Pope Leo XIV moved Father Edward Joseph Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town in Nebraska, a step closer to sainthood on Monday by proclaiming the priest’s “heroic virtues,” the Vatican step that officially declares someone “venerable.” The decree was signed after the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints reviewed a dossier on Flanagan’s life, writings and works, and the pope’s action brings Flanagan to the next stage of the process.
Archbishop Michael McGovern of Omaha said he was “overjoyed” with the decision and said the local church would continue to pray for Flanagan’s beatification and eventual recognition as a saint. In a statement, McGovern added that the work of honoring Flanagan’s example should continue by serving those he described as poor, abandoned and vulnerable, “especially at-risk youth.”
The declaration of “venerable” refers to the conclusion that a candidate for sainthood lived a life of heroic virtue. It does not mean the person was free of sin or mistakes, but it does mean that the church regards the person as having a reputation for holiness because of how they practiced Christian virtues, according to the Vatican process described in Monday’s reporting.
Flanagan is widely known as “Father Flanagan,” and Boys Town, which operates in the village of the same name on the western outskirts of Omaha, traces its origins to his work in the early 20th century. Flanagan was born in Ballymoe, Ireland, in 1886 and immigrated to the United States in 1904, was ordained a priest in 1912, and began working in the Diocese of Omaha in 1913, according to biographical material associated with the Father Flanagan League that promotes his cause.
The biography says Flanagan provided shelter for homeless men and concluded that many adult problems can be rooted in broken homes and parental neglect. It also describes how he began mentoring boys in the juvenile justice system and established his first home for boys in 1917 in downtown Omaha before buying a farm in 1921 to start building what became the Boys Town campus.
By the 1930s, hundreds of boys lived at the site, which included a school and dormitories where the boys elected their own mayor, council and commissioners, the organization’s website states. The reporting also notes that Flanagan traveled to postwar Japan to help develop a child welfare program and later visited Ireland, criticizing the use of industrial schools and reformatories for children and calling them exploitative.
Flanagan died of a heart attack in 1948 at age 61 while visiting Germany, and Boys Town displays a well-known quotation associated with his grave: “There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad example, bad thinking.” His work also reached mainstream audiences through the 1938 film “Boys Town,” starring Spencer Tracy as Flanagan and Mickey Rooney as one of the boys in his care, with Oscar wins for Tracy and for the movie’s original story.
In addition to Boys Town’s residential work—later expanded to admit girls to its residential programs in 1979—the organization said it welcomed Monday’s Vatican announcement. In a Facebook post, Boys Town said Flanagan “believed that children had the right to be valued, to have the basic necessities of life and to be protected,” and added that “His lifesaving work continues across the country today.”
For Flanagan, the next step after being declared “venerable” is beatification, which requires a postulator to find a case of someone being “miraculously healed” after prayers for Flanagan’s intercession. The process includes vetting by theological and medical experts, followed by consideration by the dicastery and a decree signed by the pope allowing beatification if the case is accepted.
A second miracle is generally required for canonization, with the process described as allowing martyrs to be beatified without a miracle. The reporting also said a pope can sometimes bypass miracle requirements in declaring a saint, and cited Pope Francis’s canonization of St. Junipero Serra during a 2015 visit to Washington, D.C., even though the Vatican had not confirmed a second miracle attributed to Serra’s intercession.
Flanagan is also the second U.S. cleric with Midwestern connections to move closer to sainthood this year under Pope Leo’s pontificate. In February, the Vatican approved the beatification ceremony of Archbishop Fulton Sheen in Illinois, according to related coverage in the same year.
The church’s decisions on Flanagan’s cause now move to the remaining stages—beatification, and then canonization—if and when the Vatican concludes the miracles required by the process have been validated.