I’m only about, oh, a month late on this one, but good news like this keeps, and maybe there are some around here who haven’t heard.

Fr. Tim Vakoc, the Catholic priest who was chaplain to the 44th Corps Support Battalion in Mosul when he was critically wounded in May 2004, in late October spoke his first words in some two-and-a-half years. Fr. Tim lost his left eye and suffered a severe brain injury when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb; he was returning to the Mosul Airfield after saying Mass for Fort Lewis Stryker brigade soldiers. Military officials believe he was the first chaplain to be wounded in the Iraq war.

You can follow his progress at his family’s caringbridge.com page.