New miracle needed for Fr. Solanus to advance to sainthood, friars say

DETROIT — For the Capuchin friars privileged to work closely on the sainthood cause of Venerable Solanus Casey, the beatification of such a humble man is validation of years of prayer and hard work.

For beatification to take place, the Vatican requires a miracle — literally.

The 2012 healing of a Panamanian woman with a skin disease provided the evidence needed that Fr. Solanus is indeed in heaven with God. To process, catalogue, document and research that case — including many trips to Rome — took several years.

But now that the moment of validation is here, the work starts all over again.

“The next step, of course, is canonization,” said Fr. Larry Webber, OFM Cap., co-vice postulator along with Capuchin Bro. Richard Merling — who work closely with the Capuchins’ postulator general in Rome, Fr. Carlo Calloni, on researching, promoting and interviewing witnesses associated with Fr. Solanus’ cause. “And for that to happen, we need a new favor.”

Not only that, but the friars need a new favor that takes place after Fr. Solanus is declared blessed, which means the Capuchins are once again asking for the public’s help.

“If there are any that have happened, people should contact the vice postulators’ office in Detroit,” Fr. Webber said. “All of the favors we received before (the beatification), we put in the archives. And now we need a new favor that happens after (Nov. 18).”

For the vice postulators, though, it’s a joyful work to undertake.

“It’s been a long time waiting for this to happen, and we’re very grateful to God for allowing us to come to this point,” Bro. Merling said. “It certainly is a real delight to be part of this and to realize how many lives Fr. Solanus touches and how we can help them to become aware of him all the more. It’s a whole process of coming to know God through one another and our saints and holy people. It’s very special.”

Both vice postulators credit the late Bro. Leo Wollenweber, OFM Cap., who served as Fr. Solanus’ assistant for five years before the holy friar’s death, and afterward enthusiastically spearheaded his mentor’s cause for almost 40 years.

As his health was declining, Bro. Wollenweber once famously said he “would never retire until Fr. Solanus was beatified” — a prediction that came true, in a way.

“Bro. Leo passed away just a month after the favor that was approved for the beatification happened (in 2012), so he knew about the favor,” Fr. Webber said. “He had worked with Fr. Solanus in the front office, so he had the vantage point of having been witness to much of this.”

It was Bro. Wollenweber who catalogued most of the eight drawers full of favors and notebooks at the Solanus Casey Center, many of which were recorded by Fr. Solanus himself.

For Bro. Merling and Fr. Webber, who were jointly appointed to succeed Bro. Wollenweber as vice postulators in 2012, carrying on the cause is a source of awe.

“I find it to be overwhelming at times,” Bro. Merling said. “It’s so elating to hear these wonderful stories of how faith has touched different people’s lives, and Fr. Solanus has been used by God as the instrument in their lives.”

Fr. Webber, who served as director of the Solanus Casey Center for many years, recalled the recent story of a woman whose son was serving in Afghanistan who had come to leave a petition for his safety on Fr. Solanus’ tomb. Moments after she had finished praying, she received a text from her son, who was in a combat zone.

“She had a text on her cellphone from her son saying, ‘There must be angels surrounding me,’” Fr. Webber recalled. “They had just come back from a mission and were taking their guns off the top of their Humvee, working with an Afghani soldier, and they heard this missile coming into the compound, and it landed just yards from them. The Afghan soldier had shrapnel in him, but (the woman’s son) was only covered in dust. He couldn’t understand how they weren’t killed.”

For Fr. Webber, there’s “something very humbling” about being associated with the sainthood cause of such a holy man.

“It’s just so emotional and incredible and sacred, and we’re constantly touched, those of us who work at the Solanus Casey Center — both the friars and the staff who work there. It’s overwhelming in the sense that there is this tremendous power of God at play,” Fr. Webber said.

The fact that Blessed Solanus was beatified within the lifetimes of some who knew and received favors is even more special, Fr. Webber added.

“It’s so wonderful that this is happening while there are still so many people alive who knew Fr. Solanus and who had these experiences of him,” Fr. Webber said. “It has to be very exciting for people who can say, ‘I knew and met this holy man.’”

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History of Fr. Solanus Casey’s canonization cause

1958 – Fr. Gerald Walker, OFM Cap., provincial minister of the Detroit Capuchins, sends a report on the life and virtues of Fr. Solanus Casey to the general superiors in Rome.

1960 – The Fr. Solanus Guild is organized with the approval of the provincial minister of the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph to collect and organize information related to the life and ministry of Fr. Solanus.

1966 – Capuchin provincial sends an account of favors attributed to the intercession of Fr. Solanus to Rome. Capuchin Postulator General Fr. Bernardine of Siena appoints Fr. Paschal Siler, OFM Cap., to be vice postulator for the cause of canonization.

1968 – “The Porter of St. Bonaventure’s,” the first biography of Fr. Solanus Casey, is written by James P. Derum and published.

1974 – Bro. Leo Wollenweber, OFM Cap., succeeds Fr. Siler as vice postulator.

1976 – Cardinal John Dearden is asked to initiate cause for canonization of Fr. Solanus Casey and requests all writings attributed to Fr. Solanus be submitted. By 1980, Fr. Solanus’ assembled writings are declared free of doctrinal error.

1983 – Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka opens a diocesan investigation into the life and virtues of Fr. Solanus Casey. Fifty-three witnesses, priests, religious and laity give sworn testimony.

1987 – Exhumation and examination of Fr. Solanus’ body. His body was clothed in a new habit and re-interred in the north transept of St. Bonaventure’s chapel.

1995 – St. John Paul II proclaims Fr. Solanus Casey to have “heroic virtue” and bestows upon him the title “Venerable” on July 11, 1995.

2012 – After the death of Bro. Wollenweber, Capuchins Bro. Richard Merling and Fr. Larry Webber are appointed to the office of vice postulator, continuing the promotion of the cause and submitting new materials to Rome.

2016-17 – A panel of medical experts and a separate panel of theological advisers approve a miraculous healing attributed to Fr. Solanus, paving the way for approval by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. At the congregation’s recommendation, on May 4, 2017, Pope Francis signs a decree declaring Fr. Solanus to be “blessed” and clearing the way for a beatification Mass on Nov. 18, 2017, in Detroit.