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
Marking one year from the Hamas attacks on Israel that plunged the Holy Land into all-out war, Pope Francis addresses a letter to the Catholics of the region decrying the “shameful inability of the international community and powerful countries to put an end to the war” and expressing his closeness to those who "suffer the devastation which the powerful impose on others."
Cardinal-elect Isao Kikuchi, Archbishop of Tokyo, Japan, shares his thoughts on his personal blog about how he heard the news on Sunday that Pope Francis will create him a Cardinal on December 8.
As people of goodwill pray and fast on October 7 to implore God's gift of peace for the world, our Editorial Director reflects on the first anniversary of Hamas' brutal attack on Israel and the military escalation that has followed throughout the Middle East.
