Report to the 124th Supreme Council Meeting

Supreme Knight Carl A Anderson’s report to the 124th Supreme Council Meeting in Orlando, Fla., on Aug. 1, 2006.

My brother Knights:

Pope Benedict XVI receives copies of The Way of Love, a scholarly commentary written about his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love), from Msgr. Livio Melina, president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome, and Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, vice president of the North American session of the institute in Washington,D.C., during a May audience. Msgr. Melina and Anderson edited the commentary.

On Christmas Day 2005, Benedict XVI issued Deus Caritas Est, his first encyclical as pope.  It was and is a timely document, and for me, it was almost as if he had written it just for the Knights of Columbus.

Since our founding 124 years ago, the first principle of our Order has been charity.  And Deus Caritas Est is surely one of the most eloquent documents ever written about charity, and the way in which it lies at the very heart of our Catholic faith.  “Charitable activity on behalf of the poor and suffering,” he says, was “an essential part of the Church of Rome from the very beginning.”  And it has been an essential part of the Knights of Columbus – the essence of what we believe it means to be a Catholic gentleman – from the moment we were founded in 1882.

We have always realized that each of us has an obligation, as Catholic Christians, to engage in acts of charity ourselves, that we cannot leave it to others. And here we have the Holy Father reminding us that charity “is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful,” and that charitable activity is “inseparable” from proclaiming the word of God and celebrating the sacraments. “For the Church,” Benedict writes, “charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.” As the world’s largest lay Catholic organization, it is part of our nature, too.  And over the past year we have engaged in acts of charity on a scale that is unprecedented in our history. When disaster struck the American gulf coast in the form of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we quickly mounted the greatest disaster relief effort in the history of the Order. 

And so this year, I want to begin my annual report to you with the extraordinary story of our response to the catastrophic storms of the American Gulf Coast.

Billy Gollott of Biloxi (Miss.) Council 1244 speaks with Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, Mississippi State Deputy Larry J. Tabor and Supreme Treasurer Dennis A. Savoie amidst the ruins of the council home Sept. 13.

We all remember well the incredible satellite pictures of Katrina as it became a category five hurricane. Other terrible storms have been as powerful, but this one was not only powerful, it was huge – hundreds of miles wide. On the morning of August 29, it spread destruction all the way from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama. 

A few days later, when I traveled to the area to make a personal assessment of the damage, I could scarcely believe my eyes. In addition to the wind damage that had toppled trees which had survived many less powerful storms, a 30-foot storm surge had swept homes right off their foundations. Along the coast of Mississippi, not a house was left standing. I stood with a brother Knight in front of what had been his home. All that was left were the brick steps where his front door used to be. Farther inland, homes that survived had been deluged with water that blew out windows and filled the interior right up to the ceiling.  They would have to be stripped to the studs and refinished completely before they could be habitable again.  In Baton Rouge and Houston, we met evacuees by the thousands, left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We saw something else, too:  hundreds of Knights of Columbus, who had jumped right into the task of helping people in need. 

Knights in the affected states rushed into action the moment the storm passed, providing hands-on help for victims throughout the region. In Louisiana and Mississippi, members went door to door to rescue their neighbors. Council homes were turned over to emergency rescue personnel for staging areas. Knights opened up meeting halls to house those who had been displaced by the storms and flooding. Soup kitchens were staffed. Schoolbooks and supplies were collected for children. Knights volunteered at emergency shelters. They collected everything from clean clothes to furniture.

Right after the storm, we convened daily conference calls with every state deputy in North America, and listened carefully as the Knights in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas told us what they needed.  Within hours, councils from Oregon and Saskatchewan to Virginia and New Jersey – in fact, every state and province in the US and Canada – were raising funds and sending truckloads of badly needed supplies. 

And then, incredibly, nature had one more disaster to serve up: On September 24, Hurricane Rita, the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, made landfall near the border of Texas and Louisiana. Suddenly, people like Supreme Director Jack O’Reilly, who had escaped Katrina’s wrath and had been busy helping others, found themselves in harm’s way. 

We redoubled our efforts after Rita passed, and ultimately built up a Gulf States Disaster Relief Fund of more than $10 million. The Supreme Council pitched in $2.5 million immediately, and state and local councils raised millions more.  Ultimately, nearly $5.4 million was donated to the fund by councils, individual Knights, and the general public. Supreme Council matching funds totaled another $2.1 million. 

• Here are some of the highlights of our effort to date:

• $5.4 million was received from nearly 55,000 individuals and organizations;

• $3.2 million of this amount was from nearly 50,000 members;

• $1.8 million of this amount was from 2,045 local councils and 51 state councils;

• $.4 million was from nearly 2,200 non-members and companies.

Approximately 92 percent of the funds raised have been distributed as follows:

• By September 2, 2005, immediate community aid for evacuees of $250,000 was given to Catholic Charities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Memphis, Tennessee. An additional $100,000 was provided in the weeks that followed.

• $.5 million in scholarship aid was provided to inner-city Catholic schools so that classes could resume.

• $.6 million in gift cards for clothing, food, and medicine were distributed to affected Knights in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

• $1.1 million was distributed to Knights who lost their homes.

• $6.7 million was distributed to various dioceses to help rebuild the Catholic Infrastructure (New Orleans--$2.4 million; Biloxi  – $1.4 million; Lake Charles – $1.1 million; Houma-Thibodeaux--$.6 million; Lafayette – $.6 million; Beaumont – $.5 million; and Mobile – $.1 million).

Approximately $.8 million or 8 percent of the funds remain and will be distributed in the coming months.  As the parishes begin to rebuild, the Knights of Columbus also stands ready to help through our ChurchLoan  program.

Nearly one year after the hurricanes hit, Knights are still on the scene helping families rebuild their lives, helping Catholic parishes reconstruct churches and schools, and putting muscle and volunteer people power into Habitat for Humanity projects and other new construction. 

In Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict writes that Christian charity is based on the example given in the parable of the Good Samaritan. “Christian charity,” he says, “is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison.”

Gentlemen, we made a promise to help those in need along the Gulf Coast, and we have kept our promise. It has been one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of our Order, and you can be proud indeed to be leaders of an organization that takes its obligation of charity so seriously.

Our hurricane relief effort was the most visible part of our charitable work last year, but it was a record year for us all the way around. Spurred on by donations in early 2005 to the Asian tsunami disaster and then the Gulf states hurricanes in September 2005, Knights raised and donated a record $139.7 million. This exceeded the 2004 totals by $4 million. The 2005 totals include $33,638,426 in contributions by the Supreme Council and its charitable foundations; $12,685,401 from state councils; and $93,387,792 in donations from councils, assemblies and Squires circles.

In 2005 Knights also reported volunteering 64,039,706 hours of service. This is up nearly 1 million hours from 2004.

These totals are based on approximately 75 percent of all our units. It remains our goal to have 100 percent reporting on the fraternal survey.

