Pope Leo XIV has declared the Ireland-born Father Edward Joseph Flanagan, who founded Boys’ Town in Nebraska in the 1920s, a servant of God, advancing his path toward sainthood, the Holy See Press Office announced March 23.
Fr. Flanagan, who was born in 1886 in Ballymoe, Ireland, was the eighth of 11 children, according to the website called the Father Flanagan League. His family was devoted to praying the Rosary together and working together on their farm. At age 6, he began to sense a calling to the priesthood, according to the League.
He immigrated to the U.S. in 1904 with his sister and later began studying for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In 1906, he graduated with honors from Mount St. Mary’s College, which enabled him to enter Dunwoodie Seminary in New York. However, in his first year at the seminary, he contracted double pneumonia and had to leave seminary. After moving to Omaha, Nebraska, where he recovered from the illness, he entered seminary again and completed his studies at Royal Imperial Leopold Francis University in Austria. He was ordained a priest in 1912 and returned to Omaha to serve the diocese.
After a tornado devastated much of his parish city, killing 155 people and leaving hundreds homeless, he opened a men’s shelter to serve many people in need.
“As he listened to the stories of [men at the shelter], he realized the story was always the same — none of them had come from a loving and caring family, all were victims of parental neglect or broken homes, or homes where a parent had died or deserted,” the League states.
This season of his life was also marked by the beginning of his efforts to found Boys Town, which offered boys without families a community and structured place for education and spiritual growth. He began studying about the juvenile detention system and in 1917 founded the first home for boys, which soon reached capacity. He moved the boys to a new building and by Christmas of 1918, there were 150 boys at the home. In 1921, he received the deed to a local farm, where he built five new buildings for the boys to live. According to the League, the farm “is now the incorporated Village of Boys Town.”
Fr. Flanagan’s story and work was later depicted in the 1938 film “Boys Town.”
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According to the League, as Fr. Flanagan’s mission work flourished, he traveled to 31 states and 12 countries in Asia and Europe advancing his service, and “more than 6,000 youth were under his direct care during his lifetime.”
“U.S. Presidents and other world leaders sought his counsel. He advised, was studied and inspired other clergy and youth care workers throughout the world,” the League states. “Eighty-nine programs across the globe are directly inspired by his example.”
He died in 1948 in Berlin, and his cause for canonization opened in 2012.
Omaha Archbishop Michael McGovern said in a statement posted to Facebook March 23 that he is “overjoyed” by the news.
“In this, the 100th anniversary of Catholic Charities’ founding in Omaha, it is fitting that Father Edward Flanagan, an Omaha priest and a model of Christian charity, be recognized by the Holy See,” the archbishop said.
He said that the archdiocese continues to pray that Fr. Flanagan’s path to sainthood will continue to advance and that he will one day ultimately be declared a saint.
“In the meantime, may we work to affirm the dignity of every person created in God’s image by serving the poor, the abandoned and the vulnerable, especially at-risk youth,” he said. “May Venerable Father Edward Flanagan’s example inspire us to live the Lord’s command: ‘Love one another, as I have loved you.’”