WASHINGTON — Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights
of Columbus, may be an ideal prospective saint for the current age, said Carl
A. Anderson, supreme knight of the international fraternal order.
"We've been praying for years for this to occur, and finally
this day has arrived," he told Catholic News Service May 27.
First, he's a pro-life hero. The miracle recognized by the
Vatican paving the way for his beatification occurred in 2015 and involved a
U.S. baby, still in utero, with a life-threatening condition that, under most
circumstances, could have led to an abortion.
He was found to be healed after his family prayed to Father
McGivney. "The Vatican likes to be the one to discuss more details than
that," Anderson said.
The Vatican announced early May 27 that Pope Francis, who met
with the board of directors of the Knights of Columbus in February, had signed
the decree recognizing the miracle through the intercession of Father McGivney.
Once he is beatified, he will be given the title "Blessed."
Father McGivney (1852-1890), ordained a priest for what is now
the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, founded the Knights of Columbus at
St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882. The fraternal order for
Catholic men has become the largest lay Catholic organization in the world with
2 million members and sponsors a wide range of educational, charitable and
religious activities.
“When this announcement came out, I was getting emails from all
over the place,” said Grand Knight Joe Graf of Mount Vernon Council 5998, which
serves Good Shepherd Church and St. Louis Church, both in Alexandria. He noted
that almost every parish in the Arlington diocese has a Knights council
associated with it, and many use the Father McGivney Prayer during their
meetings. “To say we’re enthusiastic would be an understatement.”
The initial work on his sainthood cause began in 1982 on the
Knights' centenary. His cause was formally opened in Hartford in 1997, and he
was given the title "servant of God." In March 2008, the Catholic
Church recognized the priest heroically lived the Christian virtues, so he was
given the title "venerable."
His beatification ceremony will be held in Connecticut sometime
this fall — like all other events, scheduling is uncertain because of the
COVID-19 pandemic — “and sometime after
that, we'll be looking for another miracle," Anderson said.
Generally, two miracles attributed to the candidate's
intercession are required for sainthood — one for beatification and the second
for canonization.
Father McGivney, who will be the first American parish priest to
be beatified and has long been a hero of working-class Catholics, can be viewed
as a martyr of a pandemic. When he died from pneumonia complications at age 38
in 1890, it was during an outbreak of influenza known as the Russian flu in
Thomaston, Connecticut. Some recent evidence, according to the Knights,
indicates the outbreak may have been the result of a coronavirus.
Anderson praised Father McGivney's modesty and "dedication
to charity and unity and the way he embodied the good Samaritan" after
founding the Knights of Columbus, originally a service organization to help
widows and orphans, in New Haven. At the time, Father McGivney, the son of
Irish immigrants, who was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, was an assistant
pastor at St. Mary's Parish. He is buried in New Haven.
"Father McGivney did not want to be the leader of the
Knights of Columbus," Anderson observed. "He was at first the group's
secretary and then the chaplain."
Further, Father McGivney's legacy also includes "the
empowerment of the laity" through service projects, Anderson said.
"His work anticipated the Second Vatican Council. He created a universal
call to holiness that gave the laity a way to be more faithful Catholics. He
provided a mechanism for them to go into society and make a difference."
The priest's great foresight of involving the laity as leadership
of the Knights also was cited by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, who is
supreme chaplain of the fraternal order.
"In that, I think he looks like a forecast of the Second
Vatican Council, which indeed provided for a much larger role for the laity in
the life of the church, in shaping a just society," he told the Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan media outlet.
Archbishop Lori also said Father McGivney was a visionary leader
in creating the Knights organization as a life insurance company, because the
priest saw the need to help families left destitute when the breadwinner died,
as often happened in the 19th century.
"But he also saw the need, even more importantly, for men
and their families to deepen their commitment to the faith, their knowledge of
the faith and their participation in the faith," the archbishop said. “So,
he made the Knights a tremendous avenue for the spiritual growth of Catholic
men and their families."
He called Father McGivney a model parish priest who "knew
his people" and "he loved them."
"He enjoyed being with his people. He provided opportunities
for spiritual growth, but also for families and parishioners to come together.
He loved the poor and the outcast. He preached convincingly and
beautifully," said Archbishop Lori.
The archbishop said Father McGivney was "a Pope Francis
priest before there was a Pope Francis," a comment he said he thought the
pope enjoyed when the board of the Knights met with him at the Vatican earlier
this year and the archbishop presented a biography of the priest to the pope.
Archbishop Lori also noted the priest's connections to Baltimore:
He was formed for priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary on Paca Street and ordained
a priest in 1877 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin Mary by Archbishop James Gibbons for Hartford.
Contributing to this story was Christ Gunty, associate
publisher/editor of Catholic Review Media, the media arm of the Archdiocese of
Baltimore.