Knights founder’s sainthood cause moving forward

By 
  • October 2, 2009
{mosimage}HARTFORD, Conn.- The cause for sainthood of Fr. Michael McGivney has been moved forward by completion of a supplemental report on a possible miracle attributed to the founder of the
Knights of Columbus.

On Sept. 22 officials of a supplemental tribunal of the archdiocese of Hartford sent the new report to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The contents of the report remain secret. The tribunal gathered more testimony from additional witnesses, including several medical doctors, about the circumstances of a reported miracle.
The cause for Fr. McGivney’s sainthood was opened by Hartford Archbishop Daniel Cronin in December 1997 and was presented to the Vatican in 2000. Pope Benedict XVI declared him “Venerable” in March 2008. Fr. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882 and died in 1890 at the age of 38.

he new report was signed and presented to Archbishop Henry Mansell at a small ceremony in the chapel at the chancery of the archdiocese. The postulator of the cause, Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, travelled from Rome to Hartford for the occasion. Dominican Father Gabriel O’Donnell, academic dean at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., joined in preparation of the supplemental report.

The event was attended by Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, other supreme officers, three relatives of Fr. McGivney and a number of archdiocesan officials.

Anderson said that submission of the new report “marks an important step forward,” adding that the “review could take several years.”

“The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints will now have valuable additional testimony that clarifies and adds significantly to the original submission,” Anderson said. “We believe that the Congregation will now have all the information it needs to complete its assessment of the case.

“Fr. McGivney’s beatification would be an important event,” Anderson added, “not only for Knights of Columbus, but for the many thousands of parish priests who quietly do the Lord’s work in parishes each day and regard him as an outstanding example for priests everywhere. In this ‘Year for Priests’ it is an especially appropriate step forward.”

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