Pope praises Knights of Columbus witness to Christian hope
With more than 2,500 delegates and their families attending, the 129th Knights of
Columbus Supreme Convention opened on Tuesday in Denver, Colorado, with the celebration
of Holy Mass and a special message from Pope Benedict XVI.
Penned by Secretary
of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the message expresses the Pope’s “deep gratitude
to the Knights of Columbus for their continuing contribution to responsible public
debate about the great ethical issues which will shape the future of our democratic
societies”.
Founded by Father Michael J. McGivney in New Haven in 1882, the
KOFC is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. There are more
than 1.8 million members in 15,000 councils, with nearly 200 councils on college campuses.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, the Archbishop-designate of Philadelphia and current
diocesan administrator of Denver, presided over Mass. This was followed by Supreme
Knight Carl A. Anderson’s presentation of the Annual Report. In the 2010 fraternal
year, the Order gave over 154 million US dollars directly to charity and performed
over 70 million man-hours of voluntary service.
Commenting on the theme of
this year’s Supreme Convention –“So That The World May Know New Hope”– Cardinal Bertone
writes that Pope Benedict “sees in this valued service to the common good an outstanding
example of the lay apostolate”. “Such a clear and courageous moral witness is all
the more necessary in the light of a proliferation of legislative initiatives which
not only undermine such basic institutions of society as marriage and the family,
but also threaten the fundamental human rights of conscientious objection and religious
freedom. As part of its response to these increasingly serious challenges”.
Pope
Benedict, thinks especially of the “impressive witness to hope given by the Knights
of Columbus as they help so many young men to grow to Christian maturity, teaching
them to let their lives be shaped by the things that really matter (cf. Phil 1:10)
and offering countless quiet examples of the masculine virtues of fidelity, hard work,
generosity and self-sacrifice”.
The message concludes “This commitment
has always been shown first and foremost on the level of the local Councils, in the
many quiet ways in which Knights have always sought to help one another, especially
in difficult times such as the present economic downturn. It has also found privileged
expression in your Order’s institutional programs of insurance and financial planning,
which have brought stability and hope to so many individuals and families, and in
your charitable outreach to the poor throughout the world, particularly in the wake
of disasters such as those which recently struck Haiti and Japan. His Holiness is
likewise grateful for the unswerving support which the Knights have given to the Successor
of Peter in his ministry to the universal Church. He sees in this great symphony of
charity a testimony to the catholicity of our faith and to the breadth and depth of
our hope in Christ’s saving promises”.