Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Knights of Columbus Founded by Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882, it was named in honor of the explorer Christopher Columbus. Originally serving as a mutual benefit society to working- class and immigrant Catholics in the United States, it developed into a fraternal benefit society dedicated to providing charitable services, including war and disaster relief, actively defending Catholicism in various nations, and promoting Catholic education.[1][2][3] The Knights also support the Catholic Church's positions on public policy issues, including various political causes, and are participants in the New Evangelization. The current Supreme Knight is Carl A. Anderson. There are over 1.9 million members around the world.[4] Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men aged 18 or older.[nb 1] The Order consists of four different degrees, each exemplifying a different principle of the order.[6][5] The nearly 15,000 councils,[7] including over Emblem of the Knights of Columbus 300 on college campuses,[4] are chartered in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Philippines, and around the world.[8] The Knights' official junior organization, the Columbian Squires, has more Abbreviation K of C than 5,000 circles, and the order's patriotic arm, the Fourth Degree, has more than 2,500 Formation March 29, 1882 [9] assemblies. Type Catholic fraternal Pope John Paul II referred to the order as the "strong right arm of the Church" for their support service of the church, as well as for their philanthropic and charitable efforts.[10] In 2015, the order gave organization over US$175 million directly to charity and performed over 73.5 million man-hours of voluntary Headquarters Knights of service,[11] part of the $1.55 billion given to charity over the past 10 years.[12] Columbus Building, New Haven, The Knights are also well known for their insurance program with more than 2 million insurance Connecticut, US contracts, totaling more than US$100 billion of life insurance in force.[13] This is backed by Founder Venerable Michael $21 billion in assets as of 2014.[13] This places it on the Forbes 1000 list.[13] The Order also owns J. McGivney the Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors, a money management firm that invests in accordance with Catholic social teachings.[14] Supreme Carl A. Anderson Knight Supreme William E. Lori Chaplain Contents Affiliations International History Alliance of Catholic Early years Knights Early 20th century Columbian Squires Recent history Website www.kofc.org (htt Degrees and principles p://www.kofc.org) Fourth degree Color corps Charitable giving Early efforts Global Catholic donations Vatican and bishops Vocations Catholic education Catholic communications Satellite Uplink Program Vatican Film Library and papal video coverage Catholic media The disabled Disaster relief Insurance program History Modern program Organization Supreme Council Board and officers Supreme Knights Supreme Convention Assemblies College councils Promotion of the Catholic faith Anti-religious discrimination efforts Chair of American history Evangelization Awards Political activity Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors Notable Knights Emblems of the order Emblem of the order Fourth Degree emblem Columbian Squires emblem Auxiliary groups Women's auxiliaries Columbian Squires Squire Roses Similar organizations See also References Notes Footnotes Bibliography Further reading External links History Early years Michael J. McGivney, an Irish-American Catholic priest, founded the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut. He gathered a group of men from St. Mary's Parish for an organizational meeting on October 2, 1881. Several months later, the order was incorporated under the laws of the state of Connecticut on March 29, 1882.[2] Although its first councils were all in Connecticut, the order spread throughout New England and the United States. The order was intended to be a mutual benefit society. These organizations, which combined social aspects and ritual, were especially flourishing during the latter third of the nineteenth century.[15] As a parish priest in an immigrant community, McGivney saw what could happen to a family when the main income earner died. This was before most government support programs were established. He wanted to provide insurance to care for the widows and orphans left behind. In his own life, he temporarily had to suspend his seminary studies to care for his family after his father died.[16] Because of religious and ethnic discrimination, Roman Catholics in the late 19th century were regularly excluded from labor unions, popular fraternal organizations, and other organized groups that provided such social services.[17] Papal encyclicals issued by the Holy See prohibited Catholics from participating as lodge members within Freemasonry. McGivney intended to create an alternative organization.