Father Joseph Walijewski’s Cause for Canonization advances

From the Diocese of La Crosse:

May 22, 2018

Father Joseph Walijewski’s Cause for Canonization advances,

Positio to be presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints

With joyful thanksgiving to God, Bishop William Patrick Callahan will celebrate Mass on May 27, 2018, at 10:30 am, at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral, La Crosse, WI, to mark the completion of the investigation of the Servant of God, Father Joseph Walijewski’s life. At the Mass, the official documents will be signed and secured with the official Diocesan seal in order to be presented to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in Rome, who will then begin their investigation regarding the position for the Servant of God, Father Joseph Wailijewski.

On March 19, 2013, Bishop William Patrick Callahan announced the opening of the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Father Joseph Walijewski. This process called for an investigation and testimony to ascertain the holy life, the heroic virtues, the reputation of sanctity and any miracles attributed to the Servant of God, Father Joseph Walijewski.  Experts in theological, canonical and historical matters have spent the past five years completing the necessary research, study, and testimony. The collected information was carefully documented and assembled into the Positio, a summation of the life and virtues of the Servant of God. These documents, the Positio, will now be presented to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints marking the next step in the process toward canonization.

Father Joe served the Diocese of La Crosse from his ordination in 1950 until the time of his death in 2006. His early ministry was to the people of Thorp and Stevens Point. In 1956, Bishop John Treacy granted a mission request made by Father Joe. He then ministered to the people of South America, most notably in Bolivia and Peru. After a visit to Peru by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1985, Father Joe received the funds to begin building an orphanage, Casa Hogar de Juan Pablo II. Sixty-four abandoned or orphaned children reside there today. The home is modeled after Father Flanagan’s Boys Town.

The official website for Father Joe’s Cause, frjoesguild.org, includes a biography, timeline of his life and information about the Guild for the promotion of the Cause for Canonization of Father Joseph Walijewski. Additionally, visitors will find his prayer for canonization, information on how to request prayer cards and how to report favors granted. For those unable to attend the Mass on May 27 at the Cathedral, a livestream of the event will be available at www.diolc.org/live.

Media representatives wishing to attend the Mass on May 27 are asked to contact the Office for Communications and Public Relations at 608-791-2657, or email ebrannon@diolc.org by May 25.

Bp. Callahan interviewed by CatholicTV on cause of Fr. Joe Walijewski

Skip to 8:43.  Autoplays, so put it below the read more.

Screening of Fr. Joe Walijewski documentary April 27th at La Crosse Diocese

The Father Joseph Walijewski Legacy Guild is hosting a screening event on Monday, April 27, at the Holy Cross Diocesan Center, of the recent production “A Pencil in Our Lord’s Hand.” There will be a social gathering starting at 6:30 pm with the film being shown at 7:00 pm. After the showing, Bishop Callahan, the show’s producer Bob Dolan, and others will host a panel discussion about the cause, the project, and the impact it has had on their lives.

This event is free and open to the public, so mark your calendars and plan on attending. Refreshments will be served. This acclaimed production was recently shown on EWTN and is sure to inspire you. For more information visit www.frjoesguild.org

EWTN to air documentary on life and work of Wisconsin priest Fr. Walijewski April 11 at 9 pm

MADISON – A 60-minute program will be shown this weekend on the life and work of the Rev. Joseph Walijewski, the late central Wisconsin priest for whom the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse is working to have declared a saint.

The program, produced and hosted by Bob Dolan of Bob Dolan Productions, will be at 9 p.m. Saturday on the Eternal Word Television Network, or EWTN.

In March 2013, Bishop William Callahan formed a tribunal to study and document the life of Walijewski. The group includes priests and laypeople who are responsible for interviewing witnesses and producing documents that eventually will be sent to the Vatican to support the effort to make Walijewski a saint. The work of the tribunal is expected to take about five years.

continue at Stevens Point Journal

StPointJournal: Mass celebrates efforts to make local La Crosse priest a saint

LA CROSSE – A Mass marking the second anniversary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse’s efforts to have a central Wisconsin priest declared a saint will take place at 10:30 a.m. March 15 at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral in La Crosse.

