Father Edward J. Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, in an undated file photo. (CNS file photo)
Hawaii Catholic Herald
A new prayer meeting at Holy Trinity Church aims to boost a candidate for sainthood with a local connection.
Parishioners at the Kuliouou church who attend the monthly gatherings (the next one is Oct. 15) pray for the sainthood cause of Father Edward J. Flanagan — the Irish priest who founded Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1917 and sought to embrace and support struggling youth worldwide. They also pray for his intercession for personal needs.
Father Flanagan’s local connection is his great-nephew, Jack Flanagan, who with his wife is a longtime parishioner at Holy Trinity.
Jack Flanagan never knew his great-uncle personally: Father Flanagan died in 1948, and Jack Flanagan was born two years later.
Still, he knew Father Flanagan’s legacy well — his father kept up with regular family visits during his childhood years in Omaha and also worked at Boys Town.
Flanagan said he and his brother would spend summers at Boys Town while their father worked, and in high school he was a member of the organization’s grounds crew — “to this day I contend that I cut nearly every bush on the campus,” he recalled.
“Since those formative years, when I return home to Omaha I have continued to attend Mass and pray at Father Flanagan’s tomb in the chapel that he built,” Flanagan said.
“I played, worked and prayed at Boys Town in some form my whole life and it’s left a lasting impression on me,” he continued.
Flanagan said that his immense pride in his great-uncle inspired the formation of the Holy Trinity prayer group.
“My mission is to align with that of the Father Flanagan League to educate and inform people of the heroic virtue of his life and his mission as mentor and protector of youth.”
Father Flanagan’s sainthood cause kicked off in 2011 in the Archdiocese of Omaha when he was named a “servant of God,” according to a 2019 article by OSV News. In 2015, a large collection of evidence — documents about his life and ministry as well as witness testimonies — was submitted to the Vatican.
In 2019, OSV News reported, Father Flanagan’s cause advanced with the presentation of the “positio,” a position paper that summarizes the records gathered and submitted in 2015, to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
A documentary on Father Flanagan, “Heart of a Servant,” was released last year and can be viewed on Prime Video.
Holy Trinity’s prayer meeting, held every third Wednesday, starts at 6 p.m. For more information, email Debbie Kula at dkula@rcchawaii.org. To learn more about the Father Flanagan League, visit fatherflanagan.org.