Father Maher Council 648 serves Sacred Heart, St Matthew & St Pius V Parishes of the Diocese of Saint Augustine
FRATERNAL FOCUS
AUGUST 2024 FOUNDER’S DAY EDITION
FATHER MAHER COUNCIL 648 2024 -2025 Officers
GeorgeFox GrandKnight GeorgeF4414@aol.com|904.703.2235
Fr.JamesKaniparampil,CMI Chaplain SHCatholicChurch@gmail.com|904.771.2152
RobMartin DeputyGrandKnight Martin171@aol.com|407.448.3561
Open Chancellor
BrianHiggins Recorder
Brian.Higgins4@gmail.com|856.701.0602
AlfredAviles FinancialSecretary FinSec648@gmail.com|904.742.2276
EdwardCollier Treasurer LTCCollier@aol.com|904.264.7326
FranklinHerrington,PGK Lecturer
Herr9108@bellsouth.net|904.868.5783
DonDetky Advocate DonDetky@gmail.com|904.465.2313
KevinBaltes Warden KBaltes@bellsouth.net|904.445.8216
JamesFallon
InsideGuardI JimnGlo4@comcast.net|904.463.0534
DaveSmith InsideGuardII BoatHouse342@gmail.com|904.303.0666
JohnMerola
OutsideGuard JohnJMerola@hotmail.com|941.625.2838
DessOliver,PGK
Trustee3-Year Dess.Oliver@yahoo.com|904.509.9286
JoeLoewenguth,PGK Trustee2-Year Jjenguth@gmail.com|904.589.7507
TomMeasday,PGK Trustee1-Year
MrGraphicsJax@gmail.com|904.200.5001
CONTENTS
On the
Cover
Blessed Michael J McGivney as Curate of St Mary’s Church in New Haven Connecticut
Page 4
Timeline to Sainthood (Part 1)
Page 5
Timeline to Sainthood (Part 2)
Page 6
Feast Day of Blessed Michael J McGivney
Page 8
Happy Birthday Blessed Michael J McGivney
Page 9
Prayer for the Canonization of Blessed Michael J McGivney
Page 10
Prayer of Mary, Queen of the Knights
St Mary’s Catholic Church New Haven, CT
Father Michael J McGivney’s Parish Church
Timeline to sainthood of Blessed Micheal J McGiveny Timeline to
Here’s a timeline of the sainthood cause of Blessed Michael J McGivney (1852-1890), who founded the Knights of Columbus at St Mary’s Parish in New Haven in 1882:
Dec 18, 1997: Archbishop Daniel A Cronin of Hartford, Connecticut, officially opens Father McGivney’s cause for sainthood. Father McGivney is given the title “Servant of God.” The Father McGivney Guild is established to promote the cause. (The initial work on his sainthood cause began in 1982 on the Knights’ centenary.)
March 6, 2000: Closing of diocesan investigation into Father McGivney’s life, holiness and virtues.
Summer 2002: A 1,000-page document “positio” laying out the case for Father McGivney’s cause is presented to the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes.
October 2003: In a message to the Knights of Columbus, St. John Paul II praises the fraternal order and its founder: “In fidelity to the vision of Father McGivney, may you continue to seek new ways of being a leaven of the Gospel in the world and a spiritual force for the renewal of the church in holiness, unity and truth.”
July 2006: William Morrow/Harper Collins publishes “Parish Priest: Father McGivney and American Catholicism” by historians Douglas Brinkley and Julie Fenster.
Sainthood
March 15, 2008: Pope Benedict XVI confirms that “the theological virtues of faith, hope and love both toward God and neighbor … existed to a heroic degree” in Father McGivney and declares him “Venerable.”
April 19, 2008: Pope Benedict, in his homily during a votive Mass “for the universal church” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, cites the “remarkable accomplishment of that exemplary American priest, the Venerable Michael McGivney, whose vision and zeal led to the establishment of the Knights of Columbus.”
September 2017: Results of an investigation into a possible miracle attributed to the intercession of Father McGivney is sent to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.
February 12, 2020: Pope Francis tells the Knights of Columbus board of directors the order has been faithful to the vision of Father McGivney, “who was inspired by the principles of Christian charity and fraternity to assist those most in need.” Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, the Knights’ supreme chaplain, presents the pope with a copy of “Parish Priest” in Italian.
May 27, 2020: After extensive medical and theological reviews, the Vatican announces Pope Francis authorized a decree regarding the miracle attributed to the intercession of Father McGivney, opening the way for his beatification.
Oct. 31, 2020: Father McGivney is beatified during a Mass at Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, with Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, as the main celebrant and the pope’s representative. Blessed McGivney is the first U.S. parish priest to be beatified.
Blessed Michael J. McGiveny
Feast Day: August 13, 2024
The official Feast Day in the Catholic Church of Blessed Father Michael McGivney is August 13.
Patron and founder of the Knights of Columbus. The feast is celebrated annually across the universal Catholic Church.
Bl. Fr. McGivney was born on August 12, 1852 and passed away on August 14, 1890 (aged 38) His feast day is celebrated on the 13th because it falls between these two dates.
Bl. Fr. McGivney was Beatified on October 31, 2020 at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut by Cardinal Joseph W Tobin (on behalf of Pope Francis).
This Cathedral is the Diocesan seat for the Bl. Fr. McGivney’s shrine that also was the final parish church he served at during his life as a Priest and also where he founded the Knights (Church of Saint Mary in New Haven, Connecticut).
Blessed Michael McGivney's Story
The eldest son of an immigrant Irish family in Connecticut, young Michael left school at 13 to work in a brass factory making spoons. At 16 he began studies for the priesthood in Quebec but was obliged to leave to help support the family when his father died. Michael completed his education in Baltimore, Maryland, and was ordained for the diocese of Hartford in 1877.
Assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven, Fr. McGivney was very active in parish and civic affairs, serving as director of public plays and fairs. He volunteered to become the guardian of Alfred Downes, a minor whose father had died leaving a large family in poverty. This situation as well as his own family's circumstances and that of other immigrants impressed on Fr McGivney the need for lay Catholic men to establish a mutual aid society to provide financial assistance for their families if the primary wage earner died. Protestant fraternal groups already provided this type of life insurance protection for their members.
In 1882, Fr. McGivney formed the Knights of Columbus among a small group of St. Mary's parishioners to promote charity, unity, and fraternity, assisting widows and orphans Because of the Knights' emphasis on serving Church, community and family, the organization grew and did not remain strictly parish-based. Patriotism was added as a founding principle in 1900.
Father McGivney died from pneumonia in 1890 and was buried in Thomaston, Connecticut. Later his body was moved back to St Mary’s in New Haven where it remains today He was beatified in 2020
Blessed Michael J. McGiveny
August 12, 2024
Reflection
Michael Joseph McGivney was a genuine pastor who, in the words of Pope Francis, was unafraid to share “the smell of his sheep.” He promoted families whose members were strong in their faith expressed through generous following of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy In a decree read at the beatification Mass, Pope Francis praised Fr McGivney’s “zeal and the proclamation of the Gospel and generous concern for his brothers and sisters.” These “made him an outstanding witness of Christian solidarity and fraternal assistance.”