The fraternal survey also captured these important statistics about our outreach to neighbors in need:

Volunteer Service to the Church — 30.2 million hours

Volunteer Service to the Community — 17 million hours

Volunteer Service to Youth — 7.8 million hours

Miscellaneous Service — 9.0 million hours

For the first time, we asked reporting units to include the hours of volunteer time members donated at Habitat for Humanity work sites. In 2005, Knights gave 784,688 hours of time to Habitat for Humanity.  That includes work done by a big group of college Knights during this year’s spring break near Thibodaux, Louisiana, involving men from our councils at West Point, Texas A&M, Baylor University, and Austin State University.

Soon, those of us at the Supreme Council headquarters will be joining in the Habitat for Humanity effort. The headquarters staff has taken responsibility for building one of four homes that will take up a whole block on Rosette Street in New Haven.  Supreme Secretary Bob Lane recently helped break the ground for the project. The house we’re building is for Wilfredo Ortiz, his wife Maria, and their five children. They’ve been living in a two bedroom, one bath apartment for the past four years, and we’re really looking forward to helping them become owners of a house big enough for seven!

The value of these volunteer hours is enormous. Independent Sector, an organization that tracks and encourages giving programs by charities, foundations and corporations, estimates that the dollar value of the volunteer hour in 2005 was $18.04. Using its figure, the value of the Order’s volunteer efforts in 2005 totals $1.1 billion ($1,155,276,296).

At last year’s convention, we decided to open up participation in the Christopher Fund to states not yet taking part. And I’m happy to report that we’re now very close to participation by every single state jurisdiction.

Of the $106,073,193 total charitable disbursements by state and local units in 2005, gifts were made in the following categories and amounts:

Church (in millions)

Church Facilities — $17,148,938

Catholic Schools  — $6,606,756

Religious Education — $3,307,304

Seminarians/Refund Support Vocations Program — $4,839,965

Seminaries — $1,392,629

Vocations Projects — $1,632,693

Miscellaneous — $6,395,910

Total Church — $41,323,795

Community (in millions)

Elderly — $2,784,908

People with Physical Disabilities — $4,049,671

Special Olympics — $2,957,834

People with Intellectual Disabilities — $11,271,234

Human Needs — $6,288,523

Pro-Life Programs — $3,603,844

Victims of Disaster — $5,047,411

Hospitals/Institutions — $1,598,467

Health/Service Organizations — $2,095,579

Community Projects — $4,675,889

Habitat for Humanity — $405,828

Miscellaneous — $4,637,965

Total  Community — $49,417,154

Youth  (in millions)

Columbian Squires — $558,662

Scouting — $1,035,169

Youth Groups — $2,842,708

Youth Welfare Services — $1,457,855

Athletics — $1,668,135

Scholarships/Education — $5,740,766

Miscellaneous — $2,028,949

Total Youth — $15,332,244

In 2005 we also reported the following:

• Blood Donors — 399,264
• Visits to the Sick and Bereaved — 5,464,795
• Hours of Fraternal Service to Sick Members and Members with Disabilities and Their Families — 8,456,810
• Meetings — 270,048

These expressions of our fraternal solidarity and brotherhood are as important as our gifts to the Church and community. Every effort must be made in the months remaining in this reporting year to live out the lessons of our second and third degrees as extensively as we do our First Degree of charity.

Among the major charitable donations provided by the Supreme Council over the past year are a $3 million commitment to St. Raphael’s Catholic Hospital in our home town of New Haven, Connecticut. We will be making a significant contribution to the upgrading of the Father Michael J. McGivney Center for Cancer Care, which has been providing high quality care to cancer patients since it opened in 1992. And in Washington, D.C., we are making a grant of $8 million to the Catholic University of America for the renovation of one of the most prominent buildings on campus. Upon its completion, it will become known as McGivney Hall, and will serve as the new home for the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, a graduate school of theology supported by the Knights of Columbus.

In 2005 we also reported $109 million in fraternal benefit costs, which promote the programs and goals of the Knights. Included in this figure are expenditures for Columbia magazine and other publications, support of membership operations, leadership training programs and promotional campaigns.

The average Orderwide per-member contribution in 2005 was $81.86. One jurisdiction, British Columbia, reported an average per-member contribution of $271, the highest in the Order. Twelve more councils had average per-member contributions of more than $100.

Nearly half of all jurisdictions reported total gifts of more than $1 million. Leading jurisdictions were:

Ontario — $8,757,933; Quebec — $8,153,231; Texas — $6,622,279; California — $6,573,903; Illinois — $5,672,419; Michigan — $5,030,276; Florida — $4,192,931; New York — $3,740,709; New Jersey — $3,585,772 and Virginia — $2,985,832.

The results of the fraternal survey are important for a variety of reasons. They show in a concrete way how we are living out our mission of being “In service to One. In service to all.”  They prove to state and federal governments that we continue to merit our tax-exempt status. They demonstrate to community leaders that the Knights of Columbus is a powerful and valuable force for good that can be counted on to enhance the quality of life wherever a council is active.

California State Deputy Emilio R. Moure shares a smile with a young man in Tijuana, Mexico, who received a wheelchair from the Knights of Columbus and the Wheelchair Foundation.

We can also take pride in our deepening involvement in the Wheelchair Foundation and Special Olympics. In 2005 we continued an incentive program that rewards state councils for involvement in Special Olympics games. Nearly 25 percent of all councils and more than 55,000 Knights in the United States and Canada report volunteering with Special Olympics. As Special Olympics increases its athletic programs, we will be by their side, as we have since its founding in 1968.

We are becoming increasingly a global organization, and have great potential for making an impact internationally with our programs. We proudly claim to be the world’s largest Catholic family fraternal service organization. As such, we must increasingly turn our attention to the global community, just as we do to the needs of our neighbors across the street. Many individual councils have taken on projects involving support for missionaries and development projects in such places as Haiti, Guatemala, Ghana and many other countries. We strongly encourage you to support overseas projects that help the poor.

I also encourage every council to consider supporting the work of the Wheelchair Foundation during the coming year. For every $75 donated, the Wheelchair Foundation matches it to provide a new wheelchair to an individual in need of one.  Every month, the foundation provides 10,000 wheelchairs, but an estimated 100 to 150 million people around the world are still in need.  Through our efforts in the past three years, thousands of wheelchairs have been sent to Mexico, Poland, Afghanistan, Jordan and elsewhere. Each wheelchair includes an embroidered logo on the seat back noting that it is a gift from the Wheelchair Foundation and the Knights of Columbus. You may have seen some advertisements mentioning our contribution in recent issues of Smithsonian magazine. But of course, we don’t do it for the recognition. As one brother Knight who has been involved with our Wheelchair Foundation distribution projects said, “It doesn't matter that they've never heard of the Knights of Columbus; what matters is, we can help.”

United in Charity

The urgent need to raise money for hurricane relief during the past year necessarily meant that the work of creating a charitable endowment – which we call “United in Charity” – had to be temporarily assigned a lower priority until those urgent needs had been addressed. We now have to refocus our efforts to build this endowment.  In the near future, we will again be asking Knights everywhere to consider making tax-deductible donations to an endowment that one day will provide a large and steady source of funding for charitable projects that does not depend on short-term fluctuations in our ability to raise money for worthy charities. 

