Father Roger Landry Father Roger J. Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, is national chaplain for Catholic Voices USA.
It was strangely fitting that the Oct. 31 beatification of Father Michael McGivney, a parish priest of the then Diocese of Hartford and founder of the Knights of Columbus, was marked by COVID-19 restrictions, because Blessed Michael died during a pandemic (possibly coronavirus) in 1890, which took 1 million lives. He joined a list of 11 U.S. saints and five U.S. beati raised to the altars.
I was privileged to be able to spend several hours praying before his relics on the day the Church solemnly substituted his beloved title “Father” with the celestial designation “Blessed.” He is interred within St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, where he spent the first seven of his 13 years as a priest serving as a parochial vicar and where he founded the Knights in 1882. …