New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Blessed among us
In the midst of today’s turmoil in the social, political and medical spheres, New Haven can rejoice in something, or rather someone, who I believe can provide inspiration to all people of goodwill.
I’m referring to an event that took place on Oct. 31, when the Catholic Church declared one of Connecticut’s native sons, Father Michael J. McGivney (18521890), to be worthy of veneration as someone truly “blessed,” a major step on the path to a declaration of sainthood.
Every saint can be described as “a converted sinner” because every human being is born into the world subject to sin and death, and is called to overcome both of these evils by living a life of faith, hope and charity made possible by the grace of God.
In his years as a priest of what was then the Diocese of Hartford, McGivney placed his talents as a priest at the service of others in an outstanding way, even to a heroic degree. He was born in Waterbury, died a pastor in Thomaston, and devoted seven fruitful years as associate pastor at St. Mary’s Church on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, where he is chiefly known as the founder of the Knights of Columbus, but not only that.
To his parishioners at St. Mary’s and even to the wider community, he proved to be a true “pastor of souls.” His biography is very fittingly entitled “Parish Priest,” and there we read: “Two aspects of McGivney’s inner life never wavered … from his earliest days to his last. The first was his faith in Catholicism. … He believed — with impervious conviction. McGivney’s second lifelong characteristic was an abiding empathy, with a spirit of kindness extraordinary in his time or any other. It was just that that made him an apostle of Christ.”
McGivney’s extraordinary “spirit of kindness” exemplifies what Pope Francis has recently written in his letter on fraternity and social friendship, that those who choose to cultivate kindness “become stars shining in the midst of darkness” (no. 222). At a time of rabid anti-Catholicism in Connecticut, McGivney’s light pierced the darkness, and his legacy with the Knights of Columbus he founded continues to do so by their outstanding witness to the principles of unity, charity, fraternity and patriotism.
Kindness, civility, courtesy, respect — without these virtues an “impervious conviction” about what we believe convinces no one, and in the case of Christianity, it undermines the mission entrusted to us by Christ who alone is the judge of the living and the dead. McGivney preached the gospel not only with words, but by the way he lived it. May we all do the same, whatever our beliefs, with the same spirit of kindness.