WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Catholic diocese leaders from Wichita are told it’ll take a miracle to get a Kansas native declared a saint after the Vatican chose not to declare the Korean War hero a martyr.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Wichita Bishop Carl Kemme met with Cardinal Angelo Amato in Vatican City recently to make the case for Father Emil Kapaun, a Pilsen, Kansas, native who died in a North Korean prison camp in May 1951.

Kansas Catholic officials had hoped the Vatican would speed up the process and make him a saint in the next couple of years. But the Vatican said there’s no proof Kapaun was murdered in the camp because nobody saw him die there.