Insurance

When Father McGivney founded the Knights, he had a mission, a vision, and a strategy. His mission was to strengthen and unify all Catholic men in their faith and family life. His vision was to create a fraternal brotherhood which would not only be the right hand of the Catholic church but would provide financial assistance to members’ families affected by the death of a breadwinner. His strategy was to establish local councils which would organize and conduct activities to benefit members, the parish and the community at large. But it also included a broader vision for enabling members to provide for their families.

Father McGivney had a pastor’s heart matched with a gift for practical and effective action. Under his direction, the Knights of Columbus replaced the practice of passing the hat to help a deceased member’s family with a new structure that offered life insurance to its members. The pooling of insurance premiums at the Supreme Council created the basis for a financially sound program, and helped relieve local councils of the burden of supporting its widows and their families. 

As membership grew and individual member needs became more varied, the Order responded. Associate (non-insurance) members were welcomed, but always with the desire and the objective of transferring them to insurance members at the first opportunity. The availability of insurance was extended to members’ juvenile sons and later to their wives and daughters. New products were designed to make insurance affordable to more members.

During the past 124 years the Order has remained committed to Father McGivney’s mission, vision and strategy. It is this unwavering focus that has enabled the Order to continue its growth in membership and life insurance in force.  Excluding the 19 year period leading up to and including the Great Depression, there were only four years in which the Order did not experience positive membership growth. Our insurance in force has grown continuously for over 60 years, and in recent years, our rate of growth has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Five years ago, I reported that our insurance in force was nearly $42 billion.  Since then, it has increased nearly 50 percent to more than $60 billion. 

The net increase over the past year alone amounted to $4.4 billion or 8.2 percent; the largest single year increase in the Order’s history.

In 2005 we issued a record $6.4 billion of life insurance, a 3.6 percent increase over last year. A total of 81,681 certificates were sold with a face value of $6,446,257,000. The average size of the new certificate issued was $78,920 compared to $75,618 last year. Our 3.6 percent increase in insurance sales compares favorably to the industry’s 1 percent decrease last year. During the past five years, we issued a total of $26.7 billion of life insurance.

An equally important measure of the success of the Order’s insurance program is the amount of insurance that remains in effect year after year. Our persistency rate was 96.6 percent last year, reflecting a lapse ratio of 3.4 percent which compares most favorably to the industry’s lapse rate of 7.0 percent and, according to Standard & Poor’s, places the Order among the top three in the industry.

In addition to the 81,681 life sales, our field force sold 3,660 long-term care insurance contracts  and 8,301 annuity contracts for a total of 93,642 new certificates. Every member can and should consider purchasing an annuity, which can help provide a safe and secure retirement.

Our number of life certificates in force has increased every year since 1970. Last year’s increase of 30,220 brings the total to 1,601,863, a gain of nearly 2 percent. Over the past five years, we gained 135,959 certificates, for a 9 percent increase. The Order ranks first among all fraternal societies in the number of life certificates sold this past year, surpassing the second best by more than 30,000 certificates. Our net gain of 30,220 life certificates is greater than the net gain of all other societies added together.

Sales of our long-term care products remained steady. We issued 3,660 new contracts, bringing our total contracts in force to 19,200. Our long-term care products are available in both the United States and Canada.

Beginning in 2005, the Order changed how its Canadian operating results are reported.  The 2004 results described below have been restated for comparative purposes. 

At year end our assets reached a new all-time high of $12.3 billion, ranking us 72nd by A.M. Best among 1,500 insurance companies in North America. The gain over 2004 amounted to 6.6 percent, or $764 million. Five years ago, I reported that the Order’s assets amounted to $8.6 billion. This reflects an increase of 44 percent. As of July 1, 2006, our assets now exceed $13 billion.

Our $10.8 billion investment in bonds continues to be the largest single component of the Order’s assets. This well-diversified portfolio provides the financial support for our life insurance, annuity, and long-term care products.

In this time of low interest rates we remain committed to our long tradition of maintaining an investment-grade portfolio of bonds. In 2005 we invested nearly $2.5 billion in bonds with an average quality rating of AA. 

I am happy to report that through our conservative investment selection practices and active management of risk, we had no securities in default at year end.

At year-end 2005, our common stock holdings were $371 million.  As with all of the Order’s investments, we make certain that the activities of each company’s lines of business do not violate Church teachings. Our objective for investing in common stocks is long-term capital appreciation.

The Order’s investment in preferred stocks was $174 million at year end. By investing in securities with solid credit characteristics, we minimized our investment risk while improving our earnings. Our ChurchLoan mortgage loan program for religious institutions, mainly local parishes and schools, continues to expand and equaled $148 million at year end. During 2005, we made 19 new loan commitments totaling $33.6 million. The potential to expand our ChurchLoan program both in the United States and Canada remains great.

The $687 million of investment income in 2005 provided a net investment yield of 6.0 percent.

The Order experienced another very good year in the all-important category of individual life insurance premium income.  Life premiums amounted to an all-time high of $819 million for an increase of 3.7 percent, or $29 million over the prior year.  In addition, our long-term care premiums were $20 million, an increase of $3.6 million or 22 percent. When combined, total premium income amounted to $839 million for 2005. This is $32.6 million or 4.0 percent more than in 2004. In addition, the Order collected $212 million in annuity premiums and deposits in 2005. 

Total revenues, excluding annuity deposits of $212 million, amounted to more than $1.5 billion. Based on total revenues of the largest 1,000 industrial companies, Fortune magazine ranks us the 950th largest. It also ranks us as the 11th largest non-stock life and health insurance company in the United States and the second largest fraternal benefit society.

The sources of our $1.5 billion in revenue included: life insurance premiums — $819 million or 52.9 percent of the total; investment income — $687 million for 44.3 percent; supplemental contracts and other income — $58 million for 2.6 percent; and per capita income — $3.8 million for 0.2 percent.

This year we paid out $172 million in death benefits to beneficiaries of deceased brother Knights. This money will pay mortgages, health care and college tuitions, helping to ensure the financial survival of those left behind.

Since our founding, the Order has paid over $2 billion in death benefits; and an additional $7.4 billion to our living members and families as maturities, dividends, annuities proceeds, and long-term care and disability waiver benefits. These payments are more than numbers. They represent financial security for the widows of deceased brother Knights and to the aged and disabled.

Commissions and operating expenses were $221 million, an increase of $21 million or 10.4 percent.  Most of the increase was caused by higher acquisition costs associated with the recent growth in insurance sales, higher technology costs, and special charitable contributions benefiting those affected by last year’s Tsunami and Gulf States hurricanes. 

The gain from operations was $401 million or $21 million or 5.4 percent more than the previous year.

The Order continues to use an interest rate factor in its dividend formula for unborrowed life insurance funds that is among the highest in the industry. Strong earnings, despite the continuing low interest rate environment, allowed the Board of Directors to maintain the current dividend scale for 2006. Life dividends to living members allocated for 2006 amounted to $344 million. 

The $344 million in life dividends represents an increase of 27 percent during the past five years. The Order’s generous and equitable dividend policy continues to make Knights of Columbus insurance an excellent choice for our living families, as well as providing for our bereaved families.

After deducting $343 million in dividends, the gain from operations amounted to $58 million or $8 million less than last year.

