Praying for Ven. Solanus' beatification
Supporters gather, marking the 50th anniversary of friar's death
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 3, 2007
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
A man prays at the tomb of Ven. Solanus Casey, the famous porter of St. Bonaventure Monastery, between Masses last Sunday. The Masses were part of a July 23-31 novena for the Capuchin friar's beatification in this, the 50th anniversary of his death. |
Detroit Donald Veryser, a member of Our Lady Star of the Sea in Grosse Pointe Woods, was among the many supporters of Ven. Solanus Casey's cause for sainthood who came to St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit last weekend to pray for his beatification.
Supporters of Ven. Solanus' cause filled the chapel of St. Bonaventure Monastery near downtown Detroit four times July 28-29 for Mass and novena prayers for his cause, in this the 50th anniversary of his death.
Ven. Solanus (1870-1957), a Capuchin priest who gained a popular following during his life, with astonishing healings attributed to his intercession both before and after his death, is in line to become the first American-born male saint.
Veryser, 53, who was with one of his sons, Daniel, 12, said he was there "for the opportunity to make prayer requests and to say thank you for the sale of my business and industrial buildings in a terribly depressed market."
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
People pray and leave prayer requests at the tomb of Ven. Solanus Casey just outside the chapel between Masses last Sunday. | He said he had grown up hearing about praying to Fr. Solanus from an aunt who was an IHM sister. "All these years I've been praying for the health of our family business, for safety in the workplace, and for our employees, and I have so much to be grateful for. And now I'm praying for job security, now that I'm an employee rather than an employer," Veryser said.
For Ven. Solanus to be beatified, the Vatican must first certify one of the healings that took place after his death as miraculous. Being beatified involves being declared blessed and worthy of public veneration.
Veryser said his mother was one of those who had received a healing of an ear infection when she was a young girl that her family attributed to Ven. Solanus' intercession. But that story, and the many others that took place while he was alive, cannot be considered by the Vatican's Congregation for Saints as the miracle needed for beatification.
But if one is certified, it would then take another certified miracle one that took place after he was beatified for him to advance to sainthood.
Each of the Saturday vigil and Sunday Masses last weekend drew capacity congregations of about 400 people, with Fr. Dan Fox, OFM Cap., celebrant at the 9 a.m. Mass, Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, formerly of Detroit, as celebrant at the 11 a.m. Mass and Auxiliary Bishop Francis Reiss as celebrant at the 1:30 p.m. Mass.
In addition, the weekday Masses had been attracting 125-150 people each day since the novena for his beatification began on July 23, said Bro. Leo Wollenweber, OFM Cap., vice postulator for the cause of Ven. Solanus, who spent part of his ministry as the porter, or doorkeeper, at St. Bonaventure.
The novena concluded July 31, the actual day of Ven. Solanus' death in 1957.
"It certainly has been an uplifting experience to see the people here today, how every Mass was just filled," said Bro. Richard Merling, OFM Cap., director of the Father Solanus Guild, after the last Sunday Mass.
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Some of the relatives of Ven. Solanus Casey who attended last Sunday's Mass and novena for his beatification, including (back row, top left) Neil McCluskey, his only surviving nephew; (back row, top right) Jim Conley, a grandnephew; and (front row, right) Cissy Brady-Rogers, whose grandmother was one of Ven. Solanus' sisters. | Capuchin friar Bro. Leo Wollenweber, vice postulator of Ven. Solanus' cause, said, "We're happy to have so many people come for this. It demonstrates the continuing influence of Fr. Solanus, and I think that's a good sign that his beatification should be coming."
Ven. Solanus Casey was a Wisconsin-born Capuchin priest of the Detroit-based Province of St. Joseph. He entered the order in 1897 at St. Bonaventure Monastery, and was assigned there from 1924-46, and again in 1956-57.
He also worked at Capuchin-run parishes in Indiana, New York and Wisconsin.
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Capuchin Bro. Richard Merling, director of the Father Solanus Guild, distributes Communion. | He was declared venerable worth of private veneration by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Besides cheering Detroit's Capuchin community, the turnout for the weekend Masses was encouraging for Fr. Solanus' relatives who were present.
Neil McCluskey, 86, of Pompano Beach, Fla., is Fr. Solanus' only surviving nephew. "My mother, Mary Genevieve Casey, was the baby of the family, the last of 16 Casey siblings," says McCluskey, a member of St. Columban Parish in Pompano Beach.
A former Jesuit priest, now laicized, McCluskey said he would visit his uncle while in Detroit to lecture at the University of Detroit.
"I only visited him five or six times, but I got to spend some whole days with him," he said.
"He was always kind of special. He had a thick patina of humanity he'd laugh and he'd joke and he'd tease you," McCluskey recalled.
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Some of the approximately 400 people attending the 1:30 p.m. Mass last Sunday. | Even before those days, Fr. Solanus' reputation as a conduit for God's healing grace had spread across the country, his nephew said: "Even when I was in high school out in Seattle where I grew up, there were people who would come to see my mother because she was his sister."
Jim Conley, 62, of Miami Lakes, Fla., a grandnephew of Fr. Solanus, said he had a chance to see Fr. Solanus a number of times when his family would drive from Chicago to Huntington, Ind., where he was assigned, or he would come to Chicago to stay with them.
"He was very gentle, very loving, and we just all felt privileged to have a priest in the family," said Conley, a member of Our Lady of the Lakes in Miami Lakes.
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo distributes Communion at the 11 a.m. Mass last Sunday. | At 45, Cissy Brady-Rogers, of Los Angeles, is too young to have any memories of her grandmother's famous brother, but she grew up hearing about him.
"When I was a kid we always had those little scapulars around the house, and I remember how we took all the little pieces of cloth (from his habits) and sewed them together to make a beanie for whoever was sick to wear," recalled Brady-Rogers, a member of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish in Burbank, Calif.
It was her first time to visit the monastery and adjacent Solanus Casey Center.
"The devotion of people truly kind of surprised me. I was really moved by seeing so many people kneeling and putting prayers (on pieces of paper) on the tomb," she said.
And Brady-Rogers added that the experience had inspired her "to be more aware of him and of praying for his cause."
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Capuchin Bro. Leo Wollenweber, vice postulator for Ven. Solanus' causefor sainthood, holds the crozier of Auxiliary Bishop Francis Reiss, principalcelebrant of the 1:30 p.m. Mass last Sunday. | Joe Foran, 54, traveled to Detroit from Cork, Ireland, along with his wife, Vera, to take part in the novena. Foran said Ven. Solanus is not at all well known in Ireland, the country of his parents' birth, but Foran said he knew of him from his late sister, Elizabeth Breen, who had lived in New York City a number of years.
"From the time she first heard his story, everybody my sister met she told about Solanus Casey," Foran said.
"All the Catholic orders have amazing people, just magnificent examples, among their ranks, and I think it is important to promote knowledge of them at this time in the Church," he said.
Capuchin Fr. Malcolm Maloney, who delivered the homily at the 1:30 p.m. Sunday Mass, talked about how Fr. Solanus' special ministry of talking and praying with people who would visit the monastery was made possible by God changing his original plans.
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Greg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
The Solanus Casey Center is on Mount Elliott Avenue in Detroit, adjacent to St. Bonaventure Monastery. | Because the young Bro. Solanus could not master the German and Latin required of a Detroit-province Capuchin priest at that time, he was ordained a simplex priest, without the faculties to give doctrinal sermons or hear confessions.
"We all have plans, but God has other plans for you. God is emptying you out. God is going to do His masterpiece in you," Fr. Maloney said.
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