About 800 people
witnessed history June 18 as the Archdiocese of Omaha advanced to Rome
the sainthood cause for Father Edward Flanagan, Boys Town founder.
Archbishop George J. Lucas was the main celebrant of a morning Mass at
St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha that marked the closing of the
archdiocesan phase of the canonization effort with a special ceremony to
encase and officially seal four boxes -- 4,600 pages -- of documents
detailing the archdiocese's three-year investigation. The documents will
be shipped to the Congregation for Saints' Causes at the Vatican. If
the findings are accepted, recognizing Father Flanagan's heroic virtues,
he will be declared "venerable." In general, two approved miracles
attributed to the intercession of the candidate are needed for sainthood
-- one for beatification and the second for canonization. The ceremony
was a once-in-a-lifetime event, a first for the archdiocese, to have one
of its members -- an archdiocesan priest -- advance toward possible
beatification and canonization, said Omar Gutierrez, notary for the
archdiocesan tribunal for the cause. Among those concelebrating the Mass
were Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin, Ireland, Father Flanagan's native
diocese, and Father Patrick O'Toole, pastor of the parish in which
Father Flanagan grew up in Ballymoe, Ireland.
Born during the turbulent era of the French Revolution, Saint Jeanne Jugan rose above hardship and a lack of formal schooling to become a profound vessel of Christ’s mercy. After losing her father at a young age and working through her youth as a kitchen maid and nurse, her life radically changed one freezing night when she encountered a blind, paralyzed elderly woman with nowhere to go. Jeanne carried the woman back to her own home, placed her in her own bed, and began a lifelong mission of radical hospitality. This act of profound love blossomed into the Little Sisters of the Poor , a thriving community dedicated to sheltering and honoring the destitute elderly. Despite later facing heavy trials—including being unjustly sidelined and stripped of her leadership by a controlling chaplain—Jeanne accepted her obscurity and exile with a joyful spirit, resting her complete trust in God's hidden providence until her death in 1879. In our daily lives, Saint Jeanne Jugan invites us to lo...