Including realized capital gains of $14 million, our net gain was $72 million.

The success from staying true to our founder’s mission, vision and strategy is reflected in the recognition we have received from the firms which rate insurance companies.

Once again this year, we have received the highest possible ratings from both the A.M. Best Co. and Standard & Poor’s. We also retained certification for ethical sales practices from the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA). We are among only four insurers in North America to have retained all three of these distinctions.

For the 14th consecutive year, Standard & Poor’s has given us its highest rating, AAA (Extremely Strong). S&P states that the Order’s “strategic plan remains to grow its membership, provide its members with high-quality, low-cost insurance protection and asset accumulation while maintaining its financial strength and expanding its fraternal activities.” Our founder’s strategy was right for his time and remains right for us today. 

And for 31 years in a row, the Knights of Columbus earned the A++ (Superior) rating from the A. M. Best Company. In its report, the independent ratings firm cited our strong market presence in the Catholic community, our continued growth in membership, as well as our consistently profitable operations and exceptionally strong capitalization.

The bottom line is simply this: The underlying financial strength of any company is reflected in its capital structure.  In this regard, the Knights of Columbus is clearly superior. We have a surplus of $1.59 billion and asset valuation reserves of $141 million, bringing our margin of safety to more than $1.6 billion. Our solvency ratio (assets compared to liabilities) is 114.9 percent, among the highest in the industry.

A. M. Best stated that “The society’s favorable statutory gains from operations coupled with realized investment gains have enabled the society to increase its adjusted unassigned funds in recent years allowing the society to maintain its exceptional level of risk-adjusted capitalization.” 

Standard & Poor’s says that: “[The Order’s] financial strategy is very conservative, as demonstrated by its capital structure, investment portfolio, and approach to business growth.  K of C’s capital adequacy, as measured by Standard & Poor’s capital model is among the strongest in the industry.”

In short, we are financially strong, with a record of quality management and sound investment second to none.

The key to our success is our focus — providing high-quality, low-cost protection to our members and their families. Knights of Columbus Insurance has earned its status as the Order’s greatest fraternal benefit. Today, with more than $60 billion of life insurance in force, our 1,400 hard-working general and field agents continue to fulfill our founder’s vision of protecting Catholic families for generations.

Today, the Order’s unique fraternal insurance programs are needed more than ever. It is up to each of us to demonstrate to every Catholic man that the Knights of Columbus will add both personal and financial value to his life.

Supreme Knight Anderson with Polish Knights at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in May during Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral visit to Poland.

The most important single development in the area of membership growth over the past year is our expansion into Poland – the first major international expansion in a century. Many of you were at the convention in Chicago at this time last year when we decided to establish the Order in Europe for the very first time. And I’m happy to report that we are off to a very strong start in Poland.

We began holding first degree ceremonies in January of this year, and as Ron Tracz and Joe Schultz will tell you, it was one of the coldest Januaries there in decades. But to say the least, we were warmly received.

As of June 30, Poland had six councils with 250 Knights. In June, the Board of Directors voted to give Poland territorial status as it continues to grow toward full state council status. Andrzej Gut-Mostowy of Our Lady of Ludmierz Council 14001 was appointed territorial deputy, and I am pleased to announce that His Eminence, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Archbishop Emeritus of Krakow, has agreed to serve as the first territorial chaplain.

An interesting and unexpected side benefit of our creation of councils in Poland has been the start of several councils in the United States and Canada comprised of Polish-speaking Catholics. Since January 2006, six new councils have been started or reactivated.  I want to offer a special word of thanks to the Polish speaking members of St. Maximilian Kolbe Council 9612 in Mississauga, Ontario, Cardinal Wyszynski Council 9296 in Toronto, Ontario, and Our Lady of Czestochowa Council 9346 in Sterling Heights, Michigan. They worked hard to perfect the art of conferring the First Degree in Polish, and they have done a wonderful job conducting degree ceremonies in Poland this year.

We have added a Polish-language section to our Web site and are producing several pages from each month’s Columbia in Polish and posting them on the Web site. We have also developed Polish versions of our recruitment posters, flyers and promotional literature. The Catholic men we have met in Poland are expressing a strong interest in Columbianism, volunteer activities and fraternalism. I have no doubt that the Knights of Columbus will quickly take root and grow rapidly in Poland.

In May of this year, I had the privilege of being in Poland during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. I listened as he told the Polish faithful at a Mass in Krakow that when John Paul II became Pope, Poland became a special place for the Church and the world.

“Your land,” he said, “became a place of special witness to faith . . . You were called to give this witness before the whole world.” It is a witness that they must share especially with the other countries of Europe.

The strong faith of the Polish people has sustained them over centuries of war and persecution. It is this strong faith that will help re-evangelize Europe, and the Knights of Columbus in Poland are going to play a key role in that effort.

In Poland, the Knights of Columbus has the opportunity to extend our work of charity and social justice. As an Order, we will benefit from the rich devotional and spiritual life of our Polish brother Knights. So far, our membership in Poland is in the hundreds, but I have no doubt that it will soon be in the thousands as word spreads of the rewards of charity and fraternity in the Knights of Columbus.

Membership (General)

Sometime in the near future, you’ll be receiving a terrific new twelve part video series entitled “Father Michael J. McGivney & the Knights of Columbus – His Vision, Our Mission.” Father. Gabriel O’Donnell, the Director of our Catholic Information Service, created and narrated the series, which provides an excellent overview of our history, spiritual foundation and what it really means to be a Knight of Columbus. These are short programs – ten minutes in length – and they should be shown each month at your meetings. They are be especially valuable in helping new members understand quickly what the Order is all about.

Overall, our membership has grown once again this year, as we have done for three uninterrupted decades. For the year ending June 30, membership in the Knights of Columbus stood at 1,722,126 — an all-time high. Of those 1,722,126 members, 1,166,445 are associate members and 555,681 are insurance members. From July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006, we recruited 67,499 new Knights, which is slightly down from last year’s intake of 72,378. There were 13,673 former members who reactivated their membership, about 1,000 fewer than last year. Suspensions and withdrawals totaled 35,261, which is about the same as last year. We also note the passing of 27,092 brother Knights this past year.

Our continued growth is good news, of course – all the more so because so many other fraternals and community groups have stopped growing or are even shrinking. I strongly believe that we have the potential for much greater growth, and here’s why:

The Catholic Church is growing every year. In the United States alone, about 150,000 join the Church at Easter. One recent report suggested that by the year 2025, the U.S. Catholic population could reach nearly 83 million, up from 65.3 million in 2005. The average parish will add 1,800 families. Some of that growth will come from immigration, chiefly of Hispanic Catholics, and there will also be millions of children born to Catholic families already here.

Is the Knights of Columbus keeping pace with that growth? In some places, we’re doing very well. In some of our jurisdictions, membership is nearly 8 percent of the Catholic population, but in many jurisdictions, that figure is 2 percent or even less. And while that has been enough to allow us to post year-end gains each year, we all ought to be following the leaders: the states that have made growth a top priority and made it work. We have some jurisdictions where we’ve established councils in less than half the parishes in the state. Others are at or close to 100 percent, and that should be everyone’s goal.

