Father Solanus Casey:
Will He Be Beatified Soon? (Part II)

Q U I C K S C A N

Illness and death
Beatification cause

Illness and death

(This continues our discussion of Solanus Casey, from the last issue of Friar Jack's E-pirations.)

In time, despite his good-hearted service to troubled souls in the Detroit area, Father Solanus began to wear down. As Brother Leo writes in his book, “By the year 1945, the long hours and steady work at the [porter’s] office began to take their toll on Solanus’s health. He became subject to severe colds and even influenza during the winter. A couple times he had to be hospitalized with pneumonia.”

In 1946, he was transferred to the Capuchin friary of St. Felix in Huntington, Indiana, for semi-retirement. His health problems eventually grew more severe; in January 1956, Solanus was brought back to Detroit for medical treatment and transferred to St. Bonaventure’s in May. His old friend Brother Leo writes in Meet Solanus Casey that in April 1957 he had the “good fortune to be stationed again in Detroit….I was happy to be with Solanus again, happy to serve him at Mass and in other ways.”
           
In July of that year, Father Solanus was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Detroit. Many family members, friars and friends had a chance to visit him. Though suffering from a very distressful skin condition, no one ever heard the friar complain. On the morning of July 31, as an orderly and a nurse attended him, he seemed to whisper something they could not understand. “Suddenly, he sat up, stretched out his arms and in a clear voice said, ‘I give my soul to Jesus Christ.’ These were his last words” (from Brother Leo’s Meet Solanus Casey).

Beatification cause

	Brother Leo Wollenweber stands next to a life-sized wood carving of his friend Father Solanus at the Solanus Casey Center (Photo by Jack Wintz, O.F.M.)

On August 10 (2006) I had a chance to sit down with two Detroit Capuchins closely involved with the beatification process of Father Solanus: Brother Leo Wollenweber, the vice postulator for the cause since 1974, and Brother Richard Merling, director of the Father Solanus Guild since 1973. Both have offices at the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit.

The two friars said that the miracle they are investigating at the moment (required for beatification) concerns a young man whose friends brought him to the tomb of Father Solanus last fall. Along with his friends, the young man prayed for a healing through Father Solanus’ intercession. “After praying there,” said Brother Leo, “the young man saw his doctor again and there was a remarkable change in his condition. The case looks quite promising. We’ve already sent a report and details to the postulator in Rome. The prospects look good, but we have no way of anticipating their decision.”

People seem to gather in even larger numbers at Father Solanus’s tomb to pray for healing (Photo by Jack Wintz, O.F.M.)

There are other signs that the cause of Father Solanus is gaining in popularity, say the two friars. The number of people visiting the Solanus Casey Center is growing, and television programs have also stoked up interest. A television documentary on Father Solanus, Priest, Porter and Prophet, has been aired on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), and phone calls have come in from Europe, the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia. A more recent documentary, The Healing Prophet: Father Solanus Casey, was aired on public television stations in the Detroit area, bringing additional responses into the center as well as prayers for healing. EWTN is planning a premiere showing of The Healing Prophet next July to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his death, according to Audrey Geyer, one of the video’s producers.

The upcoming 50th anniversary of the death of Father Solanus, July 31, 2007, is also stimulating interest in his beatification cause. Several events are being planned to mark that significant anniversary. Will a miracle  be accepted by that date? Could other good news about the beatification be announced? “That’s anybody’s guess,” say the two friars.

Who will be the first American-born male saint? This is a timely question among those tuned into the saint-making business. Father Solanus Casey would obviously be one of the possible candidates for this honor. Two other possible candidates are also being mentioned, namely Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus (1852-1890) and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), the famous preacher and TV personality of the 1950s. When I asked Brother Leo about Father Solanus’s chances of becoming the first American-born male saint, he replied with a humble smile: “Such things are out of our control!”

If Solanus were alive today, and you or I asked him the same question, he would probably say that his great trust in God would not be affected by whether he received such an honor or not. During his life, one of Father Solanus’s favorite sayings, according to Brother Leo, was “Blessed be God in all his designs!” It was Solanus’s hope-filled prayer in good times and in bad. Brother Leo said that Solanus often began and ended his personal letters with it. It was Solanus’s “signature saying” according to Leo, and “a motto he lived.” The same words are carved into Solanus’s wood coffin, allowing this simple sermon of a simple priest to continue lifting the hearts of the hundreds who come to his tomb to pray week after week.  

For information on the Father Solanus Guild, visit www.solanuscasey.org. For more on the Father Solanus Center, visit www.solanuscenter.org. For more on the videos I mentioned here, see www.solanuscenter.org/gift-music.shtml.

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