Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, is pictured in an undated portrait. During the Aug. 4, 2020, opening Mass of the Knights of Columbus’ 138th annual Supreme Convention in New Haven, Conn., it was announced a new Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center will be created at the current Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven. (CNS file photo)
By Robert Camilleri
Special to the Herald
In 1982, I became a member of the Knights of Columbus. One hundred years earlier, in 1882, Father Michael J. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus. On Oct. 31, Father McGivney will be beatified at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut.
Before joining the Knights, all I knew about Father McGivney was that he founded our organization. Over time, I became interested in his accomplishments and virtues. Chief among them was his prison ministry.
The Chip Smith Case
Not unlike Sister Helen Prejean, immortalized in the 1994 movie, “Dead Man Walking,” who ministered to a convicted killer on death row in Louisiana, Father McGivney, over 100 years earlier, ministered to a murderer sentenced to death in Connecticut.
In a New Haven jail, Father McGivney met 21-year-old Chip Smith, a Catholic who, while in a drunken state, shot and killed a police chief. Smith was awaiting execution. Father McGivney developed a close ministerial relationship with the prisoner, visiting and praying with him daily in the weeks prior to his execution. Father McGivney witnessed in Smith profound remorse for his crime.
In a sermon just days before Smith’s execution, Father McGivney said, “If I could consistently with my duty be far away from there next Friday (the day of the hanging), I should escape the most trying ordeal of any life … If we receive your prayers, Mr. Smith and I shall be sustained by the Supreme power in the hour of our great trial.”
On Sept. 1, 1882, as Chip Smith was sent to the gallows, Father McGivney walked with him while continuing to pray for his immortal soul.
As the time of the hanging approached, Father McGivney was overcome by grief. Smith attempted to comfort the priest: “Father, your saintly ministrations have enabled me to meet death without a tremor. Do not fear for me. I must not break down now.”
When they arrived at the gallows, Father McGivney gave Smith a final blessing, a black hood was placed over Smith’s head and he was hanged.
On Jan. 11, 2006, Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said this about Father McGivney: “He wasn’t afraid to go into a prison and minister to a convicted murderer. He was a man of the people, who was out meeting with the people.”
When I reflect on this episode in Father McGivney’s life, I cannot help but feel gratitude to Father McGivney for helping Smith have a “change of heart.”
Founding of the Knights
On Feb. 6, 1882, a group of men from St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven met with Father McGivney in the church basement to form what would become the Knights of Columbus first council, San Salvador Council Number 1, named after the island on which the order’s namesake first landed 400 years earlier.
On March 29, 1882, the Connecticut State Legislature approved the charter which officially established the Knights of Columbus.
Father McGivney would be astonished to see how the Knights of Columbus has grown since its establishment 138 years ago to more than 2 million members in over 17,000 councils worldwide; and, that in 2019, members of the Knights of Columbus had given over $185 million in charitable donations and over 76 million hours in volunteer service.
What motivated a young parish priest to found an organization that would grow into the largest Catholic, lay, fraternal organization in the world?
In the late 19th century, Father McGivney saw his parish families struggling to survive. Men had a short life expectancy due to disease and unsafe working conditions. Too many wives and mothers were left in poverty after the death of their husbands.
To ameliorate this dire situation, Father McGivney established a fraternal benefit society that would offer a death benefit of $1,000 to the widow of a member of the Knights of Columbus to protect her family from becoming destitute.
Little did Father McGivney know that his efforts would result in an insurance program that, according to the Supreme Knight’s 2019 Annual Report, would result in over “$109 billion of insurance in force, nearly $9 billion in annual sales and more than $26 billion of assets under management.”
Father McGivney’s foresight in establishing insurance protection for widows and orphans was one of his greatest accomplishments. This program has saved thousands of families from financial ruin.
Heroic virtue
Isn’t the founding of the Knights of Columbus alone enough to result in the canonization of Father McGivney?
Dominican Father Gerald O’Donnell, postulator for his sainthood cause, would say no.
“If that were the case, he’d already be canonized. Nothing could be further from the truth. (His sanctity) proceeds from the quality of his life.”
A personal favor received
Many years ago, I joined the Father McGivney Guild. Its newsletter reports favors received through the intercession of Father McGivney.
It was not until Dec. 31, 2014, that I saw firsthand the power of his intercession in the life of my fiancée, Barbara Eicher. On that day, Barbara tripped and fell, suffering a traumatic brain injury. She spent 29 days at Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. After she was released, she suffered excruciating migraines. Barbara took medication for the headaches, but nothing worked. She continued to suffer.
Two years later, in 2017, I gave Barbara a card from the Knights of Columbus which contained a prayer of canonization to Father McGivney. For a week, Barbara said the prayer, asking Father McGivney to intercede for her to end her debilitating pain. After a week, the headaches were gone. They have not returned.
You do not need to be a member of the Knights of Columbus to join the Father McGivney Guild. To join and start receiving the Guild’s newsletter, go to fathermcgivney.org.
Camilleri is the public relations chairman for the Knights of Columbus, Hawaii State Council.
