March 2006

"Parish Priest"

This is reading material for every Knight of Columbus in our Archdiocese of San Antonio. Every priest and all our seminarians at Assumption Seminary need to have a copy of Parish Priest by Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism by Douglas Brinkley and Julie W. Fenester. Our special Lenten Project of 2006 is to give every Priest, Deacon and Seminarian a copy of Parish Priest. If you are like me, you will keep reading this book until you have read the entire book.

Julie M. Fenester writes: "Father Michael McGivney lives because of the continued interest in him among Catholic Knights in general and the public at large." "He's not just a 19th century priest, he's a 21st century priest." "His book makes history a living subject that people are engaged with. I am so proud that the story is so uplifting to people," writes Carl A. Anderson, the Supreme Knight. Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford, Connecticut, the diocese in which Fr. Michael McGivney served, said that he read Parish Priest from cover to cover and recommended it at a recent meeting of Priests. "I told them that every parish priest should read the book because of the model it presents for all priests." The Archdiocese of Hartford has worked with the Knights of Columbus on Father McGivney's cause for canonization.

I have read Parish Priest and I want to recommend it very highly to my brother Priests, my brother Knights and in special way I invite young people to read Parish Priest. It portrays in a very powerful way the life and times of a good and holy priest. Reading the book for me has motivated and inspired me to truly be a good priest and bishop. Fr McGivney is calling all of us today to personal holiness and to walk humbly with one another as brother Knights and our fellow parishioners. I invite my brother knights to give a copy of Parish Priest to their Priests, deacons and seminarians to to parish and school libraries. The Knights will be richly blessed in giving this book as a gift and the recipients and readers will be inspired and blessed by this good Parish Priest, a model for our times.

Yours in the Lord,

Most Rev. Thomas J. Flanagan, D.D.

Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio

Knights of Columbus Chapter Chaplain