He Was Our Father

Father Michael J. McGivney (1852-1890) was a saintly Roman Catholic priest from Connecticut. In addition to the exemplary pastoral care that distinguished his devout priesthood, Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus—the world’s foremost Catholic fraternal benefit society. Laboring amidst the squalor of America’s Industrial Revolution and under the persecution oppressing so many immigrants of the time, Father McGivney evangelized culture with a visionary zeal. This heroic diocesan priest is hailed today as a true servant of charity, confessor of souls, apostle to the young, and protector of the Christian family. The play He Was Our Father was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, and premiered at the 2005 Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention in Chicago. The drama traces the priestly life of Father McGivney, highlighting historical events that were to become turning points for the Church and for the world. In 1996, Father McGivney’s cause for canonization was opened, and in 2008 Pope Benedict XVI declared Father McGivney “Venerable.”

Peter John Cameron is a priest of the Order of Preachers and a member of the Dramatists Guild. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting from The Catholic University of America. His first play, Full of Grace, received the David Lloyd Kreeger Creativity Award and was performed in showcase at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He is the former Director of Creative Affairs for Paulist Productions. In 1998, Fr. Cameron founded Blackfriars Repertory Theatre with the premiere of his play The Sacrament of Memory. Fr. Cameron’s lyric Passion play The Living Silence was staged in 2002 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City. Another of his dramatic works, The Women Who Served, was produced in 2004 by La Compagnia degli Scalpellini under the direction of Elsinor Theatre’s Franco Palmieri and toured Italy to sell-out audiences. The Knights of Columbus commissioned Fr. Cameron to write this play about the life of Fr. Michael J. McGivney.