By Rose Brennan
BRIDGEPORT—When it comes to heroic virtue, according to Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, there was no greater example than Bl. Michael McGivney, priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford and founder of the Knights of Columbus.
Bl. Michael’s legacy is now honored every year on the third Saturday of March at the annual Knights of Columbus Mass. The second annual celebration was held on March 22 at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport, and members of Knights of Columbus councils throughout the state were invited to attend this Votive Mass of Bl. Michael McGivney.
“We come here not simply to honor our founder, not only to seek his example, but also to seek his intercession, so that you and I … and all those who wish to live the example of Michael McGivney may go out of this church and show this world what Bl. Michael showed the world,” the bishop said. “God is alive, God loves us all of us, each of us, every one of us, and we are committed—no matter what it takes—to be able to witness to the world who the Knights are, standing in the footsteps of their founder.”
This year, the bishop hoped to bless a statue of Bl. Michael during the Mass, but unfortunately, the statue did not arrive at the Cathedral in time. The bishop quipped, “Man proposes, God deposes,” with a laugh. However, he invited those gathered to join him for the diocesan Chrism Mass on Thursday, April 17—the new date of the statue blessing, and an appropriate one at that, as the Mass also celebrates the institution of the sacred priesthood, of which Bl. Michael was a member.
Reminders of Bl. Michael’s priesthood were evident throughout the Mass, from the psalm (“You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek”) to the Gospel reading (the Beatitudes). The latter particularly set the tone of Bl. Michael’s priesthood in the state of Connecticut: one which emphasized mercy and service to the most vulnerable.
“Even before his founding of the Knights, his dedication to the poor, to the sick, to the widows and the orphans and the unemployed and underemployed transformed his parish in New Haven,” Bishop Caggiano said.
The bishop reflected that before a cause of canonization is taken up by the Vatican, the Holy Father must declare that the person in question demonstrated heroic virtue in his or her life. And for Bl. Michael, that virtue was present throughout his life and priesthood: whether he was ministering to the materially poor or the spiritually poor.
“Michael lived the Beatitudes day in and day out in quiet ways,” he said. “And that is why he is on the way to sainthood.”
Photos by Amy Mortensen
According to the bishop, the Knights of Columbus have continued their founder’s legacy by living out the Beatitudes in their charitable work in the Diocese of Bridgeport and throughout the world.
“The Knights—in this crazy world we live in—are not afraid to stand up for the most vulnerable in our midst,” Bishop Caggiano said.
The bishop noted that many of the Knights would advocate for the rights of the unborn, which he lauded. However, he said, it was easy for many to view the unborn as “deserving” of the help the Knights offer. But he also asked about the lives of those who made poor decisions and may be in difficult situations—sometimes due to those decisions.
“The instinct in us is to say, ‘Well, you made your bed, lie in it,’ particularly when we talk of grave mortal sin,” he said. “That was not an impediment for Bl. Michael.”
The bishop recounted a story of Bl. Michael’s interactions with a young man who killed a New Haven police officer. The young man had been sentenced to death for the crime, and throughout his entire period of incarceration, Bl. Michael visited him every day, ultimately bringing him to conversion and repentance.
“You want heroism? There are too many who would say ‘his life is lost,’” the bishop said of the young man. “But Bl. Michael did not say that, but stood with him—even in his sinfulness—to lead him to conversion and, please God, to redemption in Jesus Christ. That is heroism.”
And as Bl. Michael did in his life, the bishop said, so we must do in our own.
“This is the age that calls for heroes,” he said. “Michael is a hero. Please God, the same thing will be said for you and me.”