• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Bishop Robert Barron
          • George Weigel
          • Question Corner
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Suzanna Molino Singleton
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Paul McMullen
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Father T. Austin Murphy Jr.
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • Subscribe
A first-class relic of Blessed Michael McGivney sits on a table in front of the altar at his beloved St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Archbishop Lori celebrates Mass of thanksgiving for Father McGivney’s beatification

Christopher Gunty November 24, 2020
By Christopher Gunty
Catholic Review
Filed Under: #IamCatholic, Archbishop's Ministry, Feature, Knights of Columbus, Local News, News, Saints

A St. Mary’s Seminary and University seminarian frames a portrait of one of its famous alumni, Blessed Michael McGivney, during a Nov. 24 Mass celebrated by Archbishop William E. Lori. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Archbishop William E. Lori celebrated Mass Nov. 24 in the chapel of St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore in thanksgiving for the beatification of Father Michael J. McGivney, an alumnus of the seminary, the oldest in the United States.

Welcoming seminarians and about a dozen priests to the Mass, Sulpician Father Phillip Brown, president rector of the seminary, noted that Blessed McGivney had attended St. Mary’s from 1873 to 1877, when the campus was on Paca Street in downtown Baltimore.

Father McGivney was ordained in 1877 by then-Archbishop James Gibbons at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He then began ministry in Connecticut, where he was pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven and founded the Knights of Columbus.

Father Brown and Archbishop Lori welcomed those watching the Mass via livestream, including members of the Knights, and seminarians at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg and St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Archbishop William E. Lori celebrates Mass at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore Nov. 24 in honor of one of its alumni, Blessed Michael McGivney. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

A portrait of Blessed Father McGivney stood near the altar for the Mass. A relic of Father McGivney – a gift from the Knights of Columbus – was placed before the altar and blessed by Archbishop Lori at the beginning of the Mass.

Deacon Christopher Pinto, a fourth-year theologian for the Archdiocese of Baltimore who assisted at the Mass, said that processing into Mass behind the deacon carrying the reliquary was a touching moment. 

“There are a lot of thoughts that run through your head – the history of this seminary in particular, all the people who’ve passed through these halls, all the very holy priests and even the lay people who have passed through these past 200-and-something years. You know, it’s pretty incredible,” he said after the Mass.

“It really makes you focus on not only the future of the church, but at the same time the past of the church,” he said, noting that the church continues to live out “this history of touching people, touching their lives, bringing souls to Jesus Christ and how that ministry is enduring – and will endure – until the end of time.”

In his homily, Archbishop Lori reflected on the Gospel reading of the Beatitudes, part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s account.

St. Mary’s Seminary and University seminarians attend a Nov. 24 Mass celebrated by Archbishop William E. Lori in honor of one of its alumni, Blessed Michael McGivney. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

He said Father McGivney was less a theorist of holiness than a “practitioner, as he allowed the seeds of holiness, planted in his soul at baptism, and nurtured in his seminary formation here at St. Mary’s Seminary, to germinate in the midst of his many duties as a parish priest in New Haven.”

He presented the life and ministry of Father McGivney through the lens of the Gospel reading, calling him “the priest of the Beatitudes. This is the priest we long for! This is the priest the church needs today!”

The archbishop noted that Father McGivney “gave up everything to serve the Church – his time, his energy, his health, his resources – taking very little in return, and giving of himself until his last moments.”

Noting that Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be consoled,” the archbishop said Father McGivney, as a young priest, mourned for families that lost husbands, fathers and breadwinners, one of the inspirations for the Knights of Columbus offering life insurance to members’ families. 

“Do we not find him often by the bedside of dying parishioners, many of them young, sharing, like a good shepherd, in the grief and sorrow of the people he served?” the archbishop asked. 

St. Mary’s Seminary and University seminarians Eric Gianforcaro, from right, and Wei Wang kneel before the first-class relic of Blessed Michael McGivney following Mass honoring the famous alum Nov. 24 at the Baltimore college. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

He said Blessed Father McGivney did not seek fame or advancement, but the opportunity to serve. He intended the Knights of Columbus to be lay-led and stepped away from the limelight rather than become the Supreme Knight of the fledgling order. “Today, Father McGivney’s legacy, his ‘inheritance,’ numbers millions of men and their families whom he put on the road to holiness.”

