Priest with Cavan links beatified
A priest whose parents hailed from the parish of Crosserlough has been beatified by Pope Francis.
The parents of Fr. Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, came from the Drumkilly area. His mother was from the neighbouring parish of Castlerahan. The couple married in Waterbury, Connecticut on November 22, 1850.
Fr McGivney was born August 12, 1852.
He founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882 and establishment of a council in every parish. Today, there are over 15,000 councils across the world, with 1.9 million members promoting the society’s founding founding principles – charity, unity and fraternity.
In 2018, more than 450 pilgrims from the United States attached to Knights who arrived at St Mary's Church to honour their group founder's family's native parish.
Today, the Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic layman's organisation with almost two million members across the US, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland and France.
Dedicated to providing charitable services, including war and disaster relief, as well as actively defending Catholic values, the Knights have donated more than $1.55 billion to charity over the past 10-years. The Knights' insurance arm meanwhile, of which Mr Smith is Chief Officer, has more than US$110 billion of life insurance in force, and is backed by more than $20 billion in assets, placing it on the Forbes 1000 list.
The order is named in honour of the explorer Christopher Columbus.
Fr McGivney died from pneumonia on the eve of the Assumption in 1890, age 38.
The miracle recognised by Pope Francis involved an unborn child in the United States who was healed in utero of a life-threatening condition in 2015 after his family prayed to Fr McGivney.
McGivney’s sainthood cause officially opened in 1997 in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI declared the American-born priest a Venerable Servant of God in recognition of his life of heroic virtue.
A beatification Mass will be held at a later date, to take place in Connecticut.
Following beatification, Fr McGivney’s cause will require one more authenticated miracle before he can be considered for canonisation.
Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, who attended with the group when they visited Crosserlough, said on the group's website: “Fr. McGivney has inspired generations of Catholic men to roll up their sleeves and put their faith into action. He was decades ahead of his time in giving the laity an important role within the Church.
“Today, his spirit continues to shape the extraordinary charitable work of Knights as they continue to serve those on the margins of society as he served widows and orphans in the 1880s.
“Fr. McGivney also remains an important role model for parish priests around the world and left us a transformative legacy of effective cooperation between the laity and clergy.”