Connecticut Catholic Priests Proud of ‘One of Us’ About to Be Beatified

WATERBURY, Connecticut (CNS) – Mgr. John J. Bevins has long prayed that a miracle will be attributed to Father Michael J. McGivney’s intercession and that he will take a step closer to holiness.

“I prayed to live long enough to see it,” he said. ” I was delighted. We pray harder now for the second miracle of canonization. “

The miracle necessary for Father McGivney’s beatification was approved by the Vatican last May. The founder of the Knights of Columbus will be beatified on October 31 during a mass celebrated by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford, Connecticut.

He will be the first American priest to be beatified and will receive the title of “Blessed”.

Mgr. Bevins, who was pastor of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury from 1991 to 2014, said he was “very proud” that a man considered holy had walked the streets of Waterbury. “I am very proud of the city,” he said. “Here one of our own was brought up.”

Waterbury was once a parish town where hundreds of thousands of Catholics attended church and were educated in the teachings of the church – and where many vocations were born.

One of these vocations was that of Father McGivney, the son of Irish immigrants, born in Waterbury. He attended local schools and developed his faith at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, now the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, where he was baptized, received the sacraments and said his first mass as a as an ordained priest.

At the basilica office, Mgr. Bevins proudly displayed a copy of Father McGivney’s baptismal certificate hanging on a wall and a statue of Father McGivney that once stood in the now closed St. Mary’s School, which has merged into 2018 with another Catholic school to form the Catholic Academy of Waterbury.

“Father McGivney was baptized here, which shows that anyone can be a saint, too. … This is great for the people of Waterbury, ”the Bishop told Catholic Transcript, the Archdiocese of Hartford’s monthly magazine.

Father McGivney was ordained a priest on December 22, 1877, and a few days later said his first mass at Immaculate Conception Church. His first assignment was as Assistant Pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven. Founded in 1832, St. Mary’s Parish is the oldest Catholic church in New Haven and the second oldest in Connecticut.

Father McGivney served at St. Mary’s from 1877 to 1884, and it was there that he founded the Knights as a service organization to help widows and orphans.

When they learned that the Pope had approved this first miracle for his cause, the Dominican friars of St. Mary’s Parish gathered at the back of the church to pray around Father McGivney’s bronze casket, which sits inside a polished granite sarcophagus.

Details on Father McGivney’s October 31 beatification, as well as an October 30 vigil and a Thanksgiving Mass on November 1 for his beatification, can be viewed online.

On March 29, 1982, 100 years after the founding of the Knights by Father McGivney and 92 years after his interment in the McGivney family lot at Old St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Waterbury, his remains were interred in St. Mary’s Church.

The McGivney family authorized his burial because this March, during the celebration of the centenary of the official founding of the Knights of Columbus, the first plans were made to consider opening his cause of holiness. In December 1997, Archbishop Daniel A. Cronin, then head of the Archdiocese of Hartford, officially opened his case.

The Vatican made its announcement of the miracle attributed to Father McGivney’s intercession at 6 a.m. EST on May 27, and at 6:45 a.m. Father John Paul Walker, pastor, received a call from Rome for an interview.

“It was the exhilaration, many of us were hoping for this moment and praying for it,” Father Walker told the Catholic Transcript. “There is a feeling of confidence now, to have that personal sense that is definitely endorsed by the church. “

The approved miracle involved the healing five years earlier of an American baby, still in utero, with a life-threatening illness that, under most circumstances, could have led to an abortion. Usually, a second verified miracle attributed to the intercession of the candidate for holiness is required for canonization.

During Mass at St. Mary’s, parishioners have been reciting the “Prayer for the Canonization of Father McGivney” for several years.

“People are thrilled,” said Father Walker. “People are super excited.”

Father Walker said he prays Father McGivney for the parish and that he himself can be a good shepherd for the people he serves. “It is a reinforcement of this feeling that we had to live in the presence of a saint”, he added. “He poured out for the people he served.

After St. Mary’s Parish, Father McGivney’s next appointment was the second Resident Pastor of St. Thomas Church in Thomaston, Connecticut, now part of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish. His mission included a mission church, the Immaculate Conception Church in Terryville, which opened for mass on November 5, 1882.

“The legacy he leaves behind is something you continue to build on,” said Father Joseph Crowley, Pastor of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish. “The shoes are really big to fill. Personal holiness is something you need to work on every day.

Father McGivney’s presence is not forgotten in St. Thomas or the Immaculate Conception: both churches are adorned with paintings by him. The churches also each have several baptismal and marriage registers signed by Father McGivney which bring him closer to parishioners.

“I preach about him,” Father Crowley said of Father McGivney, adding that the parish is in a unique situation as one of its former pastors is being beatified. “What a great foundation for the Church and Archdiocese of Hartford. “

Father McGivney fell ill with tuberculosis and later suffered from pneumonia. He was eventually confined to a bed in the parsonage at Thomaston where he died on August 14, 1890, two days after his 38th birthday.

“Being in the same church that he was is pretty exciting,” said Father Gerald Dziedzic, former pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Terryville.

Originally from Terryville, Father Dziedzic said he often wondered how Father McGivney used to ride on horseback and buggy the 3.5 miles up a hill from St. Thomas to the Immaculate Conception.

“The fact that he climbed Terryville Mountain, I can understand that,” he added.

Currently pastor of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in New Milford, Connecticut, Father Dziedzic remembers frequently praying to Father McGivney during his time at Immaculate Conception Church some 13 years ago.

“On several occasions, I have asked for his intercession for sick people,” he said.

Father Dziedzic, himself a member of the Knights of Columbus, calls him a “grand parish priest” and says he is not surprised to be on his way to becoming a saint.