Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • June 26, 2020 3 Gulf Pine Catholic (ISSN No. 0746-3804) June 26, 2020 Volume 37, Issue 22 The GULF PINE CATHOLIC , published every other week, is an official publication of the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi. Editorial offices are located at 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532. Periodical postage paid at Gulfport, MS. —POSTMASTER— Send address changes to: The GULF PINE CATHOLIC 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 —PUBLISHER— Most Rev. Louis F. Kihneman —EDITOR— Terry Dickson —PRODUCTION / ADVERTISING — Shirley M c Cusker —CIRCULATION— Debbie Mowrey —PHOTOGRAPHY— Juliana Skelton —OFFICEHOURS— 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday —PHONE NUMBERS— Editor: 228-702-2126 Production /Advertising: 228-702-2109 Circulation: 228-702-2127 Photography: 228-702-2144 FAX: 228-702-2128 —EMAIL— News: tdickson@biloxidiocese.org Production / Advertising: smccusker@biloxidiocese.org Circulation: dmowrey@biloxidiocese.org Photography: jskelton@biloxidiocese.org —OFFICEAND MAILINGADDRESS — 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 —WEBSITE— www.biloxidiocese.org —SUBSCRIPTIONS — Subscription rate is $18.00 per year. When changing address, renewing or inquiring about a subscription, customer should include a recent address label with old address and new address. Allow three weeks for changes of address. —DEADLINES for JULY 10 EDITION— News copy and photos: Due JULY 1, 4 p.m. Advertising: Completed Ad and/or copy due JULY 1, 10 a.m. Bishop Kihneman’s Schedule June 28 Confirmation, Hispanic Community, St. John the Evangelist, Gulfport, 2 p.m. June 30 Confirmation, St. Thomas the Apostle, Long Beach, 6 p.m. July 1 Confirmation, St. Elizabeth Seton, Ocean Springs, 6 p.m. The Catholic Diocese of Biloxi’s Pastoral Center will be closed Friday, July 3, in observance of Independence Day. Road to beatification for priest-founder of Knights runs through Tennessee BY THERESA LAURENCE Catholic News Service NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) -- Five years ago, Dan and Michelle Schachle of Dickson, Tennessee, prayed to Father Michael Mc- Givney, founder of the Knights of Colum- bus, to intercede with God to save their son, still in his mother’s womb, who was given no hope of surviving a life-threatening case of fetal hydrops. When the condition, which is a dangerous accumulation of fluids throughout the body, disappeared, it triggered a long and complex process of evaluating whether a miracle at- tributable to Father McGivney’s intercession had occurred. “It’s a strange thing to investigate, wheth- er God has intervened in the world in an ex- traordinary way,” said Father Dexter Brewer, pastor of Christ the King Church in Nashville and a vicar general of the Diocese of Nash- ville and former judicial vicar of the diocese, who oversaw the local tribunal investigating the miracle. “It’s all very formal, and very intense,” Father Brewer said of the process, which in- volved dozens of interviews, examinations of medical evidence, months of work, and a very specific submission process to the Vati- can’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes. Mikey Schachle, 5, examines a statue of Father Michael McGivney at the home where he lives with his parents, Daniel and Michelle, and siblings in Dickson, Tenn., June 2. Five years ago, Dan and Michelle Schachle prayed to Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, to intercede with God to save their son, still in his mother’s womb, who was given no hope of surviving a life-threatening case of fetal hydrops. CNS photo/Rick Musacchio, Tennessee Register The process begins in the diocese where the miracle occurred, explained Brian Caul- field, vice postulator of Father McGivney’s sainthood cause. The local bishop, which in this case was Bishop David R. Choby, appoints members of a tribunal to gather all the facts of the case. (Bishop Choby died in 2017.) “They weren’t leaving the question of is this a miracle to us,” Father Brewer told the Tennessee Register , Nashville’s diocesan newspaper. “We collected the information and passed it along to the Vatican. We didn’t make a recommendation or judgment.” The investigation began in 2016, and it was the first time in the Diocese of Nash- ville’s history that what was believed to be a miracle had been formally investigated. “Basically, a miracle is defined as an ex- traordinary event that has no current medical or scientific explanation,” Caulfield said. To verify an event is a miracle, “you have to prove two things,” Caulfield said. “The first thing is to prove this was a healing that’s not explained by medical science.” The second is to clearly identify who peo- ple were praying to for their intercession, in this case, whether the intercession of Father McGivney was clearly invoked, Caulfield said. Before the official investigation opened, Vatican officials visited Nashville to place the members of the tribunal under oath and walk them through the process. At the time, said Dr. Fred Callahan, “it was top secret.” Callahan, a neurologist and close friend of Bishop Choby, was asked by the bishop to lead the medical side of the investigation. Callahan was personally present for each of the detailed interviews with about 20 dif- ferent Vanderbilt University Medical Center physicians who cared for Michelle Schachle during her pregnancy and after the birth of Michael (“Mikey”), the Schachles’ 13th child, as well as other maternal-fetal medi- cine specialists familiar with the case. Callahan had learned about hydrops as a medical student, “in the remote past.” He had to refamiliarize himself with the condi- tion “so I could ask the right questions,” he said. “I didn’t want this to fail because of my failures.” SEE MIKEY DICKINSON MIRACLE MCGIVNEY, PAGE 4