(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to the Knights of Columbus who have
been holding their 131st Supreme Convention in San Antonio, Texas from
August 6th to 8th. Addressed to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson
(pictured) and signed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
the message says Pope Francis has been comforted in the first months of his pontificate
by the many messages of prayerful encouragement and solidarity he has received from
so many Knights and their families.
Noting the theme of the Convention, ‘Be
Protectors of God’s Gifts’, the papal message says that in fidelity to the founding
vision of their order in the late nineteenth century, the Knights of Columbus continue
to play an outstanding role in helping Catholic men to respond to their vocation to
be ‘protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors
of one another and of the environment’.
Conscious of the specific responsibility
which the lay faithful have for the Church’s mission, the message continues by inviting
each Knight, and every Council, to bear witness to the authentic nature of marriage
and the family, the sanctity and inviolable dignity of human life, and the beauty
and truth of human sexuality. In this time of rapid social and cultural changes, it
says, the protection of God’s gifts cannot fail to include the affirmation and defense
of the great patrimony of moral truths taught by the Gospel and confirmed by right
reason, which serve as the bedrock of a just and well-ordered society.