We’ve now set the stage for significant growth in Mexico, where we’ve gone from two jurisdictions to four. Recruiting just 2 percent of Mexico’s Catholics would give us 1.8 million members in that country alone.

Hitting the eight percent mark throughout the Order would produce four times the membership we have today.

Gentlemen, I want you to imagine for a moment what an Order of nearly seven million Catholic men could achieve. If today we have $60 billion of insurance in force, think of how strong we could be with $240 billion of insurance in force. If today we raise and donate $139 million a year for charity, think of all the good we would be doing if we could donate $556 million to charity, or generating more than 240 million hours of service each year. These are realistic goals, and while they’re not something we can do overnight, it’s where we should all be headed. And if you’re looking for inspiration, just think of the incredible, dedicated Knights who traveled far and wide during our early years, full of faith and determination. In the 40 years after Fr. McGivney’s death – from 1890 to 1930 – they grew the Order from a few hundred men along the U.S. East Coast to more than 800,000 spread out across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Cuba and the Philippines.  They could have settled for two percent, but we’d be a much smaller organization today if they had, and perhaps you and I would not be here today. We shouldn’t settle for two percent either.

President John F. Kennedy once said about Americans that we are builders, and we build best when we build greatly. I believe the same can be said of Knights of Columbus. My brother Knights, the Order has built greatly in the past; now it’s our turn!

Council Growth

New council growth remained strong over the past year. As of June 30, we had 13,011 councils on the books, compared to 12,767 at the start of the fraternal year. Of those, 246 were new councils, and three were reinstatements, and five councils merged with existing councils.

Parish round tables are helping bring a Knights of Columbus presence to parishes and communities where it’s not practical for now to have an active council. This year we had 3,751 round tables, a record for the Order.

Columbian Squires

This fraternal year was an historic one for the Columbian Squires program. The 5,000th circle was instituted last Oct. 7 in Phoenix, Arizona, just weeks after the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Squires program in Duluth, Minnesota.

Circle 5000 was one of 139 circles instituted or re-instituted this past year. As of June 30, the Order had a total of 1,365 active circles, are the highest ever. 

Membership in the Squires program continues to attract Catholic boys and young men ages 10 to 18.  Last year, 6,735 new Squires joined.  We had a net gain of 6,168 Squires and a year-end total of 28,719 members. After adjusting for 4,836 18-year-olds who graduated from the program, we started this fraternal year with a total of 23,883 Squires, representing a year-to-year net gain of 1,332 members.

This fraternal year we will introduce our new Squires Advancement Program.  Squires will be challenged to advance through five levels of membership, from “page,” to “shield bearer,” to “swordsman,” to “lancer” and finally, “Squire of the Body of Christ.”  They will achieve these titles by completing some of 160 different activities in the circle, in their parish, in the community, in school and in their family. As they move through these ranks, they will receive a certificate and name badge.  The Squires Advancement Program is a great training program, showing our young Catholic men how they can be leaders not only within the circle but in the community at large.

The Order’s outreach to youth also includes sponsorship of Boy Scouts units.  In the United States, councils reported sponsoring 34,028 Scouts in 1,417 troops. In Canada, the most recent figures show that K of C units sponsored 70 Catholic Scout units involving 1,467 boys.

Both the Squires program and Boy Scouts are effective training grounds for young Catholic men.  They’re also excellent places to find future Knights.

Members of one of the Order's newest round tables at Camp Victory in Iraq. It was organized by members of Columbus Council 11634 in Colorado Springs deployed there.

This year the Supreme Council launched a new program to bring the benefits of Knights of Columbus membership to more men in the U.S military. There are an estimated 375,000 Catholic men and women on active duty and another 200,000 Catholics in the Reserves and National Guard. Working with the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services, our goal is to start councils or round tables on military bases, and to keep track of members when they are deployed. It is with great pride that I can report that just this past spring, a round table was started at Camp Victory in Iraq by members from Columbus Council 11634 in Colorado Springs, who are deployed there.

It was 90 years ago, in 1916, that the Knights of Columbus began its social service to soldiers. When 250,000 National Guardsmen were sent to the U.S.–Mexico border to protect it from Pancho Villa’s incursions, Knights from councils in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas spontaneously responded to the religious and social needs of the thousands of Catholic troops stationed there. Knights in El Paso laid the foundation for the K of C huts program of World War I by starting a recreation center which was open to everyone regardless of creed or color; the Supreme Council sent $1,000 to help subsidize the programs there, and stimulate the building of other recreation centers.

Today, that proud chapter of our Order’s history continues with several initiatives. We have now printed and distributed more than 300,000 copies of our “Armed with the Faith” pocket-size prayer book and expect our Spanish-language version to be in soldiers’ hands very soon.

This year, construction began on the new headquarters of the Archdiocese for Military Services, USA (AMS). The Order is provided $1.1 million in funding for the project from annual the accumulated earnings from our Knights of Columbus Military Vicariate Fund.  The Order provided $3.4 million of additional funds through and our ChurchLoan program.  The former seminary of the Society of the Divine Word in Washington, D.C. is being converted into new administrative offices and eight apartments for bishops and priests. It will also include a 70-seat chapel and conference center. The archdiocese expects to move into the new headquarters later this year.

Our “Catholics Seeking Christ” initiative with the AMS is also taking off. This is a peer-to-peer evangelization and faith-formation program for members of the military. Pavel Reid, a brother Knight and graduate of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, is coordinating the “Catholics Seeking Christ” program in his role as the AMS director of young adult ministries.

Through Catholics Seeking Christ, members of the military are reaching out to fellow Catholics in the military. It is helping many of our young men and women in the military come to a deeper relationship with Christ. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of the AMS has great hopes for this program, and we join him in praying and working for its success.

Kansas Fourth Degree Knights took part in the third annual Military Pilgrimage to Pilsen last Veterans Day. Pilsen was the birthplace of U.S. Army Chaplain Father Emil Kapaun, who died in a prison camp in May 1951 during the Korean War.  Many councils and assemblies have chosen to name themselves after Father Kapaun in recognition of his heroic service and sanctity.

The Order also welcomed the news this spring that the cause for canonization of another soldier-chaplain has been opened, that of Maryknoll Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a U.S. Navy chaplain who died in 1967 while serving with the Marines in Vietnam. Marines affectionately called Father Capodanno the “grunt Padre” for his ability to relate well to his soldiers. He extended his one-year tour of duty in Vietnam by six months and was fatally wounded by enemy sniper fire. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery and service. Several K of C units have chosen Father Capodanno as their namesake.

Since our last convention, four Knights have given their last full measure of devotion to their country and their fellow man:

Army Specialist William J. Byler, a member of Council 2636 in Rowena, Texas; Army National Guard Specialist Christopher S. Merchant, a member of Council 5041 in Morrisville, Vermont; Army 1st Lt. Robert A. Seidel, a member of Council 8250 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; and Army National Guard Sgt. Gregory A. Wagner, a member of Council 1079 in Mitchell, South Dakota.

