The Catholic Weekly 28 June 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 12 28, June, 2020 FEATURE Mikey Schachle, 5, examines a statue of Father Michael McGivney at his home. PHOTO: CNS/RICK MUSACCHIO,TENNESSEE REGISTER FIVE-YEAR-OLD MIKEY Schachle climbs onto a stump in the back yard of his family’s home. He carefully takes stock of the short distance to the tram- poline buried in the ground below him, then slowly steps off the stump into space and falls happily onto the trampo- line as some of his 12 brothers and sisters surround him with smiles and hugs. It’s a scene that would have been impossible for his parents, Dan and Michelle Schachle, to imagine five years ago when they sat in a doctor’s office to hear that their still un- born son had zero chance of living more than a few days or weeks. It took a miracle to save Mikey. On 27 May, Pope Francis approved the promulgation of a decree recognising Mikey’s cure from a deadly case of fe- tal hydrops while still in his mother’s womb as a miracle attributed to the intercession of US priest Father Michael McGivney, founder of the fraternal men’s organisation known as the Knights of Co- lumbus. The Knights count approx- imately two million members worldwide. With the approval of the miracle, Father McGivney, who now has the title of “Ven- erable,” will be beatified and receive the title “Blessed.” “I think God had a plan for Father McGivney. I think God had a plan for Michael,” Dan Schachle said of his son’s mi- raculous cure. “You have to be open to God’s grace, you have to be open to God’s plan, because if you’re not open to God’s plan, he can’t use you.” The Schachles like to tell people they met in prison. Michelle was a single mother with twin daughters working in the office of the chief of se- curity at South Central Correc- tional Facility in Clifton, Ten- nessee, and Dan was working as a guard. Their friendship blossomed into a romance and they were married on 20 September 1997. Michelle’s daughters were 4 years old. “Danmarried the three of us,” she said. After ¾ ¾ Andy Telli marrying, Dan adopted the two girls. Michelle had decid- ed to become a Catholic, and on their wedding day she en- tered the church. “At first I kind of struggled with Mary, which is funny to me now,” considering her fam- ily is consecrated to the Bless- ed Virgin, Michelle said. Praying to saints was anoth- er feature of the Catholic faith that was difficult for her to ac- cept at first. “It just seemed to be wrong to go through any- body but Jesus,” she said. One aspect of Catholic teaching that Michelle had no trouble accepting was re- spect for life. “When I became Catholic, [the] right to life was something I could grab on to,” she said. With a little time, Michelle began to fully embrace all the teachings and devotions of the Mikey’s miracle of joy A five-year-old boy holds the key to why an American priest, most people have never heard of, is being beatified by Pope Francis Catholic Church, and they be- came a lifeline when she need- ed them most. As their family grew, Dan started looking for a new business opportunity and became a life insurance agent for the Knights of Columbus. He joined the Knights in 1994 and served as the Grand Knight of his local Council in his home parish, St Mary Church in Savannah, Tennes- see. “The last thing I ever im- agined myself being was a life insurance agent,” said Dan, now the general agent for the Knights’ insurance program in three states, overseeing the work of 16 agents. “But once I read about Father McGivney and why he set us up, it was really eye-opening to me. It was love of women and chil- dren that drove him to start the Knights of Columbus.” Late in 2014, Michelle be- came pregnant with Mikey, their 13th child. Dan and Michelle hadn’t planned on having such a big family. “We said yes to God one at time,” Michelle said. Michelle’s midwife referred her for an ultrasound. On the last day of 2014, she was un- dergoing the procedure when the doctors found markers in- dicating the child had Down syndrome, which is caused when a person has an extra chromosome. “It didn’t matter to us,” Dan said. “It’s actually a gift to our family.” But the doctors saw some other troubling signs and sent Michelle for more tests. On 25 February 2015, the doctors told the Schachles their child might not survive. The baby had a severe case of fetal hydrops, a life-threat- ening condition of an abnor- mal buildup of fluids in the tissue around the lungs, heart or abdomen or under the skin. He pressed the doctor for a percentage on the chances their son would live. “She fi- nally said, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve never seen anybody survive,’” he said. The doctor told them “to have hydrops and a chromo- somal diagnosis together, it’s over,” Michelle recalled. The doctor tried to reassure them. There was no hope for their child, so they shouldn’t feel guilty about terminating the pregnancy. The Schachles were told they could induce delivery right then or “let na- ture take its course,” Michelle said. “I didn’t like either one of those decisions,” Dan said. “It madememad. My job as a dad is to protect my children, not to kill them.” The condition was not only a threat to the baby but also could cause serious complica- tions for Michelle, their doctor told them. For Michelle, the concern was delivering a child stillborn, something that had happened when she was younger. “I be- came so afraid of delivering another baby stillborn,” she said. There was a moment when she asked herself, is it really an abortion if there is no hope? She quickly told herself yes it would be. “It was only a split second, and then it was gone.” “We can both understand parents falling into that deci- sion,” Dan said. Instead, Dan and Michelle turned to Father McGivney for help. The Knights of Columbus have been promoting his saint- hood cause since 1997 and the Schachles were members of the Father McGivney Guild, an organisation established to support the cause. As they were alone contemplating the news they had just received, “Dan was quiet for a moment,” Michelle remembered. “He looked at me and said, ‘Fa- ther McGivney needs a mira- cle. I just prayed that if Father McGivney saves him, I’mnam- ing himMichael.’” Until then, the couple had planned to name the child Ben. The Schacles also had some powerful prayer part- ners. As they prepared for a Knights-sponsored pilgrimage in March 2015 to the Vatican, Spain and the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, they sent out emails to asmany people as they could, asking them to pray for the interces- sion of Father McGivney to save their son. Throughout their pilgrim- age, the Schachles also prayed for his intercession. Priests of- feredMasses for them in Rome and back home at their parish. Four days after the Schachles returned home from the pilgrimage, Michelle went back to the doctor’s office for another ultrasound to check the baby’s fluid levels and the status of the hydrops. “I was pretty scared,” Mi- chelle said. “The ultrasound I didn’t like either one of those decisions. It made me mad. My job as a dad is to protect my children, not to kill them.” Dan Schachle, father of miracle boy Mikey