Sainthood Causes

[JeffreyLloyd]

Please post links and info on the cause for Saints!

 

[JeffreyLloyd]

"Oh, Reverend Founder. . .that act alone of thine, which gave life to the Knights of Columbus has surely secured for thee everlasting joy and eternal peace."

http://www.kofc.org/about/history/founder/index.cfm

 

[JeffreyLloyd]

http://sheen.catholicexchange.com/

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

"Oh, Reverend Founder. . .that act alone of thine, which gave life to the Knights of Columbus has surely secured for thee everlasting joy and eternal peace."

http://www.kofc.org/about/history/founder/index.cfm

Prayer for the Canonization of Father Michael J. McGivney



God, our Father, protector of the poor and defender of the widow and orphan, you called your priest, Father Michael J. McGivney, to be an apostle of Christian family life and to lead the young to the generous service of their neighbor. Through the example of his life and virtue may we follow your Son, Jesus Christ, more closely, fulfilling his commandment of charity and building up his Body which is the Church. Let the inspiration of your servant prompt us to greater confidence in your love so that we may continue his work of caring for the needy and the outcast. We humbly ask that you glorify your servant Father Michael J. McGivney on earth according to the design of your holy will. Through his intercession, grant the favor I now present (here make your request). Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

http://sheen.catholicexchange.com/

 

[ProCommunioneFacior]

I just found out today in my Diocese's paper that there is a cause for a local saint, and he has my last name. Anyways, I found his life story very interesting:

A case for canonization
​

Catholic group seeks sainthood for Phoenix man
​

Steps to Sainthood
American Saints
​

By Claudia I. Provencio
The Catholic Sun

Members of Miles Jesu, a Catholic lay institute based in Rome and founded in Phoenix, have asked Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted to explore the possibility of sainthood for founding member Paul Murphy.

Paul Murphy stands with his mother, Dorothy, in an Arizona cotton field in this undated photograph.
​

The institute presented the bishop with a formal canonical petition for a diocesan investigation into the merits of Murphy’s potential cause during a 40th anniversary celebration in Phoenix last January.

Those who knew Murphy, a local architect and a 10-year member of Miles Jesu — Latin for “Soldier of Jesus”— say he practiced Christian virtues in a heroic way.

Bishop Olmsted has asked the institute to produce evidence of Murphy’s fama sanctitatis, or “fame of holiness,” to show the interest of the faithful in this cause.

The bishop has also asked for 5,000 signatures to be collected in support of Murphy’s cause and for a series of articles to be published on his life before he can proceed officially with the cause. So far, 3,400 signatures have been collected.

Friends who knew Murphy say he is deserving of sainthood because of his chastity, his consistency in following God’s will, and his commitment to consecrated life, which only increased after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Two of his friends, Jacinto and Frances Herrera, former Miles Jesu members, said he was an unassuming, down-to-earth man who had a deep love of God and the Virgin Mary. The couple knew Murphy until his untimely death from a brain tumor in February 1976.

“He didn’t seem overly pious. He was not a fanatic but you knew there was something different about him by the way he acted,” Frances Herrera said. “You knew you were in the presence of God whenever you were with him. That’s the presence he radiated. He could preach without saying anything to you.”

The Herrera’s memories of Murphy are not unique.

Testimonies collected in a 59-page booklet on Murphy’s life echo similar sentiments about the young architect of the Mount Claret Cursillo Chapel who died a virgin at age 36.

Life before Miles Jesu

Murphy, the youngest of nine boys, was raised in Chicago in a strong Catholic household. His father attended Mass daily, and two of his brothers went on to become priests.

In 1962, he graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in architecture and joined the U.S. Navy.

Following his service in the Navy, Lt. Murphy came to Phoenix at the invitation of his brother in 1965 to make his Cursillo, a three-day retreat on Christianity.

After the retreat, as noted in Murphy’s biography, Fr. Alphonsus Maria Duran — the man credited with founding Miles Jesu and bringing the Cursillo Movement to the Valley — sensed something special in the young man and began testing his faith.

