Fr McGivney a step closer to sainthood
Fr. Michael McGivney, founder of global Catholic order the Knights of Columbus, will be beatified during a special Mass in the US later this week.
The beatification will take place on Saturday, October 31 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut.
It follows the recognition of a miracle through the intercession of Fr McGivney, whose family hail from the parish of Crosserlough, by the Vatican and Pope Francis back in May.
Once beatified, Fr McGivney will be given the title ‘Blessed’, one step from sainthood.
Fr McGivney’s mother Mary (nee Lynch) was from the neighbouring parish of Castlerahan, and she and married husband Patrick McGivney in Waterbury, Connecticut on November 22, 1850. Fr McGivney was born August 12, 1852, and founded the Knights of Columbus 30-years-later.
He was the eldest of 13 children, six of whom tragically died in infancy or childhood. Fr McGivney himself died from pneumonia on the eve of the Assumption in 1890, age 38.
Due to COVID-19 Pandemic, a festival of online only events have been organised by the Knights of Columbus around Fr McGivney’s beatification, beginning on Friday, October 31 and ending on Sunday, November 1.
Many of the events will be live streamed on the Knights of Columbus website, including the Beatification Mass on Saturday, at 11am Eastern Time (3pm GMT) at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford.
Several vigils will also take place at St. Mary’s Church, New Haven, where in 1882 Fr McGivney, then the church’s assistant pastor, founded the Knights of Columbus
Fr McGivney’s remains are interred within the church.
On Sunday, a Mass of Thanksgiving for the Beatification of Fr McGivney will be celebrated by Knights of Columbus Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Hartford Archbishop Leonard Paul Blair at Saint Mary’s Church.
Several of Fr McGivney’s surviving family will also participate in the various events.
John Walshe, a great grandnephew will contribute a reading, as will John’s wife Kay, and Fr McGiveny’s great grandnieces.
Bridie Harton, who is related to Fr McGivney on her father’s side, and lives near Kilnaleck, will be tuning into the festival of Beatification commemorations from Ireland.
She doesn’t have internet in her own home, so will make the short journey to her son’s.
Big day
All of the family carry with them photos of Fr McGivney, strong in their belief that he is looking over them. Bridie tells the Celt that she prays to Fr McGivney each day.
“It’s a big day coming. It’s wonderful news and wonderful that it’s happening too. We’re all just so delighted.”
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints recognised Fr McGivney’s intercession where an unborn child in the United States was healed in utero of a life-threatening condition in 2015 after his family prayed to Fr McGivney.
In 2000, an investigation into a miracle attributed to McGivney’s intercession was completed, but the Vatican ruled the event not miraculous. In 2012, another possible miracle was reported, which remains under investigation.