Stepping into the Breach

Stepping into the Breach. . , Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied., There was an irony for Father McGivney to begin his priestly path at Saint Mary's located on the aristocratic Hillhouse Avenue, "the most beautiful street in America," according to Mark Twain, surrounded by scholars from Yale University. Michael was an unassuming man with the most practical mindset. "He was a man of extreme grace of manner in any society, but without any airs," recalled Father Joseph Daley. "I saw him but once and yet I remember his pale, beautiful face as if I saw it only yesterday; it was 'a priest's face,' and that explains everything; it was a face of wonderful repose; there was nothing harsh in that countenance, although there was everything that was strong; there was nothing of the politician, nothing of the axe-grinder. Guile and ambition were as far from him as from heaven.", There was one Catholic family in the area that could aspire to American aristocracy - the Downes, "the oldest, richest and most respected Catholic family of New Haven." One day in 1880, however, everything collapsed for them: Edward, the father of the family, died. That was only the beginning of the tragedy. In New Haven County, if a woman was widowed and could not prove that she had sufficient financial resources to care for her minor children, the state would place the children in various institutional homes. And the Downes widow could not prove that. Her oldest son, Alfred, was then in danger of leaving his family together with his Catholic faith. On Feb. 6, 1882, the local court held a meeting to determine his future. Father McGivney stood up and offered to arrange for financial support of the youth. The Downes family was saved., But so many other families were ailing. "In New Haven, today," read a report at the time, "there are not a few children of Irish birth who need help, moral as well as physical help. Hundreds of Irish youth of both sexes are growing up in our midst, in object poverty, in filth, wretchedness and crime for want of help and sympathy." Father McGivney wanted to help them.,

"How many of us weep before the suffering of a child, before the breakup of a family, before so many people who do not find the path? … The weeping of a priest.... Do you weep? Or in this presbyterate have we lost all tears? Do you weep for your people? Tell me, do you offer intercessory prayer before the tabernacle? Do you struggle with the Lord for your people, as Abraham struggled?" , Pope Francis to the priests of Rome, March 2014