Since Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, was beatified five years ago this Oct. 31, Knights and their families throughout the world, as well as others devoted to him, have been praying fervently for his canonization. They have also been sending to the Father McGivney Guild numerous petitions for his intercession, placing their hopes in the humble parish priest who ministered with great compassion and practical action to a mostly Irish immigrant flock in late 19th-century Connecticut.

Along with these petitions, the guild regularly receives grateful reports of answered prayers. While the officials of the guild are very happy to receive reports of extraordinary healings and remission from serious illness, we are also pleased to learn of answers to prayers for the ordinary struggles of life. These “everyday favors” fall into categories that greatly concerned Father McGivney when he was a priest on earth:

• employment and finances;
• reconciliation with family members;
• overcoming addiction;
• recovery from serious illness;
• conversion or return to the Church; and
• the simple request for peace of heart and mind in a troubled world.

Two recent favors, posted anonymously on the guild’s website, illustrate the simple, sincere thankfulness that Father McGivney inspires and indicate that he is a trusted intercessor as a “Blessed” of the Church:

“I had requested prayer for my friend who was looking for a job. The prayer was answered. Thank you so much.”

“Every day, I asked Father McGivney to help me get through the pain of (knee) surgery. He sure did help, as things went better than expected. Thank you, Father McGivney.”

It is not surprising that the faithful would look to Father McGivney in their everyday needs. At a time of anti-Catholic prejudice in America, he founded the Knights of Columbus to address the problems of his beleaguered parishioners, forming Catholic men into a band of brothers, keeping them close to the life of the Church, and providing financial assistance in a day when families often were left penniless with the untimely death of a breadwinner.

He built the order on the principles of charity and unity (and later, fraternity and patriotism), which still guide the more than 2 million Knights today. As a humble parish priest, at a time when clergymen were the central figures of immigrant community life, he insisted that the Knights be run by and for laymen, anticipating by nearly a century the Second Vatican Council’s focus on the universal call to holiness. Tireless in his ministry, he wore himself out in 13 years of priesthood and died in 1890, two days after his 38th birthday, as a pastor praying for his people during a flu epidemic.

A Knight whose family was helped personally by Father McGivney said in a eulogy, “He was a man of the people … zealous of the people’s welfare, and all the kindliness of his priestly soul asserted itself more strongly in his unceasing efforts for the betterment of their condition.”

A fellow priest remembered him as “genial, approachable, of kindly disposition, cheerful under reverses, profoundly sympathetic with those upon whom had fallen the heavy hand of affliction, a man of strict probity and sterling integrity in his business transactions.”

A tribute by the founding members of the Knights of Columbus concluded with the filial sentiment, “He was our father.”

In an apostolic letter read at the beatification Mass in Hartford’s Cathedral of St. Joseph, on Oct. 31, 2020, Pope Francis wrote that Father McGivney’s “zeal for the proclamation of the Gospel and generous concern for the needs of his brothers and sisters made him an outstanding witness of Christian solidarity and fraternal assistance.”

Of course, along with everyday favors, the McGivney Guild actively seeks a second miracle attributed to his intercession that would lead to canonization. Such an event would follow a long, careful study by various medical and theological experts at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and final approval by the Holy Father.

From the opening of the cause in 1997, the guild has received a number of reports of extraordinary physical recoveries, including the medically inexplicable healing of a child in the womb that was declared a miracle by the Church and led to beatification. That child, Michael McGivney Schachle, is now 10 years old and the treasure of the large family of Daniel and Michelle Schachle in the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee.

Early in Michelle’s pregnancy, the couple received an ultrasound diagnosis of trisomy 21, Down syndrome, and adamantly refused the offer of abortion at a secular hospital. Some weeks later, they received a fatal diagnosis of advanced fetal hydrops — a condition that filled the baby’s body with fluid and left no medical hope of recovery. Daniel and Michelle refused abortion again and turned to Father McGivney for help, promising to name the child after him. Little Mikey was born with Down syndrome — which the family never prayed to be healed — yet with no signs of fetal hydrops. The doctors were stunned, and all who had prayed for a miracle were overjoyed.

The story, covered in the Register and many other news outlets worldwide, has given hope to untold numbers of parents who face a troubling prenatal diagnosis and offers them the strength and prayers to reject abortion. Little Mikey is also a living witness to the value of every human life, even when touched by trisomy 21 or other conditions.

God willing, a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Michael McGivney will open the way for him to be raised to the honors of the altar as a saint. As we pray for that day, we also rejoice in the many everyday favors granted by God through Father McGivney’s intercession — simple prayers offered with open hearts that help those devoted to him get through trying times, challenging diagnoses, difficult struggles and strained relationships.

He was a simple, humble and holy parish priest who took upon his shoulders the full work of his parish and placed on his heart the many prayers of his people. Now, as Blessed Michael McGivney, he is in a position to lift us up today, as we call upon his intercession for God to grant the favor we present.

To join the Father McGivney Guild and submit your intentions, which are remembered in a weekly Mass, visit FatherMcGivney.org.

 

Brian Caulfield works for the Knights of Columbus, where he is a vice postulator of the cause for canonization of Blessed Michael McGivney.