HOMEPAGE for this issue: August 10, 2011 // Download PDF Version // Click to install/update Adobe Reader on your computer

Carl Anderson: "Knights more generous, growing"

By John Gleason

At the Aug. 2 opening session of the Knights’ 129th Supreme Convention, which was held in Denver at the Sheraton Downtown Hotel, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson reported on the state of the organization and announced an initiative to preserve the legacy of Pope John Paul II.

Anderson told the gathering of some 2,500 Knights, their families, and clergy from across the United States and beyond that the key to the organization’s ability to increase charitable contributions was expansion in membership. Anderson reported that for the 40th consecutive year, membership had grown.

“Over the last year, we’ve added 217 new councils for a total of 14,174,” Anderson said.  “That includes the chartering of six new councils on college campuses.” 

The organization boasts 1.8 million members worldwide. 

Anderson informed the delegates that last year charitable contributions by the Knights of Columbus reached $154.6 million, surpassing the previous year’s total by more than $3 million.

“Sixty percent of these donations went to projects at the community level,” Anderson said. “Among the larger donations were one million for ‘Healing Haiti’s Children,’ which made available prosthetic limbs to every child in Haiti who suffered an amputation in the 2010 earthquake.”

In addition to hyperactive fundraising, Anderson reported that Knights had also stepped up volunteer efforts, rolling up their sleeves and providing a record 70 million hours of volunteer service causes, an increase of nearly 800,000 hours over last year.  This included involvement in Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity construction projects, Coats for Kids program and 40 Cans for Lent food bank collections. Additionally, in a partnership with Global Wheelchair Mission, the Knights have provided 3,565 wheelchairs to people around the world.  The Knights also provided emergency relief to victims of earthquakes in Haiti, floods in Japan and Pakistan, and tornados in the Midwest.

“We are not first responders,” Anderson said. “We cannot duplicate the work of police, firefighters, the Red Cross and other agencies.  But there is much we can be doing as ‘second responders’—helping provide food and supplies to those who suddenly have nothing.” 

As this year marked the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, who was a Knights’ member, Anderson took the opportunity to remind the assembled of the call to action in that 1961 inaugural address.

“President Kennedy recalled that our rights come from God,” he said. “He reminded us that on earth, God’s work must be our own.  It was a monumental speech … that continues to resonate today.”

Delegates were also informed that the Knights will establish a shrine in honor of Blessed John Paul II at the Washington, D.C., cultural center named after the late pontiff. The Knights are purchasing the cultural center, Anderson said. The shrine will include exhibits about Pope John Paul II’s life and will also feature an exhibit on the Catholic heritage of North America. The shrine will be a tool of the new evangelization to spread the Gospel, according to Anderson.

“Because of his tireless evangelization efforts, an entire generation of Catholics has become known as the John Paul II generation,” Anderson said. “We are honored to continue to spread his profound and powerful message of hope for our county, our continent and our world.”

The opening session, which was broadcast on Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), Catholic TV and Salt & Light Canadian Television Network, started with the reading of a letter from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, who conveyed greetings from Pope Benedict XVI.

“The Holy Father expresses his deep gratitude to the Knights of Columbus for their continuing contribution to responsible public debate about the great ethical issues which will shape the future of our democratic societies,” the cardinal said.  “…His Holiness encourages your order to renew and reinforce its praiseworthy programs of catechesis and continuing formation in the faith.”