In March 2013 Bishop William Callahan, who will celebrate the Mass, formed a tribunal to study and document the life of the Rev. Joseph Walijewski. The group includes priests and laypeople who are responsible for interviewing witnesses and producing documents that eventually will be sent to the Vatican to support the effort to make Walijewski a saint. The work of the tribunal is expected to take about five years.

Walijewski is the first priest from the diocese to be proposed for sainthood, and is one of about 3,000 people worldwide who have been proposed for sainthood to the Congregation for the Cause of Saints in Rome, though some of those petitions no longer are active and date back hundreds of years. If canonized, Walijewski would become only the 11th saint from North America and only the fourth born in the United States. The last U.S. citizen made a saint was Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin-Mohawk tribal member who was born in New York state in 1656 and was canonized in October 2012 — 332 years after her death.

continue at Stevens Point Journal 

Fr. Joe Walijewski and St. Jospeh

Important day to remember a Sconnie up-and-coming saint.

It was a calling that was cultivated by his mother and, while his father was hesitant at first to let his son go away to seminary at a young age, he too eventually gave the young man his blessing to discern a calling to the priesthood.

When speaking of his mother, Father Joe would often recall her three wishes – first, that she would have a son named Joseph who would become a priest; second, that he would build a church in honor of St. Joseph – which he did when he built the chapel of St. Joseph in Villa el Salvador, Peru, during his missionary days; and, third, that she would die on one of St. Joseph's feast days – a request God fulfilled for her when He took her from this earth in 1970 on the Church's universal Feast of St. Joseph, March 19.

Also check these out, courtesy of The Catholic Times

Father Joseph Walijewski talks with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (center),
the future Pope Benedict XVI, and Monsignor Luiggi Docena, then-apostolic
nuncio of Peru, during the future pope’s trip to Peru in 1986.

Pope John Paul II embraces Father Joseph Walijewski during one of the
two meetings between the two men. After visiting with Father Walijewski,
John Paul donated $50,000 toward the orphanage Father Walijewski would
found in Lurin, Peru, and named Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II after the pontiff.

I did an interview with Bp. Callahan on Fr. Joe but haven't had time to transcribe it. The Catholic Times has a couple pretty good article over there.

Wisconsin priest's legacy lives on at Peruvian orphanage

LURIN, Peru (CNS) -- In 1975, Msgr. Joseph Hirsch spent a month living in Lima's slums as he backpacked through South America. Now he's back in Peru, working to prove a man he met that year is a saint.

But proving a man is a saint is no easy job, and it will take years of interviews, investigation, paperwork and prayer.

Father Joseph Walijewski from the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., diocese died in Peru in 2006, after 35 years of serving the country's poor. On March 19, his sainthood cause was launched in La Crosse.

"Even if it takes 200 years to canonize him, I think his story is something that can impact us today," said Msgr. Hirsch, who is also from the La Crosse Diocese.

When young Msgr. Hirsch met Father Walijewski, the older priest was working in Villa El Salvador, a Lima slum. He dreamed of starting an orphanage to help the abandoned and abused children he saw daily.

In 1985, Blessed John Paul II visited Villa El Salvador. Father Walijewski shared his dream with the pope, who donated $50,000. Father Walijewski named the orphanage Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II.

continue at CNS



HT GM

La Crosse diocese seeks sainthood for beloved missionary priest

The Rev. Joseph Walijewski was a saint in the eyes of the poor he served as a La Crosse diocesan missionary priest in Bolivia and Peru, where he established several parishes and founded an orphanage.

Now the diocese is trying to have him declared a saint in the eyes of the church as well. Walijewski, who died of pneumonia and acute leukemia in 2006 at age 82, will become the second sainthood candidate from the diocese.

La Crosse Bishop William Callahan will formally launch the effort for Walijewski’s sainthood at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman downtown.

The edict will ask for anyone who can provide testimony, “good or bad,” about Walijewski to be considered during the sainthood process.

Walijewski’s successor as director of Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II, the orphanage he founded in Lurin, Peru, expects testimonials to be good.

continue at La Crosse Tribune

Fr. Walijewski's mother had an incredible devotion to St. Joseph(in fact I think she prayed that she would die on his feast day and did!).  A decent looking website has been put together..... even better looking than the La Crosse Diocese website(I know, hard to believe!).

.... I got strange news on another American cause.... I'll post info once I have it.