What Makes A Miracle?
Since Venerable Father Michael McGivney needs a miracle for him to be beatified, let’s review the process for a miracle to be accepted. The first thing to understand is that only God can perform a miracle, since a miracle is understood to be a suspension of the created natural order. When we say that Father McGivney needs a miracle for beatification, what we mean is that a proven miracle must be attributed to his intercession before God. Identify Step one is identifying a possible miracle for which people close to the situation prayed to Father McGivney. The Vatican’s Congregation for…
The Church’s High Standards
What does holiness look like? How do we describe it? Think of Blessed Mother Teresa, soon to be canonized. Or St. John Paul II. Very different personalities and life experiences; very different ways of living out holiness; yet very much united in responding to God’s grace. Because holiness is not something we can hold in our hands, and different people may give different descriptions of it, the Church has set some objective measures for declaring a person holy, or a saint. The proof is in the miracle, an extraordinary work of God through the intercession of the candidate for sainthood….
Pope Francis and the Knights
SO many U.S. Knights of Columbus watched with joy when Pope Francis made his Apostolic Visit to the Philippines last January 2015. The Supreme Coun- cil website (kofc.org) gave space to articles and pho- tos of the papal trip, and we were especially anxious for the Holy Father to visit Pope Francis Center in Palo (Leyte), where local Philip- pine Knights had set out boats from the Livelihood Project. In the wake of Ty- phoon Haiyan (Yolanda), the K of C Livelihood Proj- ect has provided 200 fishing boats, built by needy labor- ers, to fishermen who lost their vessels…
Our Friend, Eddie
I have traveled to the Philippines on numerous occasions for the happy task of promoting Father McGivney in this country. Yet my trip to Visayas in November 2013 was for a more somber occasion – the burial of Past Visayas Deputy Eduardo G. Laczi, known to all as Eddie. For the previous few years, he had been the Supreme Knight’s Special Liaison to the Philippines, working at the Order’s headquarters in New Haven, Conn. He was there when liver cancer was discovered and he fought a brave battle for two years before succumbing on Oct. 27, 2013. A Requiem Mass…
Protector of Christian Family Life
We know today there are many attacks on family life and cultural trends to separate children from parents. The recently passed RH Bill that lays the groundwork for widespread contraception and immoral sexual education of youngsters is just one example in the Philippines. Yet the Catholic family has always been a target of groups and governments, from the Roman Empire to now. Through it all, the Church and the family based on the Gospel and the sacraments have survived. In Father McGivney’s day, late 19th century America, threats to Catholic family life were persistent. In January 1882, the year he…
Miracle in the Making
Since formally opening the Father Michael McGivney Office in Manila one year ago, we have seen a rise in devotion to the founder of the Knights of Columbus, as people throughout the Philippines have come to know Father McGivney and seek his intercession. The highlight of the past year was the visit of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson to the new Father McGivney Audiovisual Studio, located in the CBCP compound, which was constructed with a grant from the Supreme Council. Mr. Anderson also initiated the Pilgrim Statue Program in which a 4-foot replica of Father McGivney is brought to parishes and…
In Search of a Miracle
When I give talks about the Cause of Father McGivney, I usually explain the stage we are in with the following words: “Father McGivney holds the title of Venerable, which means the Holy Father has issued a decree recognizing his heroic virtues, that he lived a life of exceptional virtue and holiness under often difficult and challenging conditions in the world. This is as far as human effort can take him – we have written the religious biography of his life – called the positio – scoured all public documents and private correspondence that would shed light on his life,…
From The Desk of the Vice Postulator
Look to the East. That was the instruction given to me by Supreme Knight Carl Anderson when he asked me to assume the position of Vice Postulator for the Cause for Canonization of Father McGivney. He told me that the Knights of Columbus was looking to the Philippines, a devout Catholic country, to find the miracle needed for Venerable McGivney to make the next step to beatification. Soon I was in touch with Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, the full-time Postulator in Rome, to get a better idea of what my new position entailed. It came as something of a surprise for…
