A Bond of Fraternity

Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori addresses state chaplains during their annual meeting in New Haven

July 1, 2025

Editor’s Note: Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori delivered the following address during a meeting of state chaplains in New Haven, Connecticut, June 5. The State Chaplain’s Meeting, which ran June 4-7, coincided with the annual Organizational Meeting of State Deputies June 4-8.

First, let me say how much I enjoyed our pilgrimage today! Thank you for taking time to come to New Haven to walk in Blessed Michael’s footsteps and to share this time together. Above all, I want to thank you for your leadership and service in all the state councils represented here. You provide indispensable spiritual support for your state deputies but also for the whole state council and your brother chaplains.

Much like Blessed Michael in his role as the first supreme chaplain, I’m sure you find yourselves offer both spiritual guidance but also the wisdom you have gained from your years of pastoral leadership — a wisdom that helps the leaders of your jurisdictions to navigate, as the saying goes, between Scylla and Charybdis. We are, dear brothers, the last of the generalists!

Since We Were Last Together

Some of you are just beginning your service as state chaplain. I congratulate you, and I am glad you are aboard. I hope you will find your service as state chaplain spiritual enriching and that you will also draw strength from your fellow chaplains. Even though we don’t see one another too often, we share a bond of fraternity that would please Blessed Michael greatly, for he greatly valued his friendships in the priesthood, as should we.

Since I last met with you, I’ve had a few interesting experiences, beginning with the visit of the supreme knight and myself to the Philippines. There we experienced Knights hospitality like nowhere else in the world. We saw firsthand the vitality of the Knights and their families, had the opportunity to celebrate the liturgy in beautiful churches and to see the Order’s charitable outreach among the very poor. We look forward to returning!

In October, I visited Ukraine. It was my second trip there, and I made it over the long weekend that was granted to participants in the Synod on Synodality. I visited Kyiv and Lviv and points in between — and while there were air raids in Kyiv, it was nothing like we’ve recently seen. I met with a lot of people affected by war, especially widows and orphans. And I was deeply moved by my meeting with the K of C chaplains in Ukraine. They are intrepid pastors who embody the principles of the Order. Nearly 60 of them came to Lviv, some travelling the breadth of Ukraine, and some putting themselves at grave risk. I didn’t do much talk to them. I listened and my heart was moved. Let us keep these our brothers very much in our prayers!

Similarly, we should be very proud of our brother Knights in Ukraine who are living the principle of charity with amazing dedication. Like Father McGivney himself, they are providing for widows and orphans. After visiting the site of what had been a mass grave, I went to a hall where the Knights had arranged for the distribution of coats to those who were orphaned by the butchery that occurred in that town. I also visited housing units provided by the Knights not to mention the endless flow of food and clothing and other supplies for those who lost their homes and properties due to the war. Let us pray for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.

Let me add that the Knights in Poland continue to be very generous in the aid they continue to send into Ukraine, often at risk to themselves. They also continue to welcome refugees and demonstrate a charity that knows no boundaries.

As you also know, the Knights of Columbus restored the baldacchino and the Altar of the Chair at St. Peter’s Basilica. Toward the end of October, the project was almost completed, so the supreme knight and the officers came over to have a look. Since I was at the synod, I was happy to be invited to inspect the baldacchino and high altar. The supreme knight and I went up 10 stories to the top of the baldacchino. I can report that the little angels on top of it are big angels and that it is not a good idea to climb up eight sets of scaffolding to the top of the altar of the chair in a house cassock — and those doctors of the Church are huge! But these are amazing projects that have transformed St. Peter’s. We should be so proud of these landmark projects of our Order!

The Cause of Blessed Michael

In preparation for this meeting, I re-read portions of the Positio for the beatification of Blessed Michael, the parts that speak about his life and his virtue. It paints a beautiful portrait of our founder, who teaches us to do what is ordinary with extraordinary virtue and to do it with competence, precision, dedication and creativity.

