What is a postulator? He or she is the person who officially presents to the Church the cause of beatification or canonization of someone deemed worthy of such an honor and who takes care of all the legal, procedural and monetary matters relating to the cause.

What have I been doing? Generally speaking, since my appointment I have been collecting testimonies of people concerning Catherine’s life, gathering materials for the eventual examination by the Bishop’s Committee, and endeavoring to learn and follow the proper canonical procedures on the community’s behalf.

In the early years of the process, I was assisted by Mary Ruth, who has since gone to her eternal reward. While in her seventies, she took on learning the computer and did an enormous amount of work cataloguing the hundreds of letters we received from people and transcribing.

Another vital job has been to interview people who knew Catherine, especially those who may no longer be alive at further stages of the investigation. (In fact, some I have interviewed have already died.)

At some point Kathleen Janet Thompson, who was already responsible for organizing and making accessible the huge quantity of Catherine’s talks and writings, began to assist in the work of the cause, and she continues to do so.

During the six years I was stationed in Madonna House England, she answered—often at quite some length—the letters coming in from people, kept records, helped with the newsletter, and did other things too numerous to mention.

The Church looks for some kind of “groundswell” from God’s people as a sign of someone’s holiness, and right from the beginning, we of Madonna House became aware that people outside of Madonna House were praying for favors through Catherine’s intercession (as we were doing individually ourselves). This we took as one sign that the Lord might want to raise Catherine to a more public veneration.

So another thing I did as postulator was to compose a prayer and begin to distribute it. Later I also started a newsletter for the cause.

Are composing a prayer and starting a newsletter (both with the permission of the bishop) “pushing the cause” in an unacceptable way? No. While anything like a campaign or media blitz needs to be avoided, the Church accepts and even encourages discreet ways of making the person known.

In fact, a cause cannot proceed, and more importantly, the will of the Holy Spirit cannot be discerned, without some public attempts to make the person known so that an evaluation can be made.

I have been encouraging people to pray this prayer to Catherine by themselves, with others, and as a novena. (Some friends of mine have made a 54-day novena with quite amazing results.)

(If you are specifically interested in furthering Catherine’s cause, I recommend that you pray for a specific intention only through her intercession. If you invoke other holy people as well, it will not be clear who the intercessor was.)

What has been happening on the official level?

Bishop Windle, the bishop of our diocese of Pembroke, who gave the cause his enthusiastic support and guided it through its initial stages, has since died. He was succeeded by Bishop Brendan O’Brien, (now archbishop of St. John’s Newfoundland), who saw the process through the next steps.

One of these was officially asking all the bishops of the region if they had any objection to the opening of a cause for Catherine. They did not.

Next Bishop O’Brien published the request for the opening of the cause in the Pembroke diocesan newspaper, asking if anyone had anything to say, pro or con, about opening such a cause. No difficulties were encountered.

Next, I presented a formal request to the bishop to open the cause. This request contains, in brief, a report on the person’s reputation for holiness, on his or her life and virtues, and on favors granted through her. It also includes any obstacles to the cause, a list of all published writings, and a list of witnesses, both favorable and unfavorable.

Then, once the inquiry has been begun at the diocesan level, the candidate can be officially referred to as “Servant of God.” It was quite exciting for us when Catherine was officially made “Servant of God.”

As postulator I also visited Rome to consult with Msgr. Sarno, one of the canonical experts at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He made it clear that my main task, and that of Madonna House, is to gather all the relevant material about Catherine, material which will eventually be investigated by the bishop’s committee.

It was a very exciting moment for me when he wrote out for me, in Latin, the official title on Catherine’s file: “Cause of the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty, lay faithful and foundress of the Apostolate called Madonna House.”

There is still a great deal of work to be done, but Catherine is definitely on her way!

For more information about Catherine’s Cause, and for the newsletter that comes out twice a year, check out our website: www.catherinedoherty.org. Or if you wish to be put on the Cause’s mailing list, send your name and address to Fr. Wild at Madonna House.