He Was Our Father

He Was Our Father tells the true story of Fr. Michael McGivney, a young diocesan priest from Waterbury, Connecticut who was revered as a champion to the poor and the oppressed, as a zealous social reformer ahead of his time, and as a hero to young people. McGivney grew up in a post-Civil War America that was struggling to re-find its identity as it adjusted to the many challenges to family and society posed by the urbanization of the Industrial Revolution. Father McGivney’s world was marred by flagrant prejudice toward immigrants (especially the Irish), rabid anti-Catholicism, brutal — and frequently fatal — working conditions in factories and mills, and blatant attempts (especially by the “Know-Nothing” political party) to exclude from public office and society all but “nativist” American citizens.