John F. Fink is the author of nine titles published by ST PAULS/Alba House including the present one: St. Thomas More: Model for Modern Catholics (2008), Biblical Women: Females in a Patriarchal Society (2008), Jesus in the Gospels (2006), Letters to St. Francis de Sales: Mostly on Prayer (2002), American Saints (2001), a two-volume work on The Doctors of the Church of the First Millennium (2000) and The Doctors of the Church of the Second Millennium (2000), and Married Saints (1999).
Reviews
This is a small book that relates many things about the history of the Catholic Church in America, told by the lives of good people. The publisher states it is about men and women whose causes are being considered for canonization. Some, though leading very good lives, seem very unlikely to be canonized.
The book, through brief biographies, brings out the history of the Church in America. It is well written, interesting and inspiring. It is easy reading, written for ordinary people. Yet the information presented shows a good deal of historical research.
It has the stories of several black women who founded religious communities of black sisters in order to teach black children and their mothers. This was done at a time when there was a great deal of prejudice against African-Americans in this country.
Mr. Fink relates episodes about people no one these days has ever heard of: the Jesuits who were murdered in the earliest days of Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. He has other brief biographies of those we have heard of: the famous Jesuit Fr. Eusebio Kino, who labored long and heroically converting the Indians in northern Mexico and in Arizona, New Mexico and California. Then there is Fr. Charles Nerinckx, who founded the Sisters of Loretto in Kentucky, and Fr. Isaac Hecker, the founder of the Paulist Fathers.
Interesting are the articles about Pierre Toussaint of New York City; Fr. Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus; Cornelia Connelly, who lived one of the most unusual lives one can imagine. Other biographies are those of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, founder of a Dominican community dedicated to caring for those with incurable cancer; Fr. Emil Kapaun, a military chaplain taken prisoner and killed by the North Koreans; Solanus Casey; Dorothy Day; Catherine de Hueck Doherty; Bishop Sheen -- all of our own times.
If you want a good read, get this book. --Fr. Rawley Myers in the May 2010 issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review.
Future American Saints is a compact and helpful little book that considers fifty-one holy men and women from the United States who have lived outstanding lives of virtue. These brief biographies are arranged chronologically and describe each person's unique contribution to the local and universal church. Each of the selected people has been either named "Servant of God" by their local diocese or "Venerable" by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. These two titles are preliminary stages to being beatified or canonized in the Roman Catholic Church. The chapters are well written and accessible to both students and adults seeking succinct information on current Christian role models. Some of the names the reader will encounter include Pierre Toussaint, Samuel Mazzuchelli, Michael J. McGivney, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Dorothy Day, and Terence Cooke. There are brief acknowledgments and a bibliography section at the end of the book. This title is recommended for parish libraries. --John-Leonard Berg in the March 2010 issue of Catholic Library World.
Author of five books about saints, John Fink presents biographical sketches of 51 men and women connected to the United States and whose causes have reached the "Servant of God" stage (now with the Holy See's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints). In fact, four have been declared Venerable: Felix de Andreis, C.M., Cornelia Connelly, S.C.H.J., Maria Luisa Josefa, O.C.D., and Solanus Casey, O.F.M., Cap. They will be beatified whenever the Church accepts a miracle linked to their intercession.Although Fink lists Marianne Cope, O.S.F. as Venerable, she was beatified on May 14, 2005. These profiles are slightly revised from Fink's series in The Criterion, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
After telling the stories of eight Jesuit martyrs in Virginia (1571) and five Franciscan martyrs in Georgia (1579), this volume presents the remaining 38 individuals roughly according to the year that they died, from Eusebio Kino, S.J. in 1711 to Patrick Peyton, C.S.C. in 1992. When they died, everyone in this book belonged to the clergy or to a religious community, except Pierre Toussaint (d. 1820), Mary Virginia Merrick (1955, Christ Child Society), Dorothy Day (1980, Catholic Worker) and Catherine de Hueck Doherty (1985, Madonna House Apostolate).
Bishop Frederic Baraga (Michigan) and Simon Brute (Indiana) are here with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (New York) and Cardinal Terrence Cooke (New York). Parish priests Charles Nerinckx (Kentucky), Felix Varela (New York / Cuba), Demetrius Gallitzin (Pennsylvania), Michael McGivney (Connecticut) and Nelson Baker (New York) are described along with priest-chaplains Emil Kapaun (Kansas / Korea) and Vincent Capodanno, M.M. (New York / Vietnam).
Founders of women's religious communities include Henriette Delille (Sisters of the Holy Family), Mary Lange (Oblate Sisters of Providence), Mary Theresa Dudzik (Franciscan Sisters of Chicago), Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (Servants of Relief from Incurable Cancer), Marie-Clement Staub (Sisters of St. Joan of Arc), Maria Kaupas (Sisters of St. Casimir) and Angeline McCrory (Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm).
Fink also profiles Franciscan Magin Catala, Samuel Mazzuchelli, O.P., Isaac Hecker, C.S.P., Mary Magdalene Benivoglio, O.S.C., Stephen Eckert, O.F.M. Cap., Maria Theresa Demjanovich, S.C., and Walter Ciszek, S.J., as well as Frank Parater (seminarian) and the male founders of Maryknoll (James Walsh and Thomas Price).
The chapters on Sheen and Peyton are slightly longer becaue Fink knew them personally. In a future edition of this book, it would be good if the author could report that the causes of several married couples had completed the diocesan process.
This fine volume concludes with a four-page Bibliography for those who wish to learn more about these women and men who generously lived out the Good News of Jesus Christ. --Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. in the November 2009 issue of St. Anthony Messenger
John F. Fink's Future American Saints: Men and Women Whose Causes Are Being Considered chronicles Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries killed in "Virginia" and "Georgia" in the late 1500's, Henriette Delille and Angeline McCrory, Emil Kapaun and Terence Cooke, all told about thirty men and fifteen women -- fascinating acquaintances to be inspired by. --Philip C. Fischer, S.J. in Review for Religious, 68.4 2009
Declared: All of the fifty-one men and women in Future American Saints? Men and Women Whose Causes Are Being Considered by John F. Fink have been declared either a "Servant of God" or "Venerable," in the eyes of the church faithful by the Vatican. Among the people whose lives are briefly related here -- with plenty of detail in a small amount of space for each biography -- are Pierre Toussaint, Fr. Michael J. McGivney, Fr. Isaac Hecker, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Fr. James Walsh, Fr. Solanus Casey, Dorothy Day, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Bishop Sheen, Fr. Patrick Peyton, and Fr. Walter Ciszek. Which of them will eventually be numbered among the canonized is still uncertain. The example they have set for all of us will remain forever valid, however. --Crux of the News
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