No one desires peace as much as those who have had to engage in war.  As we honor those who serve our nations in the armed forces, and mourn the passing of those who have died in action, we also pray for the coming of the day when armed conflict will give way to a world in which we are all able to live together in peace.  This coming September 11, on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, we ask people everywhere to join us in offering this prayer as part of the Knights of Columbus World Day of Prayer for Peace.

Fourth Degree

Every citizen of every nation must engage himself daily in efforts to create a better understanding and appreciation of his country’s history and ideals. That is the meaning of citizenship; the living out of the virtue of patriotism.

Fourth Degree Knights commit themselves to this every day. They are in the vanguard of our Order in their dedication to preserving and perpetuating the freedoms we all cherish.

As of June 30, 2006, there were 297,911 Fourth Degree Knights in 2,659 assemblies. This represents an increase of 5,622 members over last year. The Order also instituted 60 new assemblies. During the past year, there were 296 exemplifications with an average of 52 candidates.

Our goal must be to grow the Fourth Degree to 300,000 members and beyond during this fraternal year; more importantly, we must awaken in more Third Degree Knights the desire to become a Sir Knight. Currently, only 17 percent of our Orderwide membership are Fourth Degree Knights.

One way we will achieve those goals is putting greater emphasis on the patriotic service programs that are unique to the Fourth Degree. We will continue to sharpen the public image of Sir Knights participating in the color corps and in honor guards at ecclesial events.

A significant contribution to this effort is the new Knights of Columbus United States Flag Manual, prepared by Supreme Master Joe Schultz, which is now the definitive guide for Fourth Degree Color Corps in the U.S.  This should become the source of flag protocol for all U.S. councils as well.  Work is under way on a Canadian Flag Manual, and similar publications for Mexico, the Philippines and Poland are planned in the future.

Fourth Degree Knights have made a tremendous commitment to Veterans Affairs hospitals in the past year. Currently, there are Sir Knights volunteering in approximately 90 percent of U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals, and last year Knights volunteered more than 104,000 hours at those hospitals. The national leadership of the Veterans Affairs Voluntary Service program has recognized the Knights for this commitment, and on behalf of the Supreme Council we thank all the Sir Knights who are “serving those who served” so admirably and faithfully.  This is an ideal service program for every Fourth Degree assembly, and if you’re not already involved, I strongly suggest that you add it to your list for the coming year.

Supreme Knight Anderson, flanked by the then state deputies of Central South Mexico and North Mexico, carries the reliquary of the Mexican saints of the Knights of Columbus in procession to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City last September.

Last September, while your Supreme Board of Directors was meeting in Mexico City, we began a year-long tour of the relics of our Mexican Martyrs, six priests and brother Knights who were executed during the 1920s and 30s when the Mexican government conducted a brutal suppression of the Church.  The relic tour began at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and continued throughout Mexico for five months before coming to the United States. The relics have drawn large crowds at churches and cathedrals all across the country, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, and events involving the relics have been particularly well attended in states with large Hispanic populations like Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.  This extraordinary relic tour will conclude here in Orlando at Thursday’s Mass. 

I want to thank the thousands of Knights from Mexico and the U.S. who helped make this tour a success.  It has not only given us a higher profile in both countries, but has given us valuable opportunities to recruit new members.

We also rejoice at the beatification by Pope Benedict last year of two more Knight-priests who were martyred in Mexico during the Cristeros era, Blessed José Trinidad Rangel and Andres Solá Molist.

Many of you were there when we concluded last year’s Supreme Convention in Chicago with our Third Eucharistic Congress. The thrilling sight of hundreds of Fourth Degree Knights accompanying our Supreme Chaplain as he carried the Blessed Sacrament through Grant Park was captured by dozens of television and newspaper photographers.  The Knights of Columbus, together with our brother Knight, Cardinal Francis George, and the Catholics of the greater Chicago area made a powerful statement as we publicly demonstrated our faith and devotion to Christ in the Eucharist. Video from our Chicago Eucharistic Congress forms the heart of a new Knights of Columbus video entitled “Knights of Columbus: A Eucharistic Brotherhood.”   Based on the address given at the congress by Supreme Chaplain William Lori, it reminds us all that our principles of charity, unity and fraternity are rooted in, and strengthened by, devotion to the Eucharist.

The Year of the Eucharist, of which our congress was a part, concluded with a World Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in October at the Vatican. In recognition of all the Order has done to promote Eucharistic devotion, Pope Benedict XVI appointed your supreme knight as an auditor to that month long meeting.  At the synod’s closing Mass, Pope Benedict emphasized his desire that the Church and therefore our Order, become more focused on Christ in the Eucharist. As we do so, our fidelity to Christ and to his Church will be strengthened and renewed.

In the months to come, we will begin planning in earnest for our participation in the 48th International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City in 2008.  To inspire and prepare Canadian Catholics for the 2008 International Eucharistic Congress, a small wooden chest covered with images related to the Eucharist is traveling throughout Canada.  This “Ark of the Covenant,” as it is called, was blessed in Rome by Pope Benedict when the Quebec bishops visited in May. A team of four Catholics is transporting the ark from Quebec City to dioceses across Canada, where it is the focal point for prayer meetings and teaching sessions.  Participants are being asked to deposit written prayers and reflections about their faith into the ark.  I know Canadian Knights will make every effort to participate in this preparatory event for the 2008 Congress.

Other church organizations receiving financial support from the Supreme Council in the past 12 months have included the Pontifical Academy for Life, for upgrades to its Web site; the Archdiocese of Nassau, Bahamas, for repairs to hurricane-damaged Holy Savior Church; to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, for satellite telecasts of papal events from Rome at Christmas and Easter; and to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, for help in staging the first world meeting of Ecclesial Organizations Working for Justice and Peace.

Several years ago, we contributed $1 million to the restoration of America’s first cathedral, the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore. This magnificent church, where Father Michael J. McGivney was ordained in 1877, will reopen with a grand celebration on November 4, and we are proud to have made a major contribution to its renewal.

The Order celebrated with the Church universal last March 24 when Pope Benedict held his first consistory as pope and inducted into the College of Cardinals several brother Knights, including Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Guadencio Rosales of Manila and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.

This past June 29 was also a time of celebration as several brother Knights who were named archbishops this past year were given their palliums. Among them were U.S. brother Knights Archbishops Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, George H. Niederauer of San Francisco and Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, as well as Canadian Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba. Archbishop Jose Palma of Palo, Philippines, another Knight, was also given his pallium.  Our Order pledges our continued support for them in their new roles. 

Vocations

In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations last spring, Pope Benedict asked a very simple but revealing question about modern men and women, and the call to service in the Church.  Have we become too “self-sufficent,” the pope wondered, that we have become “closed to God’s mysterious plan for each of us”?  Helping young men and women – especially our sons and daughters, or grandchildren – discern God’s “mysterious plan” for them, and then supporting them as they pursue it, are the goals of Knights of Columbus vocations programs.

This year we added an additional title to our series of DVDs on vocations. Now available is “The Vocation to Religious Life for Women.”  It joins award-winning films on the vocation to the priesthood and the vocation to married life that we produced earlier.  A film on the vocation of the laity is in the works.

