The Archdiocese of Manila has opened the resumption of the cause for beatification and sainthood of Father George J. Willmann, a U.S. Jesuit priest credited for the phenomenal growth of the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines.

CBCP News said the local process for the beatification and canonization was reopened during a July 4 ceremony led by Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula at the chapel of the archdiocese in Intramuros.

In his homily, the Manila prelate described Father Willmann “as a man who lived the Gospel in a heroic way."

“We hope and pray that through his cause, we can offer another exemplary and dauntless model of Christian discipleship in our modern times,” Advincula said.

“May through his intercession, true conversion and renewal of our Philippine Church and society be realized,” he added.

It was in December 2015 when the archdiocesan phase was first opened during Mass led by the then archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, at the Manila Cathedral.

However, the work in the archdiocese was put on hold because of some technical norms that have to be considered in the causes of saints.

According to the 2007 instruction Santorum Mater of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the cause must be opened by the bishop of the diocese where the Servant of God died.

Father Willmann died of a heart attack in New York on Sept. 14, 1977 after attending a supreme convention of the Knights of Columbus.

In 2019, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York granted the transfer of competence to open the cause of Father Willmann from his archdiocese to the Manila archdiocese.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) during its plenary assembly in January 2020 approved the initiation of the local inquiry to the cause of the Jesuit priest in the Manila archdiocese.

In 2021, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted the Archdiocese of Manila a “nihil obstat” to open the Cause of Father Willmann.