During our pilgrimage it was remarked more than once that Blessed Michael is a priest who speaks to us priests in the 21st century… put another way, he is surprisingly contemporary. The mere fact that as a young priest he was thrust into major responsibility — how many of our newly ordained priests find themselves as pastors or the near-equivalent of pastors? The mere fact that he served two parishes yoked together in Thomaston and Terryville speaks to the situation of so many priests who may find themselves serving two or three parishes or even more. True, the two parishes were only about three miles apart, but let’s not forget: He had to travel by horse and buggy. Father McGivney also listened to the needs of his people. He knew them, loved them, and took their concerns to heart. He found ways to meet their needs, to involve them in the Church’s life — especially the young — to combine faith and goodhearted fun. He didn’t merely condemn the excesses of the day but provided alternatives that brought joy and kindled faith. For all of our talk about the peripheries, he actually went there, not afraid to stand publicly with a condemned man. And for all our talk about consulting the laity, he founded the Knights to be a lay-led organization.

All of which makes him a model for parish priests today. I wonder if we’re really promoting his cause as vigorously as we could. A very credible miracle has been submitted and we hope and pray the Dicastery will soon act on it. But every cause for sainthood is fueled by prayer, by further favors, by attracting more and more people to the devotion. When I was in Radom, Poland, I saw what devotion to Father McGivney looks like: A pastoral center was named for Blessed Michael McGivney; there are prayer cards everywhere; he is the subject of sermons; and there are processions in our founder’s honor. So, let us pray earnestly that Pope Leo will someday soon announce that Blessed Michael McGivney is a saint! What an encouragement to every hardworking parish priest!

Faith Formation

I wouldn’t be worth my salt if I didn’t put in a plug for Cor. As you know, there are many men’s spirituality programs, and these have been around for quite a while — and they are certainly a step in the right direction. But men’s spirituality is our “natural space” as Knights of Columbus. The principal reason why Blessed Michael founded the Order was to help the men of his parish to recover their faith or to stay close to the faith at a time when they were lax in coming to Church on Sunday, often neglectful of family responsibilities, and attracted to the secret societies of the day, societies inimical to the faith. Blessed Michael was above all a parish priest concerned that if the faith of fathers and husbands faltered, so too would the faith of their children and young people. His pastoral concern in the latter part of the 19th century is very relatable to our pastoral concerns in the 21st century.

Cor provides a path for men’s spirituality better than anything else I’ve seen. It is rooted firmly in the principle of unity — one Lord, one faith, one baptism. It is rooted firmly in the principle of fraternity — it is a fraternal sharing of faith, a building of trust, a willingness to discuss what really matters at the core of our existence — Cor ad cor loquitur. It is rooted firmly in the principle of charity — for when the truth, the depth, the beauty of God’s love dawns upon us, then his love shapes how we live our vocations, how we relate to others, including fellow Knights, and how we reach out to those who are in need.

Cor is more than instructional, important as that is. After all, even many of those in the pews are not well instructed. Cor, while helping to address such deficiencies, helps men to allow the gaze of Christ to penetrate their hearts. The gaze of Christ reveals us to ourselves, shows us areas in our lives that need to be changed, moves us to conversion and so clears the way for the grace of the Holy Spirit to work in us. Put another way, Cor helps men to believe in the love God has for them so that they, in turn, can me men of authentic charity at home, in their parishes, in their councils, and in the wider community.

Maybe you’ve noticed an uptick, even an upsurge, of younger people who are turning to the faith, coming back to Church, many of them on college campuses but many also in our parishes. Many of them have come to see the emptiness of contemporary culture and the anxieties and sadness it produces in so many lives. The same is true of younger men, including recently married men, who are searching for their place at home, in the Church, and in the world. The increase in membership the Order experienced over the past year speaks to this search for truth, for meaning, for purpose. Cor corresponds to that very real need. As chaplains, we are also pastors who care deeply about the spiritual lives of those we are privileged to serve. Your support for Cor will greatly influence your state deputy and officers as well as your fellow chaplains throughout your jurisdiction. It is both our past and our future: It is what drove Blessed Michael to found the Knights, and it is our mission as we look to the future in hope.

Let me say once again how grateful I am to Father Kalisch for the support he continually offers you in your roles of service and how grateful I am to all of you for your leadership and service to the Knights of Columbus. We are blessed with the leadership of our supreme knight, Patrick Kelly. The future is bright, and God’s grace is abundant. Let us seize the moment, the day the Lord has made!

Vivat Jesus!