These films are being used in creative ways by religious orders, dioceses and Catholic schools. One priest ordered copies of the film on marriage and presents a copy to every couple planning to be married in his parish.  Another priest has shown them to parish teenagers. And one order of women religious purchased 50 copies of the film to give to women who contact them about a calling.   During the coming year, we’re going to ask you to launch a program that combines all of these wonderful videos in a program for your parish called, “Everyone has a vocation. What’s yours?”

Our goal with these films and with the variety of print materials on vocations we make available is simple: The Knights of Columbus aims to be the source for quality vocations promotional materials for dioceses, parishes, Catholic schools and religious orders.  Councils are urged to order the three films and present them to their pastor, the principal of their parish elementary school or Catholic high school, and their parish religious education director.

For the second year in a row financial help from K of C units to future priests and religious sisters topped $2.5 million. Last year, councils, assemblies and circles reported raising and donating directly to seminarians, postulants and novices $2,520,478 through the Order’s Refund Support Vocations Program (RSVP). This total is up from the previous year’s figure of $2,505,036.  Since RSVP was created in 1981, Knights have raised and donated nearly $35 million. Over the past 25 years, gifts have been given to nearly 57,000 seminarians, postulants and novices. In the last year, 4,392 individuals were assisted. Gifts continue to average around $500 a year and are given directly to the individual for miscellaneous expenses not covered by his or her diocese or religious order. For every $500 donated by a local unit, the Supreme Council refunds $100. The Supreme Council issued refunds last year totaling $502,650.

In addition to RSVP, the Supreme Council supports vocations to the priesthood through two scholarship programs: the Father Michael J. McGivney Scholarship Fund and the Bishop Thomas V. Daily Scholarship Fund, named for our worthy supreme chaplain emeritus. In each program, preference is given to members of the Knights of Columbus or sons of members.  The $2,500 grants are renewable annually for up to four years. The Father McGivney grants are awarded based on the candidate’s financial need, while the Bishop Daily scholarships are made on the basis of academics.

For the past academic year, the Order awarded 50 new scholarships to seminarians in the United States and Canada, and renewed an additional 71 scholarships to men enrolled in major schools of theology. Forty-four of this year’s the fifty new recipients are Knights or sons of Knights. Since the scholarship programs were established in 1992, grants have helped more than 753 men, and 400 of them have been ordained.

In addition to these efforts, several funds established by the Order continue to provide annual gifts for Rome-based seminaries serving the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Philippines, along with the American College in Louvain, Belgium.  In fact, this year we voted to double the size of our Count Galeazzi Fund, which supports the North American College in Rome, from $2 million to $4 million over the next five years.  Earnings from this fund have totaled nearly $3 million since it was established in 1983. All together, we have more than $16.1 million in endowed funds dedicated to vocations support.

Remember, however, that money will not solve the problem of too few priests, sisters and brothers.  Remembering Christ’s words, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest,” let us renew our pledge to pray for vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life at every Knights of Columbus meeting.  Where people pray fervently, vocations flourish. We pray that many of these vocations will come from within the Knights of Columbus.

Pledge of Allegiance

Fifty-two years ago, thanks largely to the efforts of the Knights of Columbus, Congress voted to add the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.  People in other countries around the world don’t always fully appreciate what the Pledge means to Americans.  In the United States, the flag is a symbol of freedom, of the dedication to liberty, given to us by God, which we all share. 

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit challenging the words “under God,” arguing that they violated the First Amendment to our Constitution.  Unfortunately, the court threw out the case on a technicality, and soon the atheist who filed the suit was back with another one. Previously, we had sought to influence the outcome from the outside, as what’s known as a “friend of the court.”  But this time, with the help of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, we joined with six individual Knights of Columbus and their families in the Sacramento, California area and asked the court to allow us to join the case as defendants.  The Judge agreed, and today, the case is actually entitled Roe v.Carey, and the first-named defendant is John Carey, a brother Knight.

The case will soon be argued before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and if and when it makes its way back to the Supreme Court, the Knights of Columbus will be inside the court’s chambers, actually arguing the case, rather than one of many outside groups filing briefs.

I’m very proud that we’re right in the heart of the battle this time, and I want to publicly thank brother Knights John Carey, Albert Araiza, Craig Bishop, Rommel Declines, Dan Doerr, Fred Forschler, Robert McKay and their families for joining the Supreme Council as defendants in this very important lawsuit. 

A statue commissioned by the Knights of Columbus to commemorate the Mexico centennial depicts Knights of Columbus Cristeros martyred for their faith.

Over the past year, we have been fortunate to be able to bring several popular and memorable exhibitions to the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven. 

The “Faith and Art from Mexico” exhibit coincided with the centennial of the Order in Mexico.  By the time it concluded in October, this collection of sacred art had attracted more than 10,000 visitors. In addition, we received two works of art commissioned by the Order to commemorate the Mexico centennial: an oil painting of the Knights of Columbus priest martyrs of Mexico by Martha Orozco, and a bronze statue by Antonio Castellanos Basich that memorializes all those brother Knights who were killed during the persecution of the Church in Mexico during the Cristeros era. Both of these works are now part of the permanent collection of our museum.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the museum mounted a photographic exhibit entitled “We Are Our Brothers’ Keeper” that tells the story of the Order’s relief efforts in the U.S. Gulf region.

Nearly 14,000 visitors came to the museum during the Christmas season to experience “Christmas in Miniature: Crèches from Around the World,” and it was one of our most successful exhibits ever. This year, we will feature a second exhibit in the “Christmas in Miniature” series, entitled “A Vatican Christmas: Crèches of Pope John Paul II.”  It will feature Nativity sets from the Vatican and Poland associated with our late Holy Father.

A striking exhibit entitled “Easter, Eggs and Art: Sacred Images for Every Season” premiered in March and will conclude in October. This exhibit features hundreds of painted and sculpted eggs, many from the Eastern Church and folk art traditions.

In November, the Museum will open a major exhibit called “The Swiss Guard: Celebrating 500 Years of Papal Service.”  This will be an exclusive U.S. showing of an exhibit originally created for display in the Vatican. This fall, we will sponsor an exhibit of art and images of Joan of Arc at the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., and we have been able to arrange for this fascinating show to travel to our museum in New Haven next spring.

Telling Our Story

In his message to the delegates at this convention, Pope Benedict XVI recalls that “The Knights originated through the apostolic vision of Father McGivney and a small circle of committed Catholic laymen as a fraternal association for the benefit of the poor. Today, in their manifold activities, the Councils throughout the world continue to embody the Lord’s summons to a faith that works through love and heartfelt concern for the least of our brothers and sisters.” 

This year, thanks to two new books, the public at large has had an unprecedented opportunity to learn about both Father McGivney and his vision, and how Knights have lived lives that embody the ideal of “a faith that works through love.”

In Parish Priest, the wonderful best selling biography of Father McGivney written by Doug Brinkley and Julie Fenster, people the world over have been given the opportunity to learn about his life as a priest and as founder of the Knights of Columbus. The book spent seven weeks on the New York Times extended best seller list, and continues to sell very well even now, seven months after its publication.  I want to thank Julie Fenster for joining us here in Orlando this week, and for graciously agreeing to autograph copies of the book for participants at this meeting. Both Julie and Doug have done book signings and speaking appearances all around the country, and the deep interest in and appreciation of Father McGivney’s life that is so evident in the writing of this book also comes through clearly whenever they appear in person.

