FILE -
Father
Solanus
(upper
left),
who died
in 1957,
also
co-founded
the
Capuchin
Soup
Kitchen,
which
serves
up to
2,000
meals a
day to
Detroit's
poor. The
Capuchins
built a
center
that
bears
his name
and
explains
his life
story.
The
public
is
invited
to pray
and
leave
handwritten
pleas
atop his
tomb.
Father
Solanus'
name is
invoked
by many
people
who
attend a
weekly
service
for the
sick.
'Faithful'
Detroit
priest
beatified
by
Catholic
church By
Ed White
APNews.com
DETROIT
– A
priest
known
for his
steadfast
devotion
to the
needy
cleared
a
threshold
on the
way to
possible
sainthood
Saturday
as the
Roman
Catholic
Church
beatified
Solanus
Casey,
who is
credited
with the
miraculous
cure of
a woman
with a
chronic
skin
disease.
More
than
60,000
people
attended
a Mass
in
Detroit
where
Father
Solanus,
as he
was
known,
has an
extraordinary
following,
decades
after
his
death in
1957.
Many
insist
their
prayers
to him
have led
to
remarkable
changes
in their
lives.
Some of
their
stories
were
told on
the
scoreboard
screens
at Ford
Field.
Pope
Francis
said
Father
Solanus
met the
requirements
to earn
the rank
of
"blessed,"
especially
after
Paula
Medina
Zarate
of
Panama
was
instantly
cured
while
she
prayed
at his
tomb in
2012.
Zarate
had a
formal
role at
the
Mass,
placing
a cross
in front
of a
portrait
of
Father
Solanus
near the
altar.
Italian
Cardinal
Angelo
Amato
read a
decree
by the
pope,
who
described
the
priest
as a
"humble
and
faithful
disciple
of
Christ,
tireless
in
serving
the
poor."
Father
Solanus
can be
made a
saint in
the
years
ahead if
a second
miracle
is
attributed
to him.
He'll be
only the
second
U.S.-born
man to
be
beatified
by the
Roman
Catholic
Church,
joining
the Rev.
Stanley
Rother,
a priest
killed
in
Guatemala's
civil
war, who
was
beatified
in
Oklahoma
in
September.
One
U.S.-born
woman
has been
beatified
and two
others
have
been
declared
saints.
"It's a
great
event,"
Archbishop
Allen
Vigneron,
who
leads
the
southeastern
Michigan
church,
said of
the
honor
for
Father
Solanus.
"It's
hard to
communicate
how
vivid
and real
the
presence
of
Father
is to
our
community."
Even
60 years
after
his
death,
"people
don't
say,
'I'm
going to
Father's
tomb,'"
Vigneron
told The
Associated
Press.
"They
say,
'I'm
going to
talk to
Father.'"
Father
Solanus,
a native
of Oak
Grove,
Wisconsin,
joined
the
Capuchin
religious
order in
Detroit
in 1897
and was
ordained
a priest
seven
years
later.
But
there
were
conditions:
Because
of
academic
struggles,
he was
prohibited
from
giving
homilies
at Mass
and
couldn't
hear
confessions.
"He
accepted
it,"
said the
Rev.
Martin
Pable,
86, a
fellow
Capuchin.
"He
believed
whatever
God
wants,
that's
what he
would
do."
Pope
Francis
said
Father
Solanus
met the
requirements
to earn
the rank
of
"blessed,"
especially
after
Paula
Medina
Zarate
of
Panama
was
instantly
cured
while
she
prayed
at his
tomb in
2012.
Zarate
had a
formal
role at
the
Mass,
placing
a cross
in front
of a
portrait
of
Father
Solanus
near the
altar.
(AP
Photo) He
served
for 20
years in
New York
City and
nearby
Yonkers
before
the
Capuchins
transferred
him back
to the
St.
Bonaventure
Monastery
in
Detroit
in 1924.
Wearing
a
traditional
brown
hooded
robe and
sandals,
Father
Solanus
worked
as a
porter
or
doorkeeper
for the
next two
decades,
but his
reputation
for
holiness
far
exceeded
his
modest
title.
The
unemployed
shared
their
anxieties
with
Father
Solanus,
the
parents
of
wayward
kids
sought
his
advice,
and the
ill and
addicted
asked
him to
urge God
to heal
them. As
he
listened,
he took
notes
that
were
later
turned
into
typewritten
volumes
of his
work.
Later in
life,
when
Father
Solanus
was
stationed
at a
seminary
in
Huntington,
Indiana,
Detroiters
boarded
buses
for a
four-hour
ride
just to
see the
man with
a wispy
white
beard.
Mail
piled up
from
across
the
country.
"He
had a
gentle
presence.
He left
people
with a
wonderful
feeling
of peace
inside
their
hearts,"
Pable
said.
"He
would
say,
'Let's
just
pray
about
this and
see what
God
wants to
do.'
Some
people
were not
healed.
He told
them to
bear
their
problems
with
God's
help."
Father
Solanus,
who died
in 1957,
also
co-founded
the
Capuchin
Soup
Kitchen,
which
serves
up to
2,000
meals a
day to
Detroit's
poor.
The
Capuchins
built a
center
that
bears
his name
and
explains
his life
story.
The
public
is
invited
to pray
and
leave
handwritten
pleas
atop his
tomb.
Father
Solanus'
name is
invoked
by many
people
who
attend a
weekly
service
for the
sick.
Shirley
Wilson,
78, said
she
regularly
prayed
to
Father
Solanus
to help
her
nephew
get a
kidney.
He got
one a
few
weeks
ago.
"It
was a
perfect
match,"
she
said. "I
believe
in
miracles."
Vigneron
hopes
Father
Solanus
will
inspire
people
to show
mercy
toward
others.
"We need
to care
for the
poor and
give
them a
high
priority,"
the
archbishop
said.
"Father
was very
loving
and
understanding
to
people
who came
to him
with
their
troubles."