Archbishop Lori noted that the priest guided a man on death row to conversion to Catholicism and later walked with the condemned man to the gallows. 

“As a parish priest, Father McGivney heard thousands of confessions and in those moments of intense grace, helped his parishioners to experience the freedom and joy that come when we accept God’s mercy,” the archbishop said.

Deacon Scott Kady, another fourth-year theologian at St. Mary’s who assisted at the Mass, called the liturgy moving and amazing. Also a member of the Knights of Columbus, Deacon Kady said he is inspired by Father McGivney’s example. 

“What I take away is his message of service and care for the poor and the vulnerable, that I will always incorporate his words, his actions into my own,” Deacon Kady said.

Deacon Pinto said he also hopes to follow in the blessed’s footsteps. “It’s also an example for me to live by. As a hopeful future priest of Jesus Christ myself, to try to emulate that ‘priest of the Beatitudes’ is a profound challenge, but an exciting one to grasp and to go forward with,” he said.

Attendees and those participating in the Mass wore face masks and were strategically distanced in recognition of pandemic restrictions due to COVID-19. The archbishop noted that the Mass was the last in-person event for the first semester for the seminarians who were on campus and he extended to them a special blessing as they returned to their homes for Thanksgiving.

Kevin J. Parks contributed to this story. 

Watch a livestream of the Mass below:

Email Gunty at editor@catholicreview.org.

Also see

Watch 11:30 a.m. livestream of Archbishop Lori celebrating a Mass of Thanksgiving for the beatification of Father Michael McGivney

Archbishop Lori says Blessed McGivney, as parish priest, embodied beatitudes

Father McGivney, model parish priest with ‘zeal’ for Gospel and serving faithful, beatified

Watch livestream of the beatification of Father Michael McGivney

Couple says miracle child’s Down syndrome a ‘blessing’ for family

Baltimore lecture series to mark beatification of Father Michael McGivney

Copyright © 2020 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Christopher Gunty

Christopher Gunty

A Chicago-area native, Christopher Gunty is associate publisher/editor of The Catholic Review and CEO of its parent publishing company, The Cathedral Foundation/CR Media. He also serves as a host of Catholic Review Radio.

He has spent his whole professional career in Catholic journalism as a writer, photographer, editor, circulation manager and associate publisher. He spent four years with The Chicago Catholic; 19 years as founding editor and associate publisher of The Catholic Sun in Phoenix, Ariz.; and six years at The Florida Catholic. In July 2009, he came to Baltimore to lead The Cathedral Foundation.

Chris served as president of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada from 1996 to 1998, and has traveled extensively learning about and reporting on the work of the church, including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Haiti, Poland, Italy, Germany and finally in 2010 visited the Holy Land for the first time.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

Latest Local News

Ibram X. Kendi speaks on antiracism at annual Loyola University MLK Convocation

Sister Marie Dolores Beck dies at 85

Baltimore Archdiocese’s Life is Beautiful Mass honors Alvaré, Clarksville couple

Father Bonadio, Sulpician known for pastoral warmth, dies at 83

High school athletic directors calm coaches, players, parents through pandemic layoffs

Latest World News

Nine Catholics nominated to Cabinet-level jobs in Biden administration

U.S. bishops’ pro-life chair calls plan to codify Roe in federal law ‘tragic’

Poet Amanda Gorman is a light to us all, parishioner says

Bishops say order on LBGTQ equality has implications for religious liberty

God’s word is ‘a love letter to us’ to be read every day, pope says

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Nine Catholics nominated to Cabinet-level jobs in Biden administration
  • Does Holy Name Society still exist?/ Praying for all the dead
  • Names for public spaces matter
  • Ibram X. Kendi speaks on antiracism at annual Loyola University MLK Convocation
  • Sister Marie Dolores Beck dies at 85
  • U.S. bishops’ pro-life chair calls plan to codify Roe in federal law ‘tragic’
  • Poet Amanda Gorman is a light to us all, parishioner says
  • Baltimore Archdiocese’s Life is Beautiful Mass honors Alvaré, Clarksville couple
  • Bishops say order on LBGTQ equality has implications for religious liberty
  • God’s word is ‘a love letter to us’ to be read every day, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2021 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED