{"id":363025,"date":"2026-03-24T18:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363025\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:57:12","slug":"galway-born-priest-takes-step-towards-sainthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363025\/","title":{"rendered":"Galway born priest takes step towards sainthood"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Irish-born priest has taken a significant step towards becoming a saint.<\/p>\n

Fr Edward Flanagan was one of six people named by Pope Leo XIV whose lives and heroic virtues have made them potential candidates for sainthood.<\/p>\n

Born in Co Galway, Fr Flanagan established a sanctuary in the US to care for thousands of orphaned and impoverished boys during World War 1.<\/p>\n

His approach to child poverty inspired an Oscar-winning film.<\/p>\n

Bishop of Achonry and Elphin, Kevin Doran, said Fr Flanagan believed that “there was no such thing as a bad child, only bad systems”.<\/p>\n

He explained that a lot of people were out of work due to a depression in the US and young boys got into trouble and were sent to institutional centres for punishment.<\/p>\n

“Boys living on the streets and getting into trouble because they were stealing food and then being put into institutional centres where they were being punished.<\/p>\n

“Fr Flanagan always took the view that there was no such thing as a bad child, only bad systems and bad education… and he kinda felt that he could do something different.”<\/p>\n

\"Fr
\nFr Edward Flanagan was one of six people named by Pope Leo XIV whose lives and heroic virtues have made them potential candidates for sainthood (Pic: Boys Town)<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9’s Morning Ireland, Bishop Doran explained that the priest began his operation with a small house that could accommodate about 12 or 15 boys.<\/p>\n

But he said numbers “increased dramatically”, and Fr Flanagan later founded Boys Town outside the city.<\/p>\n

He explained he moved outside the city as there was a lot of pressure at the time “not to be putting Catholic boys and Protestant boys and boys of different races together”.<\/p>\n

Fr Flanagan, he said, believed all boys are boys and should be treated equally.<\/p>\n

“He resisted that attempt at racism and sectarianism all through his life.”<\/p>\n

\"Fr
\nFr Edward Flanagan believed all boys should be treated equally (Pic: Boys Town)<\/p>\n

He added that the priest went outside city limits, as local legislation around race did not have the same impact.<\/p>\n

Fr Flanagan is a venerable within the Catholic church at present.<\/p>\n

Bishop Doran explained the idea of the miracle, needed for sainthood, is not about “working cheap tricks” but is about saying that if someone is genuinely close to God, then the fruits of that closeness will be seen in the lives of people close to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irish-born priest has taken a significant step towards becoming a saint. Fr Edward Flanagan was one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-363025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}