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
Ahead of International Marconi Day and 150 years since his birth, we recall the rich legacy of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor-entrepreneur who set up Vatican Radio in 1931 and installed a ‘big cell phone’ in Pope Pius XI’s car that connected to the Vatican.
African Synod delegates have gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, for a three-day seminar to prepare for the Second Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality scheduled to take place this October in the Vatican
Ongoing heavy rain causes severe flooding in Kenya. The downpours that have been drenching the land since March have affected over 100,000 people across the country. More than 30 people have been killed in the floods and over 40,000 displaced, according to UN statistics.
