OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) — It started in 1917 with a rented house, five boys who needed a home in Omaha and a Catholic priest determined to help troubled and abandoned youths throughout the city.

Now, Boys Town helps more than 1.6 million people each year through its main campus of group homes, churches, a grade school and high school, post office and bank, as well as a national research hospital in Omaha, a national hotline, and other services and locations around the country.

And the priest who started it all — Father Edward Flanagan — might someday be named a saint.

The process toward canonization began Feb. 27 with Archbishop George J. Lucas — surrounded by more than 200 people with dozens of cameras flashing — placing a notice on the doors of St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. The notice, which is a centuries-old church tradition, alerts the public to the opening of Father Flanagan’s sainthood cause. It also invites people to share their thoughts with a tribunal that is being formed to review the priest’s life and works.

The process toward possible canonization continues with a March 17 Mass at Immaculate Conception Church at Boys Town — where Father Flanagan’s body is laid to rest — with Archbishop Lucas, Father Steven Boes, executive director of Boys Town, and other Catholic officials participating. Father Flanagan will be named a “servant of God” at the Mass.

In addition, the archbishop will install the religious officials and experts who will form the tribunal investigating Father Flanagan’s work and reputation. Tribunal members will interview people who come forward as witnesses of Father Flanagan’s virtue.