Confirmed: Pope approves 'heroic virtues' of Knights of Columbus founder

From the Canadian Press, Vatican City press office:

Pope Benedict on Saturday set the founder of the Knights of Columbus, one of the world's largest lay Catholic groups, on the path to possible beatification and sainthood, the Vatican said.

The Pope recognized the "heroic virtues" of reverend Michael McGivney, who in 1882 created a fraternal society for Catholic men who suffered discrimination because of their religion and immigrant origins.

...

The effort to canonize him was opened in 1997. That process received important support last year, when the Vatican's No. 2 official, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, celebrated mass at the Knights of Columbus annual meeting in Tennessee and said he would work to have the priest declared a saint.

update: the Hartford Courant has more. The KofC have issued a press release and a news release with the reminder that Father McGivney would be the first American born priest to be declared a saint.

The KofC has a website dedicated to Father McGivney info, including a page on his sainthood cause:

... Only one who has lived the Christian life in an extraordinary manner, who has manifested "heroic virtue," can be seriously considered for canonization.

The Holy Father looks to a sign from God as confirmation of God's positive judgment concerning beatification or canonization. Miracles are a positive sign that God indeed confirms the decision of the Church.

The chief postulator of Father McGivney’s cause for canonization is the Dominican priest Fr. Gabriel O'Donnell, O.P., who serves as my Academic Dean at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception.

update 2: from the Vatican Bulletino (March 17):

"The Holy Father today received in private audience Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins C.M.F., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorised the promulgation of decrees concerning the following causes ... Servant of God Michael McGivney, American diocesan priest and founder of the Knights of Columbus (1852-1890).