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| Members of the newly reactivated Santa Maria Council 2479 in Camagüey, Cuba, with Archbishop Juan García Rodríguez following the celebration of Mass. |
Membership growth is absolutely necessary if we are to accomplish our goals of having a council in every parish, and being able to provide support to every priest. I am proud to report to you today that for the 38th consecutive year, our membership has grown. A net gain of 22,211 members brought our membership to a new all-time record high of 1,785,393. In the United States, Texas led the way in membership growth, with a net gain of 2,024 members, followed by California with 952, Florida with 666 and Kansas with 601. But the biggest gains came in the Philippines, where Luzon added 6,791 members, Visayas added 3,189 and Mindanao recruited 2,745 new members.
While there is plenty of good news to celebrate on the membership front, we must not lose sight of the huge unrealized potential in the countries where we are active. In the United States, for example, we have more than 1,287,000 members, but there are as many as 30 million eligible Catholic men who are not yet Knights. In Canada, as many as 5 million Catholic men are eligible to join our ranks, while our membership total is 231,000. In Mexico, recent membership growth has been very strong, and membership there now stands at around 7,000, but as many as 49 million Catholic men are eligible to become Knights. Our brother Knights in the Philippines have been doing an exceptional job at recruiting new members, and now number more than 250,000. But our potential there is tremendous as well, with 27 million eligible men.
At last year’s convention in Quebec City, we were pleased to welcome a delegation of Knights from Cuba for the first time in 58 years. Members of the reactivated Santa Maria Council 2479 in Camagüey have continued to grow and prosper. They have formed their own First Degree team, and just last week they brought 15 new members into the Order. In the eastern part of Cuba, three dozen Catholic men in the Diocese of Manzinillo are working to establish a new council. The bishop there is working with Archbishop Juan Garcia and the men of Council 2479 to move things ahead.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Knights of Columbus in Cuba, and a wonderful article on the early history of the Order there appears in the July issue of Columbia magazine.
In our newest jurisdiction in Poland, membership has grown by 225 members in the past year; and Poland now has 870 members in 14 councils. That represents growth of 35% in just one year, and is a very good sign of the health of the Order in our first European jurisdiction.
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