The second book, By Their Works, tells the story of 65 Knights down through the years, including the Mexican Martyrs, whose love for Christ and their parishioners was vividly demonstrated by their willingness to die for the faith in revolutionary Mexico. But the book also tells the stories of Knights who demonstrated their love in other ways. Perhaps most surprising was the life of Babe Ruth, who grew up in a Catholic orphanage in Baltimore, and spent the years toward the end of his life bringing happiness to children all around the United States. And few Knights have ever shown the love of neighbor as well as Ted van der Zalm, who mortgaged his home to buy a well-digging rig that he and his family then took to Guatemala to dig wells so that the poor there could have clean water. 

These stories of love and dedication to the faith will inspire all who read By Their Works, and I hope that you not only have your own copy, but encourage others to buy and read the book as well.

There are several more books on the way. One is a book about the Cristiada war in Mexico in which our martyred brother Knights died. It is a translation of a book written by a highly-regarded scholar named Jean Meyer, and was previously published in Spanish.

Also in the works is a new and updated history of the Knights of Columbus, by Kevin Coyne, one of the most highly regarded journalism professors at Columbia University.  He is a lively and exciting writer, and this book, too, will help tell our story to a wide audience.

All of these books belong on every Knight’s bookshelves, and in Catholic and public school libraries everywhere. In Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict says that “Love of neighbor, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful.” All of these books contain ample evidence of the fact that we Knights accept that responsibility with energy and dedication.

Supreme Knight Anderson delivering a talk at the Fifth World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain, July 7.

The Knights of Columbus is a family fraternal organization.  An emphasis on family life lies at the heart of who we are. Protecting and promoting the institution of marriage is no easy thing today. The “domestic church” is under pressure from all sides – high divorce rates on one side, and demands for recognition of same-sex “marriage” on the other.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of being among the speakers at the World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain attended by Pope Benedict XVI.  I began my remarks with these words:

“Marriage and family is the privileged place in which Trinitarian love and communion is inscribed within the very structure of creation.  Marriage and family witness to the love and communion which is the true goal of every community and every society.  The model of Trinitarian communion within the family points to the possibility of similar communion within every community and every society. If every person is called to a vocation of love, then the only civilization worthy of the dignity of every person is a civilization of love.”

All that we do as a family fraternal organization supports and reinforces this important teaching about marriage and family.

This year, we have been especially active at all levels in pursuing constitutional amendments that would protect marriage. 

In Canada, Knights are at the forefront of a campaign to persuade Parliament to undo the damage done last year by reconsidering bill C-38, the same-sex marriage measure that was rammed through by the previous government there.  We’re also supporting an effort to amend Canada’s constitution to give permanent protection to marriage.

In the United States this spring, we distributed ten million postcards encouraging support of the federal Marriage Protection Amendment, and worked closely with Bishop Joseph Kurtz, chairman of the Committee on Marriage and Family of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

Loving Every Human Being – Including the Weakest and Most Vulnerable

Three decades ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun authored one of the most controversial decisions in American history, which created out of whole cloth a “right” to abortion. One of the most contentious statements in his decision was one in which he said “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins.”  In the realm of “slippery slopes,” this was one of the most consequential in human history. Every biologist – indeed, every scientist – knows that the life of each human being begins at conception. The human embryo formed at conception is a complete and distinct human being, even if it is a very small one. Left undisturbed, it will grow into a fully formed human person, and at every stage of its existence it possesses the dignity with which every human is endowed. 

But Harry Blackmun and six of his colleagues chose to deny the obvious. In fact they deliberately chose to ignore findings that were completely at odds with their conclusion regarding when life begins. 

With our strong support, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion Act in 2003. Since then, it has been declared unconstitutional by both the 8th and 9th US Circuit Courts of Appeal, based on the precedents that have flowed from Roe. The Supreme Court will hear the cases next term, and we must all pray that the tide will begin to turn. Each year, on March 25, we commemorate the Knights of Columbus Day of the Unborn Child, but our prayers for an end to abortion must be daily prayers and must lead to daily action.

Over the years, we have regularly adopted resolutions expressing our “deep commitment to protect human life at all stages,” and in last year’s resolution on the subject joined with the Church in expressing opposition to the death penalty. Just two months ago, with the support of the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus, both houses of the Philippine government adopted legislation ending use of the death penalty there, and the bill was signed by President Arroyo.

Clearly, we still have a long way to go toward establishing a Culture of Life.  At times, it can seem that the task before us is simply too great. 

Twenty-three years ago, right here in Orlando, the late President Ronald Reagan spoke to a gathering of the National Association of Evangelicals.  Since I worked in the White House as one of his assistants, I remember it well.  He sounded many of the themes that still concern us today.  He condemned abortion, and said that “legislation ending this tragedy will some day pass the congress, and you and I must never rest until it does.” He recalled that “when abortion on demand began, many . . . warned that the practice would lead to a decline in respect for human life, that the philosophical premises used to justify abortion on demand would ultimately be used to justify other attacks on the sacredness of human life. ... Tragically enough, those warnings proved all too true.”

But he urged those in the audience not to become discouraged. Ronald Reagan never stopped believing that with God’s help, we could overcome evil in all its forms.  When he delivered that speech in 1983, he had horrified political Washington and the diplomatic community by declaring Communism an “evil empire.” He repeated the theme that night, urging the audience to “pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness – pray they will discover the joy of knowing God.” 

And to all those who assumed that the cold war would go on indefinitely, he said, “I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual.  And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man.” 

Almost no one knew at the time that Reagan was working with Pope John Paul II to light the spark of freedom in Eastern Europe’s most Catholic country, Poland, and that soon that spark would start a fire that would sweep away the evil empire, to the astonishment of the world. 

Today, here in Orlando, we welcome the first Polish Knights of Columbus, men who won their freedom because John Paul II and Ronald Reagan had the vision and the faith to help the people of Poland and the rest of the Soviet empire to throw off the chains of communism. 

Today, as free men, they join us as Knights of Columbus, ready to join with us in the great task of the new evangelization and in building a new Culture of Life. 

In remembering Ronald Reagan’s great words about the demise of communism, and in their spirit, we say this today: “We believe that the culture of death being supported by Roe v. Wade is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. We believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual.  And because it knows no limitation, it must ultimately triumph over the culture of death.”

Ronald Reagan, whose father was a Knight, understood the virtue of charity from his youngest days at his father’s side. He was fond of the letter written by John Winthrop while sailing for America in 1630, and its famous phrase, “we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.” He asked that a portion of it be read at his funeral, and it included this great invitation to love and charity: “We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body.  The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, his own people.”

Pope Benedict ends Deus Caritas Est with this reminder. “Love is the light – and in the end, the only light – that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working.”  To experience love this way, Benedict says, is “to cause the light of God to enter into the world.”

That, my brothers, is the very definition of what it means to be a Knight of Columbus.  That is why through our principles of charity, unity and fraternity we are living Deus Caritas Est.

Vivat Jesus!