Praise God!

Knights of Columbus founder Fr. Michael McGivney is on his way to beatification!

The news came this week after the Knights of Columbus announced that Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to the late founder’s intercession.

The press release states that after a family invoked Fr. McGivney’s intercession, an unborn child received healing “in-utero of a life-threatening condition” in 2015. 

“A date will soon be set for the beatification Mass, which will take place in Connecticut. It will include the reading of an apostolic letter from the Holy Father and the bestowing of the title ‘Blessed’ on Father McGivney,” the press release adds.

29-year-old Fr. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882 as a means of faith and financial support in his parish community.

The parish priest of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn. wanted to help needy families, as Catholic immigrants faced hostility and endured dangerous work conditions, causing possible early deaths.

Fr. McGivney gathered the men of his parish, and launched a Catholic lay organization to unite them in faith and provide for families with deceased members.

Fr. McGivney died of pneumonia at age 38 amid a pandemic, which may have also been caused by a coronavirus.

There are now over 2 million Knights of Columbus members in more than a dozen countries.

His cause for canonization actually opened in 1997, and was he declared “venerable” in 2008.

Here’s the 10 milestones of Fr. McGivney’s canonization cause:

Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives

Fr. McGivney needs one more approved miracle to qualify for canonization. Another miracle was submitted for investigation in 2012.

Fr. Michael McGivney, please pray for us!

[See also: 25 Amazing Things Too Many Catholics Don’t Know About the Knights of Columbus (Maybe Even You!)]

[See also: #Knights4Life: 7 Ways the Knights of Columbus Amazingly Defend Life at Every Stage]

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