The Irish priest who founded Boys Town orphanage has been officially declared a servant of God as the cause for his sainthood progresses.
Father Edward J. Flanagan was a Catholic priest, born in Roscommon in 1886. Flanagan emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1904, and was ordained as a priest in 1912. He established the Omaha orphanage Father Flanagan's Boys Home in 1917. It was announced in February that Omaha, Nebraska, archdiocese was putting him forward for canonization.
The official process began on March 17, when Most Reverend George J. Lucas, Archbishop of Omaha opened the cause for sainthood at Immaculate Conception Church, the site of Father Flanagan’s tomb at Boys Town.
“The cause for canonization is officially open and Father Flanagan has been declared a Servant of God,” Steven Wolf, President of the Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion, said in an email:
“We hope have this first examination of his life, heroic virtue and sanctity completed by 2014.
“If Rome finds this examination without error, Servant of God Flanagan will be then declared Venerable,” Wolf added.
The process for sainthood originates in the archdiocese, then proceeds to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints in Rome and to the Pope. In order to be qualified as a saint, at least two miracles associated with the person must have occurred after his or her death.
“We have alleged miracles reported to us and we are sifting through the details to see if the information warrants a deeper examination by a medical tribunal at the Vatican,” Wolf said.
Wolf first met the Irish priest when he lived at Boys Town during his teenage years.
"I tell people that Father Flanagan basically saved me twice," Wolf, a member of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish in Omaha, told the Catholic Voice of Omaha.
"Maybe the second one is a work in progress, but certainly as a kid who needed help, (Boys Town) helped save my mortal hide."
"I just feel like I don't know if I could ever do enough to say 'thank you' to Father Flanagan and the people at Boys Town," Wolf added.
"There are no bad boys,” Flanagan famously said during his time working with youth. “There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking."
At the request of President Truman, Fr Flanagan toured Europe following WWII to discuss the orphaned children of the war. During his tour, he died of a heart attack in Berlin in 1948. His body was laid to rest at the chapel at Boys Town.
For more information or updates, log onto The Father Flanagan League, Society of Division.
Watch the trailer for the 1938 Boys Town movie below, which was inspired by Father Flanagan’s work.
7 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.billie061 | May 10, 2012, 12:54 PM EDT
I loved the filim, but was it based on fact ? I know of one priest who should be made a saint, he was Fr. Leo Mccormack who ran the boys orphanage in Domnick st in Dublin for many years, when he took it over in the 1950's it was a dismal institution, he turned it into a home. As a child my mother would take some of the boys for a couple of weeks during summer break, considering there was me and my 8 brothers, I was totally against more boys in my home. He married my parents who are 55 years married this year, he married me and ex- husband (no fault of his) But he was a saint for those boys and Im sure there are plenty more who get no recognition
IrelandNorth | Apr 18, 2012, 05:42 AM EDT
On seeing Mickey Rooney's/Whitely Marsh's characteristically defiant adolescent scowl at authority figures (Father Flanagan/Spenccer Tracey), couldn't help think of Dublin working-class writer Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy, and his positive relationship with the Governor there and then.
VonLiebenitz | Apr 18, 2012, 03:46 AM EDT
So a suspected pederast is eligible for sainthood?
Seanmor | Apr 17, 2012, 07:40 PM EDT
Ed Franagan was born near Ballymote, Co. Roscommon(1886), camme to U.S. in 1904, studied at Dunwoody Seminary, His was first parish was O'Neiill. Neb., where he worked at St. Patrick's Church. Spencer Tracy won an Oscar for praying Fr. Flanagan in 1938. The U.S. postal system issued a 4 cent stamp in honor of this priest. This is my question: In view of the enormous contribution this great priest made to his adopted country, why is now so very difficult for would-be emmgrants from Roscommon the other 31 Irish counties to get permanent U.S. visas?
Aliciarose | Apr 17, 2012, 06:21 PM EDT
How many Miracles have to be performed before he is announced as a Saint??? Have we heard of any??? Has anyone ever prayed to this Priest???? I'm a Housewife and I think I am a Saint!!!!
jamieLM | Apr 17, 2012, 09:33 AM EDT
If the RCC thinks it's necessary to make him an official saint, ok. Official saint or not, Father Flanagan made significant contributions in his lifetime by taking care of homeless boys. His lifetime achievements speak for themselves. He's a saint already in God's eyes where it really matters - a member of the "communion of saints" because he lived and died in the Christian faith.
Portia777 | Apr 17, 2012, 09:19 AM EDT
5. Priests, Pedophiles, and Boys Town The Franklin COVER UP. Hill eventually told me that he hadn’t been molested by anyone connected to Larry King, but by a Boys Town priest named Father James Kelly. He was familiar with many of the names on the “Leads List,” and put me in touch with a former roommate who had been a “mayor” of Boys Town. (The student body formerly elected a fellow student to serve as the mayor of Boys Town, which is an incorporated city with its own police force.)