness of Catholic Social Teaching.

Staten Island and the Church should be proud of their associations with these two heroic, self-sacrificing, and ardently Catholic individuals.

I pray that Staten Island truly is a gateway to Heaven and that both Dorothy Day and Father Cappadano are soon canonized as saints.