Acting as referee, Fr. Samuel Schneider officiates a tug-of-war match during the “Patriot Games” team-building-exercise competitions between companies within the battalion he serves as chaplain. He was asked to referee because of the spirit he brought to a touch football game earlier in the year. (Submitted photo)

Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald Staff

Ordained in 2017, Fr. Samuel Schneider, who was raised in Rhinelander, was sponsored jointly by the Diocese of Superior and the Archdiocese for the Military. After serving as chaplain on a Navy base in Japan, he was assigned as chaplain to a Marine battalion at Camp Pendleton in Southern California.

Going from a role more akin to that of a parish priest on base to what he has called “incarnational ministry” alongside the Marines during their training exercises, he has seen the truly invaluable role military chaplains play.

Besides the military chaplain’s spiritual role, he is still a member of the military and has willingly put his life on the line as every man and woman enlisted before him. Of special significance and a sense of the “communion of saints” for Fr. Schneider, is the fact he serves with the Camp Pendleton based 3d Battalion 5th Marines, the very same ground combat unit in which Servant of God Fr. Vincent Capodanno, MM, was killed ministering to wounded and dying in combat in Vietnam.

The Navy chaplain was killed on Sept. 4, 1967, during Operation Swift at the age of 38. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1969 and declared a Servant of God in 2006.

The youngest of a family of 10 children raised on Staten Island in New York, Fr. Capodanno was ordained as a Maryknoll Missionary priest in 1958. He served in Taiwan and Hong Kong before joining the Navy as a chaplain to minister to American forces in Vietnam. Fr. Capodanno trained at Camp Pendleton in 1966 before arriving to Vietnam during Holy Week of that year. He completed his first tour with the Marines in April 1967, then volunteered for a six-month extension.

Fr. Capodanno was known for sharing in the Marines’ hardships and sufferings. In early September, after one company of the battalion had been ambushed, another set out for support after 26 Marines were confirmed dead. Hearing about the wounded and dying, Fr. Capodanno put himself in the line of fire, offering comfort and ministering last rites. Although he suffered wounds himself during the effort, the chaplain refused evacuation and died later that day by enemy machine gunfire.

Archbishop for the Military, Timothy Broglio, who also championed Fr. Capodanno’s cause of canonization, will celebrate an annual memorial Mass for him on Sept. 4 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

More information about Fr. Capodanno, including a biographical DVD “Called and Chosen produced in collaboration with EWTN,” is available at CapodannoGuild.org.