[18] The original insurance system devised by McGivney gave a deceased Knight's widow a $1,000 death benefit. Each member was assessed $1 upon a death, and when the number of Knights grew beyond 1,000, the assessment decreased according to the rate of increase.[19] Each member, regardless of age, was assessed equally. As a result, younger, healthier members could expect to pay more over the course of their lifetimes than those men who joined when they were older.[20] There was also a Sick Benefit Deposit for members who fell ill and could not work. Each sick Knight was entitled to draw up to $5 a week for 13 weeks (roughly equivalent to $125.75 in 2009 dollars[21]). If he remained sick after that, the council to which he belonged determined the sum of money given to him.[22] Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus From the earliest days of the order, members wanted to create a form of hierarchy and recognition for senior members.[23][24] As early as 1886, Supreme Knight James T. Mullen had proposed a patriotic degree with its own symbolic dress.[25] About 1,400 members attended the first exemplification of the Fourth Degree at the Lenox Lyceum in New York on February 22, 1900.[23][24] Early 20th century To prove that good Catholics could also be good Americans, during World War I the Knights supported the war effort and the troops. It was hoped that this would help mitigate some of the American anti-Catholicism. Supreme Knight James A. Flaherty proposed to US President Woodrow Wilson that the order establish soldiers' welfare centers in the US and abroad. The organization already had experience, having provided similar services to troops encamped on the Mexican border during Pershing's expedition of 1916.[26] With the slogan "Everyone Welcome, Everything Free," the "huts" became recreation/service centers for doughboys regardless of race or religion. They were staffed by "secretaries," commonly referred to as "Caseys" (for K of C) who were generally men above the age of military service. The centers St. Mary's Church provided basic amenities not readily available, such as stationery, hot baths, and religious services.[27] After the war, the Knights became involved in education, occupational training, and employment programs for the returning troops.[26] As a result of this, the Order was infused with the self-confidence that it could respond with organizational skill and with social and political power to any need of Church and society. In this sense, the K. of C. reflected the passage of American Catholicism from an immigrant Church to a well-established and respected religious denomination which had proven its patriotic loyalty in the acid test of the Great War.[28][12] During the nadir of American race relations, a bogus oath was circulated claiming that Fourth Degree Knights swore to exterminate Freemasons and Protestants.[29][30] The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which was growing into a newly powerful force through the 1920s, spread the bogus oath far and wide as part of their contemporary campaign against Catholics.[31] Numerous state councils and the Supreme Council believed publication would stop if the KKK were assessed fines or punished by jail time assessed and began suing distributors for libel.[32] As a result, the KKK ended its publication of the false oath. As the order did not wish to appear motivated by a "vengeful spirit," it asked for leniency from judges when sentencing offenders.[32] After World War I, many native-born Americans had a revival of concerns about assimilation of immigrants and worries about "foreign" values; they wanted public schools to teach children to be American. Numerous states drafted laws designed to use schools to promote a common American culture, and in 1922, the voters of Oregon passed the Oregon Compulsory Education Act. The law was primarily aimed at eliminating parochial schools, including Catholic schools.[33][34] The Compulsory Education Act required almost all children in Oregon between eight and sixteen years of age to attend public school by 1926.[35] Roger Nash Baldwin, an associate director of the ACLU and a personal friend of then-Supreme Advocate and future Supreme Knight Luke E. Hart, offered to join forces with the order to challenge the law. The Knights of Columbus pledged an immediate $10,000 to fight the law and any additional funds necessary to defeat it.[36] The case became known as Pierce v. Society of Sisters and in a unanimous decision, the Court held that the act was unconstitutional and that parents, not the state, had the authority to educate children as they thought best.[37] Postwar social unrest was also related to the difficulties of absorbing the veterans from the war in the job market. Competition among groups for work heightened tensions. In the 1920s there was growing anti- Semitism in the United States related to economic competition and the fears of social change from decades of changed immigration, a lingering anti-German sentiment left over from World War I, and anti-black violence erupted in numerous locations as well.