Feast Day of Our Founder
August 13 is the recently designated Feast Day of Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. Fr. McGivney was born on August 12, 1852 and died on August 14, 1890. I May 2020, the Vatican gave the official recognition of the miracle healing of an unborn child in the United States, who in 2015, was healed in utero of a life-threatening condition, to which prayers were offered by his family to Fr. McGivney.
For those that do not know about this great man, Fr. McGivney was the Irish-American priest who noticed the continual economic and personal struggles of Catholic families in his home town of New Haven, Connecticut, particularly those whose fathers had died leaving large families without a money earner. Also noticing the discrimination against Catholics throughout American society (then predominately of the Irish background), particularly in the areas of employment, he would be moved to take action.
As a result of these injustices, Fr. McGivney would found the Knights of Columbus in 1882, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organizations, with over 2 million members who are part of more than 16,000 local Knights of Columbus councils around the world (primarily in North America), including over 300 on college campuses.
Fr. McGivney also set up the Knights of Columbus insurance program, one of the largest life insurance programs in North America today.
Today, millions of Knights worldwide serve the wider community while defending Catholic traditions and values.
News & Notes
At the daily briefing at the Holy See Press Office on the latest Synod developments, journalists learn that the Synod's General Assembly focused on a variety of themes, including the inclusion of people with disabilities, the role of women, and the severity of the climate emergency in Brazil.
The Vatican Permanent Observer to the United Nations reaffirms that
the Holy See advocates for a legally binding convention on crimes against humanity that respects established international norms, upholds justice principles, and ensures support to victims, while respecting state sovereignty.
Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv, Ukraine, reflects on Pope Francis' words during his most recent Angelus, and issues an urgent plea as winter approaches, warning that Russian forces are "bombing infrastructure" to ensure that "boilers don’t work, leaving people—elders, children, the young, and even infants—to simply die."
