Irving “Francis” C. Houle bears the stigmata of Jesus in this undated photo. During their spring assembly in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops in a June 12 voice vote indicated their support for Houle’s sainthood cause to advance in the Diocese of Marquette, Mich., his home diocese. (CNS, courtesy Irving Houle Association)
BALTIMORE (CNS) — The U.S. bishops, after being consulted about the sainthood cause of a man who, except for service in World War II, spent his life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, gave vocal assent June 12 for the Diocese of Marquette to continue to pursue the cause.
Hearing no nays in the voice vote,
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston declared the vote on the cause
of Irving “Francis” C. Houle (pronounced “hool”) to be unanimous.
The current bishop of Marquette,
John F. Doerfler, said he had talked to Houle’s widow about her husband. And
the former bishop of the diocese — Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland,
Oregon — had met Houle as a clergyman in northernmost Michigan.
Servant of God Irving C. “Francis” Houle
Irving “Francis” C. Houle is pictured in this undated photo. During their spring assembly in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops in a June 12 voice vote indicated their support for Houle’s sainthood cause to advance in the Diocese of Marquette, Mich., his home diocese. (CNS, courtesy Irving Houle Association)
Dec. 27, 1925: Born Nov. 17, 1948: Married to Gail April 9, 1993: Received the Stigmata every night from 12-3 a.m., after this Good Friday Jan. 3, 2009: Died June 12, 2019: U.S. Bishops assent for cause of canonization to proceed
Archbishop Sample said Houle came
into the rectory of a church where a confirmation ceremony had just concluded. “At
first, I didn’t know who he was,” the archbishop recalled. But as the
conversation continued, Archbishop Sample said he might have gotten a whiff of “the
odor of sanctity … I could definitely smell a rose.”
Then, he added, “I was glancing at
his hands,” and at this point Archbishop Sample, while recalling the encounter
to his fellow bishops, was rubbing his hands as if he were lathering them with
soap. “Then I saw the bandages on his hands, and I knew who he was.”
Houle was said to receive the
stigmata 16 years before he died in 2009, but well before that “many
extraordinary physical and spiritual healings” were attributed to him,
according to a biography of Houle posted on the website of the Irving “Francis”
Houle Association for the Cause of Sainthood.
“When I first spoke to Irving’s
wife and asked about her husband, her first words to me, were, ‘He was a
wonderful husband and father,’” Bishop Doerfler said. “His pastor described him
as ‘the guy next door, and a holy man.’ These brief descriptions highlight the
importance and the relevance of the (sainthood) cause.”
Bishop Doerfler added, “Do we not
need such illustrations of how one can lead a life of holiness in daily life?”
Houle was born in Wilson, Michigan,
in 1925. Thrown from a galloping horse at age 6, his injuries — which included
broken ribs and a punctured lung — were reported by a local newspaper as “believed
to be fatal.” But with sisters at a Franciscan convent praying for him — his
aunt was one of the nuns — and after seeing a “beautiful man in a white
bathrobe” at the foot of his bed one night, young Irving no longer struggled to
breathe.
Houle went to daily Mass as a
teenager and “it was not uncommon for him to be moved to tears at the
consecration,” the biography said. He had one sister and five brothers; as
adults, Houle and his brothers, were fourth-degreeKnights of Columbus, like their father.
All were “devoted to Catholic life and to their families.”
He married his wife, Gail, in 1948,
and they had five children. They lived in Escanaba, the Upper Peninsula’s
third-largest city at 12,000, less than 20 miles from his childhood home. “His
family knew him as a devoutly religious, loving, caring person who was fun to
be around. Irving was known to be a teaser and a prankster,” the biography
said, adding, “He was also known to have his feelings hurt easily, and at times
he had a temper.”
At one job, Houle kept pictures of
the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart on his desk. “Once a comment was made
about the religious pictures,” the biography noted, and Houle replied, “If they
go, I go.” He was also known to go to church to pray the stations of the cross
every day after work, no matter how late he worked. Houle received the stigmata
on Good Friday 1993. “He suffered the Passion every night between midnight and
3 a.m. for the rest of his earthly life. He understood that these particular
hours of the day were times of great sins of the flesh,” the biography said.
After retiring, Houle talked to “tens
of thousands” of people, it added. “He was most happy to learn of people
returning to confession after 20, 30 or 40 years, and receiving Jesus in the
Eucharist.”
At speaking engagements at churches
or elsewhere, “there were many extraordinary physical and spiritual healings,
and he always made it crystal clear that these things came from God,” the
biography said. “He would simply say, ‘I don’t heal anybody,” and ‘Jesus is the
one who heals.’”
Archbishop Sample verified this
account. “He always wanted to act in communion with the local church. He always
wanted to work in communion with the local bishop,” he said of Houle. “He never
wanted to draw attention to himself,” adding Houle was “an ordinary, humble man
who obtained some true sanctity in his life.”
Dcn. Mike LeBeau of the Houle
Association, in an email to Catholic News Service, said a Marquette diocesan priest
gave Houle the nickname Francis “to protect Irving and his family from being
exploited by people.”
Houle’s cause was forwarded by the
bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance at the request of
Bishop Doerfler.
The bishops, meeting June 11-13 in
Baltimore, have been consulted at a growing number of their general meetings
about the lives of holy men and women being proposed for sainthood. The
question posed for each one: “Does the body of bishops consider it advisable to
continue to advance on the local level the cause for canonization of the
Servant of God?”
Such a question needs to be
answered in the affirmative by a majority of the bishops present and voting.