In the late 19th century, the state of Connecticut was marked by anti-Catholic prejudice and dangerous working conditions in factories that often led to injury and death; leaving families poor or fatherless. Then 20-year-old Fr. Michael McGiveny gathered a group of men together to do something about these issues. The meeting took place on October 2, 1881. McGivney's vision: Establish a lay-led group of Catholic men to unite and help one another and families without fathers; the widows and the orphans.
McGivney wanted an order of men that demonstrated both their love for the Catholic faith and love of country; in other words, patriotism. So, these earliest Knights took the name of Christopher Columbus, regarded as an American hero in those days and a Catholic explorer credited with finding the way, by sea, to America. The founding principles of the Order were charity and unity, and then later, fraternity and patriotism.
The Knights of Columbus assumed corporate status on March 29, 1882, in New Haven Connecticut, forever our anniversary and called Founder's Day.
By the end of World War I and through the Great Depression, the Knights of Columbus grew and made a name for themselves with charitable works and confronted the Ku Klux Klan with ant-defamation awareness and education. By 1954 it would be the Knight of Columbus that campaigned for the addition "under God" in the United States Pledge of Allegiance. President Dwight D. Eisenhower would sign that law into existence.
In 1966, the Order took concrete action to help eliminate racial discrimination and revised its own admissions criteria and adopted many social justice initiatives. The insurance operation of the Knights of Columbus grew, by 1975, to over $ 3 billion of insurance in force. And in 1997, the Knight of Columbus was at the forefront of the Archdiocese of Hartford's efforts to open the cause for the canonization of Fr. Michael McGiveny.
As the Knights of Columbus entered the new millennium, they worked to serve victims of war in Ukraine, supported persecuted Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land, responded to natural and humanitarian disasters and would provide over 2,000 ultrasound machines to pregnancy centers and so much more.
In 2020, Fr. Michael McGivney would be beatified, just one step shy of canonization. They served faithfully and robustly during the Covid-19 pandemic. The order began to grow internationally across Europe, into Ukraine & Poland, in Asia and across the world. The order has grown to $ 100 billion of insurance in force.
Today there are 2.2 million members of the Knights of Columbus in over 17,000 local councils in many different countries around the world. All started by the vision of now Blessed Michael McGiveney under the patronage of the Catholic world explorer Christopher Columbus.
No comments:
Post a Comment