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The formal opening for the cause of the canonization of Father Paul Wattson, S.A., the founder of the Society of the Atonement, took place at the New York Catholic Center in Manhattan Sept. 22.
Father Wattson was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1886. When he met Sister Lurana White, an Episcopal nun, the two were determined to begin an order that lived out the life of St. Francis of Assisi. They began the Franciscan Society of the Atonement, comprised of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, in 1898 at Graymoor in Garrison.
He became a Catholic in 1909 and brought the whole Society with him, the first time a religious community was received corporately into the Catholic Church since the Reformation. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1910 and died in 1940.
Father Wattson established the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which runs from the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter until the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Jan. 18-25.
His cause for canonization was endorsed on Nov. 11, 2014, by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their meeting in Baltimore.
Father Jim Puglisi, S.A., director of the Centro Pro Unione, a ministry of the friars in Rome, has been involved with Father Wattson’s cause from its start. “I was convinced very much that the values of his life are the values the Church needs to be concerned with,” he said.
Among those values, he cited the unification of the Church and care for the poor and the marginalized.
“We need to put this man forward who was passionately in love with unity and serving those on the margins of society,” he said. “His ideas about unity and mission were indispensably linked.”
During the formal opening of the cause, Cardinal Dolan said, “This is an ecclesial event, an event of the Church, so I’m glad there are so many people here.” In addition to the friars, benefactors and friends of the friars also attended.
They included best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark. She told CNY that she has been a supporter of the friars for two decades because “they do such a magnificent job.”
“This process takes years, and this is the first step. You don’t get to that first step unless you have been deemed worth of it,” she said.
Father Gabriel O’Donnell, O.P., is the postulator of Father Wattson’s cause.
All the individuals involved, including Cardinal Dolan, swore an oath of intention to faithfully fulfill their duties according to the current norms of the Church, ending with the words “May God help me through the power of the Gospels.”
At the end of the formal opening, the friars stood up and sang in loud voices the song “Our Lady of the Atonement.”
The diocesan officials will now gather materials and writings testifying to the heroic virtues of Servant of God Father Paul Wattson’s life and his work and report those findings back to Cardinal Dolan. In general, this investigative process takes about two years.
“Father Paul’s tireless efforts toward Christian unity, support of missionary activity and loving care for homeless men at St. Christopher’s Inn show the Holy Spirit was at work through him,” said Cardinal Dolan in a statement.
“He started a prayer here in New York for unity which grew to be a worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and dialogue with our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters. He actively raised funds for missions that serve the poor around the world and co-founded the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) and the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB). His landmark shelter, St. Christopher’s Inn at Graymoor in Garrison, to this day ministers to men who suffer from homelessness and substance abuse, bringing God’s healing grace to those who are often on the brink of self-destruction.”
He said, “Fr. Paul accepted that God was calling him to something very difficult, and he accepted this joyfully. He put himself in God’s hands and followed His will.”
Lewis Thomas Wattson was born in Millington, Md., in 1863.
“He was born during the Civil War, during a period of great discomfort,” said Father Brian Terry, S.A., minister general of the Atonement Friars. “He wasn’t overwhelmed or depressed, he was motivated to do something. He saw that by accepting God’s will, he could be an instrument of God.”
Father Terry, noting that the opening of the cause came during the Year of Consecrated Life declared by Pope Francis, said, “It’s a real celebration of consecrated life. It’s not just something we talk about, we see it.”
“He gave a radical ‘yes’ to God,” he said, “It’s a good example.”
He referred to a homily delivered Sept. 4 by Pope Francis during which the pontiff said, “If a person during his or her life does nothing else but reconcile and bring peace that person can be canonized: that person is a saint.”
“The pope is being confronted with the same difficulties now as back then. He is asking us to do the same thing. We are at the same kind of place again,” Father Terry said.
He added, “This is a good time for God to remind us of Father Wattson’s gifts.”
