The “days of carefree faith are over” and a “new generation of Catholic men” is needed in the church, said the leader of the Knights of Columbus at the annual meeting of the worldwide Catholic brotherhood.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly of the Knights of Columbus spoke at the fraternity’s 142nd Supreme Convention, held August 6-8 at the Quebec City Convention Center in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, before more than 2,500 other knights, their families, special guests and nearly 60 bishops and cardinals from around the world, including Cuba, Korea, Nigeria, the Philippines and Ukraine.

Founded in 1882 by Blessed Rev. Michael McGivney of Connecticut, the Knights of Columbus now have over 2.1 million members in over 16,800 local councils worldwide. In 2023, the Knights donated over 47 million hours of service and more than $190 million to those in need.

In his opening address on August 6, Kelly outlined the breadth of the Knights’ work, which includes a range of humanitarian and spiritual initiatives aimed at witnessing to the Gospel.

In his official greeting to the participants, delivered in a letter dated July 24 by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis praised the Knights for their congress theme, “On Mission.” According to the cardinal, the theme focuses on “the missionary dimension of Christian discipleship, which the Holy Father has emphasized since the first days of his pontificate.”

This mission, which requires determination, boldness and zeal from the Knights, is more important than ever, especially at a time when “in many parts of the world, Catholic baptisms are declining and secularism is increasing,” Kelly said, adding, “Many of us are concerned about the world our children will inherit.”

Citing the example of Blessed McGivney and Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, Kelly said there was a need to build “a new generation of Catholic men… formed in faith and virtue… (and) prepared to be missionary disciples.”

Last year, more than 92,000 men, many of them Hispanics, joined the Knights, marking record growth for the organization, Kelly said, but stressed that he expects the current membership to double.

“Imagine the impact, the communities we could help – the parishes we could serve and the lives we could change,” he said.

To achieve this goal, Kelly called on the Knights to double their annual Coats for Kids initiative and distribute two million coats to children in need by 2030.

The Knights’ Global Wheelchair Mission, a partnership with both the American Wheelchair Mission and the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation, “gave the gift of mobility to more than 11,000 people in 2023,” while the Knights donated more than $4 million to the Special Olympics and organized nearly 4,000 competitions that same year, Kelly said.

In addition, the Knights “continue to help those persecuted for their faith,” Kelly said, noting that over the past decade the organization has “rebuilt churches and restored entire communities in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.”

Kelly said the knights also stand “on the side of Nigeria’s persecuted Christians.”

The level of religious repression in the African country has been described as “extreme” by global watchdog group Open Doors International, which concluded that “more believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria each year than in the rest of the world.”

To “strengthen the faith of millions of Catholics in the heart of Africa,” the Knights have promoted a collaboration between the Catholic bishops of Nigeria and the Franciscan University of Steubenville to fund the training of priests and lay people with a view to “creating a national catechist institute in Nigeria,” said Kelly, who also welcomed to the meeting Bishop Matthew H. Kukah of Sokoto and Bishop Stephen D. Mamza of Yola, both from Nigeria.

Kelly also pointed to the Knights’ work in Ukraine, where conditions are “particularly dire for our fellow Knights” given the all-out war Russia began in 2022 and the ongoing attacks that began in 2014.

“They are fighting for their lives and the survival of their country,” Kelly said, highlighting the Knights’ work with the Minnesota-based Protez Foundation, which works to provide prosthetic limbs to war victims.

The knights have also teamed up with the Knights of Malta to provide first aid training to Ukrainian civilians, he said, while the Knights of Columbus’ charity convoys “have now delivered over £8.5 million worth of relief supplies to devastated communities”.

More than 1.6 million Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, have been assisted by the Knights, who have provided more than $17 million in humanitarian aid, Kelly said.

And “the Russian authorities have taken note of this,” banning the Knights, as well as the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine (and, human rights observers noted, Caritas, part of the Catholic Church’s international humanitarian aid network) from entering the occupied territories of Ukraine, Kelly said.

“Their ban is our badge of honor,” he said. “The Russian authorities are using faith as a weapon of war. And what they fear most is the Church’s message of human freedom. But Ukrainian bishops and priests will not be silenced.”

Kelly acknowledged the presence of several Ukrainian clergy at the meeting: Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv, Bishop Mykhaylo Bubniy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Exarchate of Odessa, and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Father Oleksandr Bohomaz, who was threatened with execution by Russian occupation officials for serving as a pastor in Melitopol, Ukraine, and recruiting men for the Knights Order. He was eventually arrested and expelled from the occupied territory.

In the Philippines, knights are trained to recognize the signs of human trafficking through the organization’s Guardians of Dignity program in partnership with anti-slavery NGO Arise Foundation, Kelly said.

In North America, the Knights are “determined to stand in solidarity with the indigenous peoples,” Kelly said.

The organization has launched a Native Solidarity Initiative and is committed to educating people about Catholic Native peoples and their traditions through its documentary film “Enduring Faith,” as well as to the canonization of the Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk, a Lakota saint and Catholic catechist. The Knights’ chief secretary, Patrick T. Mason, is from the Osage Nation, while Graydon Nicholas, a former Knights board member and former lieutenant governor of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, is from the Maliseet (Tobique) First Nation.

During the meeting, the Knights planned to build more than 100 beds for First Nations children. The first batch would be delivered to the Huron-Wendat Nation in Wendake, near Quebec City, Kelly said. The Huron-Wendat Nation embraced the Catholic faith during the ministry of St. Jean de Brebeuf and other Jesuit martyrs in the 17th century. This was largely thanks to the missionary Huron-Wendat family of Joseph Chiwatenhwa and Marie Aonetta, who were lauded by John Paul II in 1984 for “living and witnessing their faith in a heroic way.”

The Knights also donated more than $1 million to rebuild communities devastated by natural disasters, such as Lahaina, Hawaii, which was hit by a wildfire in August 2023, Kelly said.

He stressed that the Knights continue to defend the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, fighting abortion and euthanasia while “combating what John Paul II has called a culture of death and Pope Francis a throwaway culture.”

Kelly noted the Knights’ extensive efforts during pregnancy and the postpartum period, as well as their commitment to fighting assisted suicide.

“Ultimately, this is a spiritual battle,” he said.

That’s why the Knights focus on spiritual formation through their Cor (Latin for “heart”) program because “we know that to change the world, we must first change ourselves,” Kelly said. “As Catholic men, we need a living faith.”

The national Eucharistic revival in the United States, which recently attracted more than 50,000 pilgrims to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, has increased the Knights’ awareness that “God is actively renewing his Church,” Kelly said.

“This is our calling, to be Knights of the Eucharist and to serve our Lord in all that we do,” he said. “We have followed this calling in new and renewed ways over the past year. And as we look to the year ahead, we do so with great confidence and joy.”

Copyright © 2024 OSV News

Press