A parish-priest saint from Hartford?

Reviewed by Fr. John T. Myler
Catholic News Service

Fr. Michael McGivney may become the first American parish priest to be canonized a saint. He was the founder of the Knights of Columbus, but in the biography “Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism,” authors Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster focus on much more than the priest’s ties to the Knights.

Fr. McGivney (1852-1890), a priest of the then-Diocese of Hartford, Conn., came from a middle-class Irish background and attended seminaries in Quebec, Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Baltimore. His father died before Michael was ordained and the seminarian realized firsthand the dire straits into which families could fall. In his experience, “fathers, mothers and children (formed) an everyday trinity more fragile than anyone else seemed to realize.” Ministry to families marked the years of his priesthood.

Brinkley and Fenster — who were moved during the priest molestation scandals of 2002 to write about a beloved parish priest — have researched Fr. McGivney’s life with academic care, citing civil and Church records, newspaper accounts and histories of the Catholic Church in the United States during the latter half of the 19th century.

St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven, Conn., typically taxed any priest’s energy as he dealt with devotions, the dying and the inevitable parish debt. For young Fr. McGivney, though, ensuring the character of Catholic men as leaders of families best solved Church and societal problems.

“Parish Priest” explores the post-Civil War status of men — no longer soldiers or frontiersmen, but those residing in America’s big cities and factory towns as the “Gilded Age” approached. “The adventures of their fathers were only a fading memory. In the new manner of manhood thrust upon them, the decisions of the day were no longer theirs. They were told what to do, and when, and even why.” Fr. McGivney came up with an idea to “fill the void” that so many Catholic men discovered within themselves.

In 1881, the Knights of Columbus — who were nearly called the “Sons of Columbus” — became the Catholic response to secret societies, which were sometimes named after eagles, elks or moose. The purpose of the Knights, Fr. McGivney wrote, was “to prevent people from entering secret societies, by offering the same, if not better, advantages to our members” and “to unite the men of our faith to aid each other in time of sickness, to provide for decent burial and to render assistance to the families of deceased members.”

Fr. McGivney was uninterested in the “secret” and ritual aspects of the Knights — their degrees, regalia, ceremonies and passwords. He found them “a little high-strung” but cooperated with their presence to compel the members to feel the special privileges of membership.

The Knights started small and grew slowly, as a result of long and tiresome rounds of infighting, yet within a few years numbered more than 4,000 Knights. Today there are more than 1.7 million Knights of Columbus in more than a dozen countries.

But the final focus of “Parish Priest” is the energetic, tireless figure of Fr. McGivney and his too few years of pastoral work.

In late 1889, Fr. McGivney contracted influenza; in early 1890, it turned into pneumonia. Death came on the morning of August 14, 1890 — two days after his 38th birthday. For more than a century, the Knights of Columbus have continued to honor him as their founder. In 1997, Archbishop Daniel A. Cronin of Hartford, who is now retired, initiated the process of canonization for Fr. McGivney.

This solid biography from Brinkley and Fenster addresses not only Fr. McGivney’s role 120 years ago, but also the importance of his pastoral example today — “a parish priest for a modern world.”

Fr. Myler earned a doctorate in sacred theology at the Marianum in Rome and is a priest of the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., where he is director of the continuing formation of priests.