Knowing Murphy did not want to enter the priesthood, Fr. Duran asked him if he would pack for the seminary if it was God’s will. Murphy responded he would do it without hesitation, if that were the case.

Later, Fr. Duran told Murphy he was meant to be an architect, as Murphy had always dreamed he would be, but he must dedicate himself to God completely and absolutely through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Those who knew him said Fr. Duran’s guidance and the Cursillo changed his life. Instead of returning to Chicago to marry his fiancée, he kindly broke off the engagement, and embraced consecrated life with Miles Jesu, his true vocation.

An excerpt from his biography, “Paul Murphy: Soldier of Jesus,” states he was always upbeat and the life of the party. It’s that sense of humor, friends say, that helped him keep relationships in perspective.

“Paul was a charming man and many girls were attracted to him. In fact, many of them wanted to marry him, but Paul would just laugh and tell them that he already had a girlfriend; her name was Mary and she was out of this world,” said author Bridget LeBeau.

Humble by example

Jacinto Herrera added that Murphy amazed others with his humility.

“A lot of people couldn’t understand why such a young, handsome, talented guy would dedicate so much for the cause to God,” Herrera said.

Despite a lucrative career, Murphy dressed simply, drove an old blue car, never complained and dedicated himself completely, financially and personally, to Miles Jesu and the Cursillo movement, he said.

“Paul also offers us an example of evangelization of society from within by the laity living their faith values at work, in work and with co-workers as well as putting time and talents at the service of the Gospel,” said Fr. Christopher Foeckler, a 25-year priest with Miles Jesu.

“Paul had on his desk at work: ‘God is not looking for your ability, but for your availability,’” he said.

Nearly nine years after joining Miles Jesu, which has 30 communities around the world, Murphy collapsed while attending an architect’s meeting in Tucson.

Doctors determined he had an inoperable brain tumor and warned the religious community that the pressure on his brain would cause Murphy to be impatient and his morals questionable.

On his deathbed Paul Murphy wore a relic of the True Cross, loaned to him by the then-Phoenix bishop Edward A. McCarthy.
​

LeBeau writes that while his character did change, he disproved the doctors and became more patient and more dedicated to prayer than before.

During Murphy’s illness, which caused sporadic and uncontrollable seizures, Fr. Duran told him he believed God might heal him if he became a priest.

Shortly after that conversation, the architect quit his job, to the dismay of the priest, who asked him only to consider it.
“Well if it is what God wills and what he wants, there is no need to think about it anymore,” LeBeau quotes Murphy as saying.

He attended St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y., in autumn 1975, each day getting sicker. During winter break, he came back to Phoenix and went into a coma on Christmas Eve.

“Always faithful to his life of prayer, he insisted on going to morning prayers, in spite of intense pain and shakiness, and collapsed in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament as he began the last part of his terminal illness in coma,” Fr. Foeckler said.

‘Always with a smile’

Murphy’s final phase began exactly nine years since he had made his vows to the lay institute.

“Fr. Duran always described Paul’s life with Miles Jesu as a novena,” LeBeau writes.

Murphy died Feb. 10, 1976, on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, after being comatose for six weeks.

“The most important thing I know about him is that he was dedicated, always charitable, always loving, never put anyone down, faithful to God in every aspect of his life,” Jacinto Herrera said. “He always said God comes first. That’s the way he died, too. You never saw him with a sad face, always with a smile, even in his coma.

His funeral Mass was concelebrated by then-bishop of Phoenix, Edward McCarthy and 14 other priests and deacons, including Murphy’s two brothers.

Fr. Duran, Murphy’s friend and spiritual advisor for the last decade of his life, states that while it is up to the Church to decide whether Murphy meets the requirements of sainthood, those who knew and loved him, must spread his story.

His story must be told, “to show to the world and in particular to our American youth that God’s wonders did not stop with the heroes and saints of old,” Fr. Duran said.

“And that He, in His infinite Mercy,” he added, “still produces today in the middle of much corruption, very beautiful, pure lilies…”