Father Patrick Peyton’s Cause Takes Major Step Forward

The official positio for ‘The Rosary Priest’ was delivered to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome in April.

Father Patrick Peyton
Father Patrick Peyton (photo: Congregation of Holy Cross)

EASTON, Mass. — On April 21, just weeks before the 23rd anniversary of the death of Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton on June 3, the canonization cause for the Holy Cross priest took another step forward: The official positio for his cause was delivered to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

Holy Cross Father Willy Raymond, president of Holy Cross Family Ministries — along with Holy Cross Father David Marcham, vice postulator for the cause, and postulator Andrea Ambrosi — delivered the positio, the official position document, to the Vatican congregation. Joining them in the presentation was Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines.

“That’s the primary source now used by the congregation to see if Father Peyton lived a life of heroic virtue and sanctity,” Father Raymond said, explaining the positio.

Now, theologians will review the information and present their opinion to the congregation’s cardinals, who will decide on the sanctity and life of Father Peyton. If the congregation reaches a favorable decision, the Church will declare him “Venerable.” The next step on the cause is beatification.

Known by millions the world over as “The Rosary Priest,” Father Peyton served families and their spiritual needs during 51 years of priesthood, urging them to pray together every day, especially the Rosary, which he promoted in every form of media and in Rosary crusades in 40 countries. Those crusades drew 28 million people, with events in Brazil and the Philippines each drawing 2 million people.

His famous motto — “The family that prays together stays together” — became a motto and rallying call for innumerable families. Today, it remains recognizable to millions around the globe. Also popular was his second motto — “A world at prayer is a world at peace.”

 

A Long Route

The Congregation of Holy Cross in which Father Peyton served took the first formal step in opening his canonization cause in June 1997, as soon as the usual Vatican-required five-year waiting period after the candidate’s death was completed — “unless you’re a Mother Teresa or John Paul II and fast-tracked,” explained Father Raymond,

By 2001, Father Peyton was named a “Servant of God.” In 2003, Bishop George Coleman of Fall River, Mass., appointed tribunals to review Father Peyton’s work, virtue and reputation for holiness.

Five years later, in 2008, because the scope of the examination for the cause due to Father Peyton’s worldwide travels was beyond the means of the small diocese, the Holy See transferred its continuation to the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

After six years of study, with testimonies from 34 other dioceses, the documentation’s 6,000 pages were sent to Rome. That same year, 2010, Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., officially opened an inquiry into a possible medical miracle attributed to Father Peyton.

Finally, in December 2014, in Rome, postulator Ambrosi finished summarizing those 6,000 pages of Father Peyton’s life and ministry into the 1,300-page positio presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in April.

 

Timely Cause

Although there are many cases up for examination by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Father Raymond looks with optimism to a short timeline for a final decision on the positio.

“It could be as soon as in the next few months,” he said. Already, possible miracles due to Father Peyton’s intercession have been reported.

While in Rome, Father Raymond suggested that this cause is well-timed: “Because we completed the first part of the synod on the family and the next part will be in October, the focus right now is on the family. And culturally now, a lot is going on with the attempted redefinition of marriage. Father Peyton’s great love for the family, Rosary and Our Lady makes him a great candidate for this time.”

Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., observed that Father Peyton’s ministry of promoting the Rosary and prayer for the family was “evangelization when people were not even talking much about evangelization. He was ahead of many people in the evangelization of families.”

Especially this year, with the World Meeting of Families in September and the next part of the synod following that, moving Father Peyton’s cause forward “would be an additional means of bringing together families,” said Bishop da Cunha, noting that its “promotion of the faith and family and prayer [is] another boost for our people.”

Mary Lou Karch, Father Peyton’s second cousin, is excited about this latest step and looks forward to his canonization.

“I literally devoted myself to the cause, and I feel like I’ve done my missionary work evangelizing the cause,” she said.

Karch heads a prayer group for Father Peyton once a month, whose members have a strong devotion to the Rosary and to the family, “which is so vital in our social and political life today.” She regularly prays for his intercession, as do many others.

“He was a giant of a man and a giant for the Blessed Mother’s work.”

 

Holy Devotion

“We knew he was very holy person,” said Father Raymond, who entered the congregation in 1964. “He really exemplified that in his personal life. Whenever I saw him, he always had a rosary wrapped around his fist. If you ever went on a trip in a car with him, you knew you were not only going to pray one Rosary, but all 15 mysteries. I personally did that.”

Holy Cross Father Hugh Cleary, national director of Holy Cross Family Ministries and provincial superior when the cause was formally opened in 1997, agrees.

“We thought he was a living saint when among us, and we wanted to put his cause forward for a number of reasons,” he said. “He had a great devotion to Mary. After Vatican II, he was always saddened the emphasis on Marian devotion declined somewhat. He made sure the devotion to Mary and the Rosary was always before us.”

As a seminarian who used to cut hair, including Father Peyton’s when he was in the area, Father Cleary saved the hair clippings “because I thought someday he would be a saint,” he said, adding, “But I lost the envelope!”

Father Raymond also knew Mother Anthony of the Little Sisters of the Poor in San Pedro, Calif., who took care of him at the end of his life. He died in his sleep on June 3, 1992 at age 83.

“The last words Mother Anthony heard him say before he died,” said Father Raymond, “were ‘Mary, my Queen, my Mother.’”

 

Media Missionary

A year after his ordination, in 1942, Father Peyton founded Family Rosary in Albany, N.Y., and then Family Theater Productions in Hollywood in 1947. He produced 600 radio and TV programs featuring hundreds of actors and celebrities.

“He was a media pioneer in Hollywood,” said Father Raymond, who never dreamed he would someday follow in Father Peyton’s footsteps.

“He leveraged the use of radio, TV and film to get the message out far and wide that ‘The family that prays together stays together’ — a vision Holy Cross Family Ministries continues proclaiming, especially with the Rosary, in 17 countries.”

Father Raymond added: “To me, it’s a sign of the authenticity and the favor his work enjoys in God’s eyes — that it continues today 23 years after his death. And in some ways, it’s more active than when he died. Right now, he’s all over YouTube, Twitter and Facebook — things not invented when he died.”

More than two million minutes of such video were viewed on YouTube last year. And Father Peyton’s programs still appear regularly on EWTN.

Probably in no place around the world is there a more profound response than in the Philippines, noted Father Raymond.

Recalling Cardinal Tagle’s recollections, Father Raymond explained: “He told us when he was growing up … families in his neighborhood would go to the neighbors and pray the Rosary as groups of families. He became one of the leaders, even as a little kid of 10 years old, because he knew the mysteries. Cardinal Tagle said the amazing thing is, in recent decades, the Family Rosary Crusade has … become a very powerful and influential force in the Philippines.”

That same force can spread as Father Peyton’s cause gains even more attention. St. John Paul II “wanted to canonize contemporary people as saints to be our heroes and to help motivate us to be our best selves as children of God,” said Father Cleary.

“In this time of crisis, he could be a role model, especially for prayer,” he explained of Father Peyton.

“With so much separation and divorce in families, so much alienation among family members, we believe what Father Peyton said: ‘The family that prays together stays together.’ That is the chief reason why we want to promote his cause.”

Joseph Pronechen is the Register's staff writer.

 

 

INFORMATION

FatherPeyton.com

FamilyRosary.org

FamilyTheater.org

Video highlight of the positio presentation can be viewed on YouTube.