Sainthood candidate Father McGivney seen as excellent model for today

Published: 2007-08-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Father Michael J. McGivney, an American parish priest and founder of the Knights of Columbus in 19th-century Connecticut, would be a model saint for today, according to the Knights' supreme chaplain. After Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, told the Knights' annual convention in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 7 that he was taking a personal interest in Father McGivney's sainthood cause, Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., the supreme chaplain, expressed delight. "I think he appreciates what it would mean for parish priests in the United States and around the world, to have one of their own canonized a saint," Bishop Lori told the Eternal Word Television Network. A similar view has been stated by Dominican Father Gabriel B. O'Donnell, the postulator, or chief petitioner, for the cause. In a 1998 interview with Catholic News Service, Father O'Donnell said it was remarkable how much Father McGivney resonated with modern-day concerns. He said the Knights' founder defended the immigrant poor and the marginalized, working both in multicultural situations and in close collaboration with the laity. "His sense of the dignity of the human person and the need to defend the integrity of the family place him, though he lived a century ago, right in the center of the issues that face us today," he told CNS.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .