Columbia April 2023

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.

PSALM 19:1

A statue depicting St. Juan Diego kneeling before Our Lady of Guadalupe sits atop a re-creation of Tepeyac Hill outside the newly dedicated Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City. The statues are being funded by the Oklahoma and Texas Knights of Columbus.

Departments

3 For the greater glory of God

We are called to live in the truth and to love our neighbor, reserving judgment and practicing forgiveness.

By Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly

4 Learning the faith, living the faith

In the words of sacred Scripture, we encounter Jesus Christ, who himself is the eternal Word of God.

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori PLUS: Catholic

Man of the Month

28 Knights in Action

Reports from councils and assemblies, representing the four pillars of the Faith in Action program model

On a ‘Journey of Fraternity’

Knights join in prayer for Pope Francis on the anniversary of his pontificate and recall a decade of “unfailing support.”

By Columbia staff

Mission to the Origins of the Universe

An interview with Michael Menzel, lead systems engineer of the James Webb Space Telescope.

In the Beginning

Nearly a century after a Belgian priest proposed the “Big Bang” theory, astronomers peer back in time to the first galaxies.

By Christopher M. Graney

A Light in the Darkness

Pittsburgh-area Knights build an observatory at the local VA hospital to give veterans a view of the heavens.

By Cecilia Hadley

‘God Chooses the Ordinary’

A new shrine honoring Blessed Stanley Rother, the first U.S.-born martyr, is dedicated in Oklahoma.

By María Ruiz Scaperlanda

Ready to Respond

Ohio Knights assist their community following an environmental disaster.

By Elisha Valladares-Cormier

ON THE COVER

The James Webb Space Telescope captures details of the “Pillars of Creation” — vast clouds of dust and gas giving birth to stars 650,000 light-years away — in nearand mid-infrared light.

Membership in the Knights of Columbus is open to men 18 years of age or older who are practical (that is, practicing) Catholics in union with the Holy See. This means that an applicant or member accepts the teaching authority of the Catholic Church on matters of faith and morals, aspires to live in accord with the precepts of the Catholic Church, and is in good standing in the Catholic Church.

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Copyright © 2023

Wonder and Wisdom

IMAGINE THAT EARTH was scaled down to the average size of a grain of sand (.5 mm); the sun would be about the size of a pool ball, 6 meters away. As for actual distances, even the fastest spacecra ever built — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — would need to travel nearly 7,000 years at its maximum speed (430,000 mph) to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our solar system. Finally, consider that astronomers estimate there are several hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. e immensity of space is practically incomprehensible.

Speaking to professors and students during the Vatican Observatory’s 2018 summer course in astrophysics, Pope Francis observed, “Before … the vastness of our universe, we may be tempted to think of ourselves as small and insigni cant. is fear is nothing new.”

e Holy Father then quoted Psalm 8: “When I see your heavens, the work of your ngers, the moon and stars that you set in place — what is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him li le less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor” (4-6). e words of the Psalmist capture the awesomeness of creation in two respects — both as a whole and in the particular, recognizing the dignity that God has bestowed on humanity by creating us in his image and likeness.

Pope Francis went on to note that while scienti c inquiry helps us to grow in knowledge, it has limitations. “ ere is another way of seeing things, that of metaphysics, which acknowledges the First Cause of everything, hidden from tools of measurement,” he said.

“ en there is still another way of seeing things, through the eyes of faith, which accepts God’s self-disclosure. Harmonizing these di erent levels of knowledge leads to understanding, and understanding — we hope — will make us open to wisdom.”

Scienti c discoveries and insights over the past century — most notably the Big Bang theory, which traces the entire physical universe (including time itself) back to a singular beginning — cannot prove the existence of God or creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing), but they are compatible with religious belief and the biblical narrative of creation (see page 18). Nor should the magnitude of the universe give rise to fear but rather to wonder, gratitude and worship of God, whose glory far surpasses the grandeur of his creation. For even if the material cosmos were virtually in nite, God would remain transcendent.

Lastly, we know by faith and revelation that this transcendent God not only created man in his image and likeness, but his eternal Son, in whom and through whom he created all things, became one of us and loved us to the end (cf. Jn 1:1-3, 13:1). is extraordinary truth is the Gospel message that we celebrate in a special way during the Easter season. As Pope Francis wrote 10 years ago in his rst encyclical, Lumen Fidei, “At the heart of biblical faith is God’s love, his concrete concern for every person, and his plan of salvation which embraces all of humanity and all creation, culminating in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ” (54). ✢

Alton J. Pelowski, Editor

Our Liberator: St. Joseph and the Priests of Dachau

This new K of C-produced film recounts the remarkable story of the liberation of hundreds of Polish priests from Dachau concentration camp through the intercession of St. Joseph. In partnership with Goya Productions and Fathom, the 30-minute documentary will accompany A Father’s Heart, a film exploring devotion to St. Joseph on five continents, when it premieres in theaters across the United States May 1-2. For more information about the film or how to purchase tickets, visit kofc.org/ourliberator.

Columbia

PUBLISHER

Knights of Columbus

SUPREME OFFICERS

Patrick E. Kelly

Supreme Knight

Most Rev. William E. Lori, S.T.D. Supreme Chaplain

Paul G. O’Sullivan

Deputy Supreme Knight

Patrick T. Mason

Supreme Secretary

Ronald F. Schwarz

Supreme Treasurer

John A. Marrella

Supreme Advocate

EDITORIAL

Alton J. Pelowski

Editor

Andrew J. Matt

Managing Editor

Cecilia Hadley

Senior Editor

Elisha Valladares-Cormier

Associate Editor

Paul Haring

Manager of Photography

Blessed Michael McGivney

(1852-90) – Apostle to the Young, Protector of Christian Family Life and Founder of the Knights of Columbus, Intercede for Us.

HOW TO REACH US

COLUMBIA 1 Columbus Plaza New Haven, CT 06510-3326

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Merciful Like the Father

We are called to live in the truth and to love our neighbor, reserving judgment and practicing forgiveness

By Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly

OURS IS A TIME that calls for the proclamation of eternal truths, for standing boldly and inviting others to what we know is “a still more excellent way” (1 Cor 12:31).

At the same time, ours is a climate that tempts us into hypercriticism and an almost dehumanized judgment that goes beyond calling one another into the truth.

Last month, in a Lenten Gospel reading, we heard Christ say, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Our Lord then drilled down and gave his disciples more detailed instruction on what, exactly, it means to be merciful. “Stop judging, and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned,” he said. “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” (Lk 6:36-38).

Stop judging. Stop condemning. These words are hard for us to hear. But the truth is also hard for us to hear, and yet we need it just as much! As Christians, our task is to reconcile these two callings by imitating the Lord, who is “abounding in mercy and truth” (Ps 86:15).

For most of us, criticism comes very easily. It’s the easiest of habits to fall into and an extremely hard one to break. The far more difficult thing is to offer the benefit of the doubt, to turn the other cheek, to be “merciful like the Father.”

It’s a tremendous irony that when we judge and condemn, we attempt to assume the place of God. We give into that original human temptation to rebel and to “become like gods” (Gen 3:5). And yet we do so in the precise moment that our Lord is calling us to be like God in exhibiting mercy!

Of course, our human expression of mercy can never match the Father’s, which is based on a complete and perfect understanding of the truth of the matter. He knows each of us better than we know ourselves. Our human judgments will always be flawed, clouded as

they are by our own pride and selfishness. Through that clouded lens, we often fail to see others as God does, as brothers and sisters made in his image and likeness. Can our judgments be true? Certainly. But rather than bearing lasting fruit, they often pull us into a cycle of negativity and resentment that hurts us as much as it does those we are criticizing.

One of the great Christian witnesses of the 20th century was Venerable Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuân, who was imprisoned by the communist North Vietnamese government for 13 years. He wrote of the prison we create for ourselves through judgment and condemnation: “To remember a person’s defects is to hold onto the past and to concentrate on that person’s worst side, as if no other existed! No one’s life is frozen; everyone is constantly evolving, changing, growing. You must concentrate your entire attention on the present and future, rather than on the past.”

For each of us, there will be a judgment and a measuring — that is clear in Jesus’ words. But it is the Lord who will judge and who will measure each of us — both according to how we follow God’s commandments, and how well we adhere to Christ’s “new commandment” to love one another (Jn 13:34).

Especially in these days of cultural confusion, we must offer the truth in love (Eph 4:15). We must offer fraternal correction at times and call our brothers to the more excellent way. But we must do so with a clear understanding of the imperfections in our knowledge of ourselves and others, and therefore be slow to judge and quick to forgive.

If we are to be brothers, we must strive to look at one another as the Father does. Our task is to know, love and serve God and to proclaim his eternal truths, all the while being witnesses of his mercy.

Vivat Jesus!

Photo by Laura Barisonzi

We must strive to look at one another as the Father does. Our task is to know, love and serve God and to proclaim his eternal truths, all the while being witnesses of his mercy.

He Opened the Scriptures for Them

In the words of sacred Scripture, we encounter Jesus Christ, who himself is the eternal Word of God

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

THROUGHOUT THE GOSPELS, Jesus is o en called “teacher” or “rabbi.” As he went from place to place, Jesus taught the crowds about the reign of God. He preached the Sermon on the Mount and told parables like that of the prodigal son. He instructed his disciples privately when they were slow to understand. He was the teacher par excellence — the one who is the Word that he preached and taught.

We may think that Jesus’ preaching and teaching came to an abrupt halt after his death and resurrection, but Scripture shows otherwise. Luke’s Gospel, for example, recounts two instances when the risen Lord appeared to his disciples.

As two of Jesus’ distraught disciples journeyed towards Emmaus, lamenting his death and wondering what to make of reports of his resurrection, the risen Lord joined them. They did not, as yet, recognize Jesus, but their hearts burned with love as the risen Lord “opened the Scriptures” for them (Lk 24:32) — that is to say, he showed how all Scripture points to him who is the Word made flesh, to him who suffered, died and rose again for the world’s salvation. As Jesus spoke, the disciples’ faith and courage were stirred into flame. When the risen Lord sat at table with them, they finally recognized him “in the breaking of the bread” (24:35) — that is, the Eucharist.

The two disciples hastened back to Jerusalem with this news to tell the apostles. As they were speaking, the risen Lord suddenly stood in their midst. Thinking he was a ghost, the apostles were startled and frightened, but Jesus showed them his wounds and ate and drank with them. Then, as Luke’s Gospel recounts, Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (24:45) — showing how everything written in Scripture pointed to him as the Messiah.

What are we to make of the assertion that he “opened the Scriptures” for them? It surely means more than literally unrolling a scroll on which the Scriptures were written. It also means more than giving them an exegetical explanation, book by book and verse by verse. Does this phrase not mean that in the presence of Christ the Scriptures come alive? Indeed, the voice of Jesus speaks to us on every page of Scripture — even obscure passages of the Old Testament or the longest sentences in the letters of St. Paul.

The Church encourages all to read, study and pray over the sacred Scriptures. Not everyone can be a Scripture scholar, but each of us can learn to read the Bible prayerfully, and to listen to the Lord speaking. St. Jerome famously said that “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” Conversely, as we immerse ourselves in Scripture, and do so with a heart that is pure, thankful and receptive, we will encounter Christ. Then, filled with joy, we will recognize Jesus “in the breaking of the bread.”

Father Michael McGivney, who preached the Word of God and who followed Christ so closely, would want us, his Knights and families, to allow Jesus to open our minds and hearts to the Scriptures. As we encounter Christ in Scripture, we will see him give form and substance to the principles of charity, unity and fraternity that are at the heart of the Order and lead us to celebrate the Eucharist with ever greater joy and devotion. As we enter upon the joy of Easter, I therefore warmly recommend the practice of lectio divina, the prayerful reading of Scripture. The goal is not to see how much Scripture we can read in a sitting, but rather to take short passages, ponder them prayerfully, listen for the voice of Christ, and respond with a grateful heart. May the risen Lord open the Scriptures for you and your loved ones! ✢

The voice of Jesus speaks to us on every page of Scripture — even obscure passages of the Old Testament or the longest sentences in the letters of St. Paul.

Supreme Chaplain’s Challenge

monthly

Catholic Man of the Month

Venerable Victorino

Arnaud Pagés (1885-1966)

While he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. (Gospel for April 23, Lk 24:30-31)

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus had been walking and talking with the two disciples all along, but they did not recognize him until he broke bread with them. Do we recognize Jesus in our midst — in the Eucharist, in Scripture, among the poor and those in need, in the face of every person? Do we help others, particularly our friends and family, to do the same?

BROTHER VICTORINO Arnaud Pagés was no stranger to rejection. He was exiled twice — rst from his home country of France and later from his adopted country of Cuba. Still, he never lost faith that his work to form young people would bear spiritual fruit. “What we have sown was not lost,” he said. “Someday the tree will be lush again. If we do not see it, others will.”

Augustin Arnaud Pagés was born in Onzillon, France, where he was educated by De La Salle Brothers. He joined the congregation in 1901 at age 16, taking the religious name Victorin Nymphas. He became a certified teacher two years later, but by then a French law banned religious communities from operating schools. Within a year, he was forced to leave for Québec.

In 1905, his superiors asked for volunteers to establish a community in Cuba, and Pagés jumped at the opportunity. For the next 56 years, he spent all his energy serving the country’s youth. He sought not just to help youth grow in faith, but to become evangelizers themselves. To this end, he founded

Liturgical Calendar

April 2 Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

April 6 Holy Thursday

Challenge: This month, remind yourself and others — particularly your family and those closest to you — that Christ is present by speaking about your faith in everyday conversation (perhaps simply by thanking God for some blessing he has bestowed). Second, I challenge you to participate in the Faith in Action Family Fully Alive program.

April 7 Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday)

April 8 Holy Saturday

April 9 Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

April 16 Sunday of Divine Mercy

April 17 St. Kateri Tekakwitha (Canada)

April 25 St. Mark, Evangelist

April 29 St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

numerous apostolates, including the Catholic Family Movement and the Federations of Cuban Catholic Youth, which grew to include more than 25,000 members by 1960.

Known as Brother Victorino, he deeply loved Cuba and its people, describing himself as a “Cuban born in France.” After Fidel Castro expelled the De La Salle community from the island in 1961, Pagés spent his final years reorganizing the various associations he had founded among Cubans scattered throughout the United States and the Caribbean. He died in Puerto Rico in 1966 at the age of 81. The Archdiocese of San Juan opened his cause for canonization in 1999, and he was declared venerable in 2019. ✢

Holy Father’s Monthly Prayer Intention

We pray for the spread of peace and nonviolence, by decreasing the use of weapons by states and citizens.

A

reflection and practical challenge from Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

ON a ‘Journey OF FRATERNITY’

Knights join in prayer for Pope Francis on the anniversary of his pontificate and recall a decade of “unfailing support”

By Columbia sta

Ten years ago, the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI — the rst papal resignation in nearly 600 years — was followed by a historic rst. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, became the rst pope from the Western Hemisphere when he was elected by the College of Cardinals on March 13, 2013.

“You know that it was the duty of the conclave to give Rome a bishop. It seems that my brother cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one,” the new pope quipped before leading the crowd assembled in St. Peter’s Square in prayers for Pope Emeritus Benedict.

“And now, we take up this journey: bishop and people,” he continued. “ is journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches. A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among us. Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world, that there may be a great spirit of fraternity.”

en-Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, who was present in the square, recalled this moment in his April 2013 column in Columbia.

“When I heard those words, I felt the way our rst supreme knight,

James T. Mullen, must have felt 131 years ago when he heard Father Michael J. McGivney speak of our Order’s call to charity, unity and fraternity,” he wrote. “ e pope’s address was a clear call to these virtues, which are the fundamental principles of our Order.”

In the years since, the Knights of Columbus has consistently drawn inspiration from Pope Francis’ call for the faithful to go out to the peripheries, his emphasis on charity and fraternity, and his deep devotion to St. Joseph. Pope Francis, in turn, has repeatedly expressed his appreciation for the Order’s delity to the successor of St. Peter and commitment to serve all in need.

To honor Pope Francis on his 10th anniversary, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly asked all Knights to pray a novena to St. Joseph for the Holy Father, concluding on the solemnity of St. Joseph, this year March 20.

“Since the beginning of his ponticate, the constant request of our Holy Father has been ‘Pray for me,’” the supreme knight wrote. “In fact, each time I have met with him, his request to the Knights of Columbus has been the same: ‘Please, pray for me.’ It is, of course, our duty and our honor to do just this.”

e following timeline highlights some of the many ways the Knights have been privileged to support Francis’ papacy over the last decade and have otherwise been inspired by his words.

March 19, 2013 – Nearly 200,000 people, including Supreme Knight Carl Anderson representing Knights of Columbus worldwide, a end Pope Francis’ inauguration Mass on the solemnity of St. Joseph in St. Peter’s Square.

June 28, 2013 – Pope Francis and Supreme Knight Anderson discuss the charitable work of the Order in a private audience at the Vatican.

July 23-28, 2013 – Pope Francis returns to his home continent for his rst World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro. ousands of English-speaking pilgrims participate in events at a catechetical site sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.

Aug. 6-8, 2013 – e 131st Supreme Convention in San Antonio takes its theme “Be Protectors of God’s Gi s!” from Pope Francis’ inauguration Mass homily, in which the pope re ected on St. Joseph’s role as protector.

Oct. 10, 2013 – In a private audience at the Vatican, Supreme Knight Anderson presents Pope Francis with

Francis: e Pope om the New World, a documentary produced by the Order about the Holy Father’s upbringing and spiritual roots.

Oct. 20, 2013 – Pope Francis receives the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors, thanking the Order for its “unfailing support” of the Holy See. e pope commended the Knights in a particular way to the intercession of St. Joseph, calling him an “admirable model of those manly virtues of quiet strength, integrity and delity which the Knights of Columbus is commi ed to preserving, cultivating and passing on to future generations of Catholic men.”

April 27, 2014: Pope Francis canonizes two of his predecessors, Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II, in St. Peter’s Square. e Supreme Council provides nearly $100,000 to support Vatican Television’s broadcast of the ceremony and hosts hundreds of pilgrims at its ve sports centers in Rome.

Aug. 5-7, 2014 – e 132nd Supreme Convention in Orlando takes its theme, “You Will All Be Brothers: Our Vocation to Fraternity,” from Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Peace. Papal greetings to the convention express the Holy Father’s gratitude “for the e orts of your Order to provide its

During a private audience with Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly on Oct. 25, 2021, Pope Francis blesses an icon of St. Joseph commissioned for the Order’s pilgrim icon program.

members with ongoing instruction in the faith and to instill a strong sense of civic responsibility.”

Dec. 12, 2014 – Supreme Knight Anderson presents the pope with $400,000 from the Order’s new Christian Refugee Relief Fund to support the Vatican’s charitable works in the Middle East during a private audience at the Vatican. Later that day, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Knights of Columbus Silver Rose is presented to the Holy Father, who in turn places it before an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe a er Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Jan. 10, 2015 – e supreme knight participates in a Vatican conference marking the h anniversary of the Haitian earthquake and introduces Team Zaryen, an amputee soccer team from Haiti, to Pope Francis.

Jan. 15-19, 2015 – Pope Francis travels to the Philippines — the rst papal visit there in 20 years, where he is welcomed by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a member of Imus (Luzon South) Council 5896. Filipino Knights are among the 6 million faithful who a end the closing Mass in Manila, the largest papal event in history.

June 13, 2015 – In honor of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pontiff, the Knights of Columbus donates $600,000 to restore the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, N.Y. The shrine is located on the site of the Mohawk village where three Jesuit missionaries were martyred in the 17th century and St. Kateri Tekakwitha was born.

Sept. 22-27, 2015 – Pope Francis travels to the United States, where he canonizes St. Junípero Serra in Washington, D.C., and participates in the Eighth World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. Members and their families participate in the major events, and more than 1,000 Knights serve as volunteers. The Order provides financial support for the visit and distributes a booklet in which the supreme knight writes in defense of Junípero Serra and the decision to canonize him.

Dec. 8, 2015 – The Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis begins. In honor of the jubilee, the Knights of Columbus sponsors the restoration of the oldest wooden crucifix in St. Peter’s Basilica, which dates to the early 1300s. The Order also produces an hourlong documentary about the history and theology of the Divine Mercy message.

Feb. 12-17, 2016 – Pope Francis makes an apostolic journey to Mexico, visiting major pilgrimage destinations as well as places affected by poverty and drug trafficking. Knights of Columbus leaders, including Supreme Knight Anderson, represent the Order at the pope’s Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and hundreds of local Knights and family members serve as volunteers at other papal events. The Order’s documentary Guadalupe: The Miracle and the Message is played in the basilica the morning of the pope’s visit.

July 26-31, 2016 – e Knights of Columbus sponsors the Mercy Centre, one of the largest catechetical sites at World Youth Day in Kraków, Poland.

On July 31, Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori welcomes Pope Francis to the center on behalf of the Knights, as the Holy Father meets with and thanks event’s 12,000 volunteers, among them dozens of college Knights.

Aug. 2-4, 2016 – e theme of the 134th Supreme Convention in Toronto, “A Light to the Nations,” echoes the call of Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium to “go forth from our comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel” (20).

Sept. 4, 2016 – Pope Francis canonizes Mother Teresa of Calcutta in St. Peter’s Square. The canonization banner on the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica is based on a painting commissioned by the Knights of Columbus. The Order also prints 1 million prayer cards to be distributed at the canonization.

Aug. 1-3, 2017 – e 135th Supreme Convention is held in St. Louis, drawing its theme — “Convinced of God’s Love and Power” — from Pope Francis’ message for the 50th World Day of Peace.

June 25, 2018 – Pope Francis receives $110,000 from Knights of Columbus Insurance as the designated bene ciary of a recently deceased priest who had been a Knight for 45 years. Supreme Knight Anderson presents the check to the Holy Father a er a meeting of the Ponti cal Academy for Life at the Vatican.

Nov. 6, 2018 – Pope Francis prays before an icon of Our Lady Help of Persecuted Christians during an audience with Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, a longtime Knight of Columbus. e image was commissioned by the Order for its pilgrim icon program.

Feb. 28, 2019 – Supreme Knight Anderson presents Pope Francis with an icon of St. Jean Vianney, commissioned by the Order, during a private audience that takes place on the last day of the Knights’ novena for repentance, renewal and rebuilding of the Church. He also presents the pope with a silver chalice and other gi s handmade by master Native American cra smen. During the same audience, Pope Francis asks the supreme knight to bring a supply of papal rosaries with him to Erbil, Iraq, as a sign of the Holy Father’s prayerful union with persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

Aug. 6-8, 2019 – Pope Francis sends greetings to the 137th Supreme Convention in Minneapolis, thanking Knights for “their continued prayers for the sancti cation of priests, exemplied most recently in the pilgrimages of

Above: Pope Francis hugs a formerly homeless girl during a meeting with young people on the campus of Manila’s Santo Tomas University on Jan. 18, 2015. At left is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, then archbishop of Manila and a longtime member of the Knights. • Opposite page: The Holy Father places a Knights of Columbus Silver Rose beneath an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 12, 2014. The Mass coincided with a conference organized by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the Knights of Columbus.

Servizio Fotografico/L’Osservatore Romano

devotion made to the relic of the heart of the saintly Curé of Ars, patron of parish priests and a powerful intercessor for the revival of the Christian life and holiness in the midst of an o en indi erent society.”

Feb. 10, 2020 – e Knights of Columbus Board of Directors is received by Pope Francis during a pilgrimage to Rome to mark the 100th anniversary of the Order’s service to the Vatican.

A few days later, a er a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Lori in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis surprises board members by returning to greet them a second time. During the visit, the supreme chaplain presents Pope Francis with an Italian translation of Parish Priest, the biography of Father Michael McGivney, and the Holy Father leads the board in prayer and o ers his apostolic blessing. He concludes his remarks by saying,

Left: Rudy and Leona Gonzales, together with some of their children and grandchildren, speak with Pope Francis on Sept. 26, 2015, during the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. They were one of eight families from around the world chosen to share their story with the Holy Father during the event’s Festival of Families. Rudy, who died in 2021, was a past grand knight of Our Lady of Fatima Shrine Council 14622 in Lewiston, N.Y.

Below: Pope Francis meets with thousands of young people July 31, 2016, in Kraków, Poland, to thank them for volunteering at World Youth Day. The gathering took place at the Mercy Centre at Tauron Arena Kraków, the catechetical site sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.

“Pray for me,” adding with a smile, “ is job is not easy!”

March 27, 2020 – As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads rapidly around the globe, Pope Francis gives an extraordinary blessing “to the city and the world” (Urbi et Orbi) from St. Peter’s Square. e event is broadcast with nancial support from the Knights of Columbus, as are broadcasts of the Good Friday Stations of the Cross led

Photo by Jakub Wawrzkowicz —TOP: L’Osservatore Romano

by Pope Francis on April 10 and the pope’s Easter Sunday Mass and Urbi et Orbi blessing on April 12.

May 27, 2020 – e Vatican announces that Pope Francis has approved a decree recognizing a miracle a ributed to Father Michael McGivney’s intercession, clearing the way for him to be declared “Blessed.”

Aug. 4-5, 2020 – e pope sends his greetings to the 138th Supreme Convention, expressing his hope that the forthcoming beati cation of Father Michael McGivney will be a “stimulus for Knights to deepen their commitment to live as missionary disciples in charity, unity and fraternity.”

Oct. 31, 2020 – An apostolic le er from Pope Francis decreeing that “the Venerable Servant of God, Michael McGivney, Diocesan Priest, Founder of the Knights of Columbus … henceforth be given the title of Blessed” is read at Father McGivney’s beati cation Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, Conn.

March 2, 2021 – Pope Francis writes personally to Carl Anderson on the

occasion of his retirement as supreme knight. “During your years as Supreme Knight, you have personally demonstrated constant and unswerving solidarity with the Successors of Peter,” the pope writes, adding, “Under your guidance, the Knights have persevered in serving the Church and broader society in delity to the Gospel and the fraternal principles established by Blessed Michael McGivney.”

March 5-8, 2021 – Pope Francis makes the rst papal visit to Iraq, bringing a message of peace and hope to its persecuted Christian communities. e Order nancially supports the papal Mass a ended by 10,000 people in the city of Erbil on March 7.

Aug. 3-4, 2021 – e pope’s 2020 apostolic le er on St. Joseph, Patris Corde, inspires the theme of the 139th Supreme Convention, “Called to Creative Courage.”

Oct. 25, 2021 – Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly is received by Pope Francis in a private audience with Past Supreme Knight Carl Anderson and Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori. e pope blesses an icon of St. Joseph

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson presents Pope Francis with an icon of St. Jean Vianney on Feb. 28, 2019. The image of the Curé of Ars was commissioned by the Order as part of a K of C-sponsored pilgrimage of the saint’s incorrupt heart throughout the United States and Canada.

commissioned for the Order’s pilgrim icon program, and the new supreme knight presents him with a rst-class relic of Blessed Michael McGivney.

Feb. 17-19, 2022 – e Knights of Columbus sponsors an International eological Symposium on the Priesthood at the Vatican, organized by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, a member of the Order for more than 20 years. Pope Francis addresses the gathering, o ering a moving re ection on his own priesthood.

April 11, 2022 – During a private audience with Supreme Knight Kelly, Pope Francis commends the Order’s humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine and urges Knights to “Go on!” with their work to assist its victims.

e pope also blesses an Easter basket representing thousands of Easter care packages assembled by Knights in Poland and transported into Ukraine by K of C Charity Convoys.

July 24-29, 2022 – Pope Francis travels to Canada to ask forgiveness from Indigenous communities for the Church’s role in the residential school system. e Knights of Columbus provides $750,000 to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to support the visit, and Canadian Knights volunteer at several papal events.

Aug. 31, 2022 – Mother Teresa: No Greater Love premieres at the Filmoteca Vaticana. Pope Francis marks the occasion with a personal le er to Supreme Knight Kelly, thanking the Order “for all e orts made to capture the life of this saint whose life and testimony have borne much fruit” and expressing his hope that the lm “will do much good to all those who watch it and arouse the desire for holiness.” ✢

MISSION TO THE ORIGINS OF THE UNIVERSE

An interview with Michael Menzel, lead systems engineer of the James Webb Space Telescope

On Christmas Day in 2021, a rocket lifted off from French Guiana, launching the James Webb Space Telescope on its mission to explore the outer reaches of the universe — peering out to the very first stars and galaxies, formed some 13.6 billion years ago. The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb is the largest and most powerful space telescope in the world, and its deployment is arguably one of the greatest scientific endeavors in history. In July 2022, NASA released the first images from the JWST — the deepest and sharpest infrared images of the distant universe to date. Similar images have been transmitted since, and countless more are expected in the years to come, as astronomers rewrite textbooks to account for new discoveries.

One of the people at the helm of the $10 billion project is Michael Menzel, lead systems engineer of the JWST at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, located outside of Washington, D.C. Menzel has been a pivotal player in the development of the telescope for more than 25 years. Managing a team of about 200 people around the world, he was responsible for ensuring Webb would perform on orbit, approximately 1 million miles from Earth. A husband and father, he resides in Frederick, Maryland, where he joined the Knights of Columbus in 2012.

Last month, Menzel spoke with Columbia editor Alton Pelowski about his career, the goals of the JWST and its discoveries thus far, and how his Catholic faith relates to his scientific work.

COLUMBIA: What led you to have a lead role with the world’s largest space telescope? Was this a career path you always wanted to pursue?

MICHAEL MENZEL: My grandfather got me interested in astronomy when I was 6 years old, and I’ve loved it ever since. I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. I went to MIT and got a degree in physics, and then I went to work for what was RCA Astro Space Division. I got my master’s degree from Columbia University while I was working, and one thing led to another.

I became a deputy program manager at Lockheed Martin for the Hubble servicing missions. And when Lockheed wanted to bid on what was called the Next Generation Space Telescope in 1997, they asked me to be their chief systems engineer. We lost the proposal, but the winning company, Northrop Grumman, asked me to work for them. Eventually, I ended up at NASA when the project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center asked me to be his lead systems engineer in 2004. That’s where I’ve been ever since.

The truth is, there are many leads on this job, and many of them have been on it for as long as I have. A lot of us have spent half our careers doing this job. We have all stuck with it because we knew this was a mission worth doing.

NASA, ESA, CSA, Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach (STScI)

The James Webb Telescope’s first deepfield image, released in July 2022, shows thousands of distant galaxies, including a bright, central cluster of galaxies 4.6 billion light-years away. In 1995, a groundbreaking image from the Hubble Telescope captured the same tiny patch of dark, “empty” space — the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length — in the constellation Ursa Major.

COLUMBIA: What are the principal goals of the James Webb Space Telescope — and how do these goals differ from those of Hubble?

MICHAEL MENZEL: It’s meant to be a successor to Hubble, to pick up where Hubble le o . ere are four speci c goals of the mission. e rst is to see the very rst stars and galaxies.

e Big Bang happened about 13.8 billion years ago, and maybe somewhere between 200 and 400 million years a er that, the rst stars turned on, which in cosmic time is pre y quick. e second goal is to see how galaxies, these vast cities of stars in space, evolve over cosmic time. e third goal is to see how stars are born in our own Milky Way galaxy. And the fourth goal is to see how solar systems are born and form. All four goals really dictate a telescope that’s six times bigger than Hubble and that can see infrared light.

A detailed image of the Southern Ring Nebula from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a bright star surrounded by rings of gas and dust emitted by a second star as they orbit one another.

“It had to be right the first time, and we were all very aware of that. This was exacerbated by the fact that deploying things in space is always a risky business.”

COLUMBIA: From the engineering to the testing, can you summarize some of the greatest challenges you faced in ensuring that the JWST would be operational?

MICHAEL MENZEL: ere were ve main challenges, but I’ll describe the three that you’re probably most familiar with. First, the telescope stands about as tall as a three-story building, and the sunshield is about as big as a tennis court. So challenge number one was ing that into a rocket whose fairing, or nose cone, is only 5 meters in diameter. We had to fold this thing up, and then once it’s on orbit, rebuild the observatory and telescope robotically, unfolding what are 50 of the most complex deployments ever a empted.

e second challenge is that half of the observatory has to operate at temperatures only 55 degrees above absolute zero; it’s cryogenic. ree metric tons of telescope has to cool down to minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit. And to do it, we had to build a big sun shield that’s like a big umbrella. It gets illuminated by about 200,000 wa s of solar radiation, and it can only allow .02 wa s through. A heat leak could really do us damage. I tell folks that if it were suntan lotion, it would have an SPF of 10 million.

e third big challenge for me was this observatory was not testable on the ground. So, we had to test it in parts and assemble a big mathematical model to predict what its performance

would be like on orbit. As engineers, we like to test the as-built device. Well, we couldn’t do that for James Webb.

COLUMBIA: Do you recall any specific moments of accomplishment or relief related to the launch and deployment? After all, unlike Hubble, James Webb wasn’t going to be serviceable if something went wrong.

MICHAEL MENZEL: That’s exactly right. It had to be right the first time, and we were all very aware of that. This was exacerbated by the fact that deploying things in space is always a risky business.

Right a er the launch, there were reporters all over the place. ey were interviewing me and the program managers — “How do you feel? How do you feel?” ey’re looking for that emotional moment, right? Well, we’re all si ing there acting very low key. I said, “Hey, look, it was a good day.”

e launch was one thing, but I knew that we were really tempting fate with 50 very complex deployments ahead of us. Half of them were very precise, the ones that deployed and rebuilt the telescope. e ones with the sunshield didn’t have to be as precise, but they were actually harder, because we were dealing with ve layers of indeterministic material. Predicting how those oppity layers would act in zero G was nerve-racking.

Michael Menzel, lead systems engineer of the James Webb Space Telescope, stands beside a model of the telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington, D.C.

Photo by Umit Gulsen, Quanta Magazine

But we prepared for the worst, and there were only some very minor anomalies. We nished the deployments on Jan. 8, and we were all ecstatic. We were relieved. It was a good moment.

Right now, the telescope is twice as good as it was required to be. at’s in part due to the way we engineered it, and in part due to luck. See, we allowed margin for things that could go wrong, for what we nicknamed “unknown unknowns.” Well, we lucked out, and none of those terrible things happened.

COLUMBIA: What was your reaction to seeing the first images? Did any in particular stand out for you?

MICHAEL MENZEL: Absolutely. ere were two. e rst was an image of what’s called a deep eld — the rst images of the galaxies. We saw that about a week before it was released. ere were ve or six of us, and I turned to one of the project scientists, Eric Smith, and asked, “How long was that exposure?” He told me, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I then asked him what the deepest, dimmest thing they saw on that was, and once again, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

When the image was released and my wife saw the same picture, she said, “Mike, it looks like [an image from] Hubble.” And the truth is, it does. But Hubble took 14 days to take that picture. We did it in 12 hours. We achieved the design goal of the telescope. Whatever is out there, whatever’s out there in the early universe, we’re going to see it.

e next big thing was when I saw the rings of Neptune. I was on [with CNN’s] Jake Tapper a couple days a er they released that, and he was looking at it, going, “Oh, I’ve seen this before.” I said, “No, you haven’t. You’re thinking that’s Saturn,” and he was. at’s Neptune. ose rings in the visible light are pathetic looking. Look at how beautiful they are on the infrared.

COLUMBIA: How might the JWST contribute to an understanding of the early universe and lead to new discoveries, such as signs of life on other planets?

MICHAEL MENZEL: We don’t know a lot about the rst stars and galaxies, but they’re probably emi ing a lot of blue light. at short-wave light has been traveling through a universe that has been expanding for over 13 billion years, and by the time that light gets to us, it’s stretched out like a Slinky. You need an infrared telescope to see it, and James Webb is uniquely quali ed for this.

e astronomers are coming out with their rst papers soon. But they have already told me that these very early galaxies that we’ve seen so far have been much, much bigger than anybody had anticipated. And rather than being made of mostly hydrogen and helium, they have a lot of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen — heavier elements that we didn’t expect to see. So one of the big surprises is that whatever’s going on in the early universe, it’s happening much quicker than we had thought.

During and a er the launch, people asked me what my hopes are for this mission. I had three, and I think they’re all coming to fruition. One, I wanted to make sure that we saw the rst galaxies in the universe. Second was that Webb would detect the rst biomarkers on an exoplanet. Now, nothing has been published yet, and I have less inside information on that one, but I’ve seen enough data to know that we have a really good chance of doing that in the next couple of years. e third thing was that I hoped James Webb would nd something that no one expected, that no one even thought to ask the question for — and what I just told you about the rst galaxies easily quali es.

Webb has only just started — we haven’t cranked this sucker up to 11 yet.

COLUMBIA: As a professional scientist who is also a practicing Catholic, what is your perspective on the relationship between science and faith? Do you see an intersection between the wonder of creation and religious belief?

MICHAEL MENZEL: Absolutely. First, both religion and science are looking for the truth. It’s the methods that are di erent. Obviously, faith involves some introspection and a look into spiritual truths. Science looks for truth in the form of reproducible evidence. I see no con ict between the two at all.

Some of my colleagues are agnostics or atheists, and I respect that — they’re intelligent men and women — but I get a kick out of the one or two who will say, “We can prove there is no God.” at’s so laughable it isn’t funny. You absolutely couldn’t prove that.

And every once in a while, I run into the other extreme. Over the course of my career, I’ve run into folks that will

An image taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera reveals the faint rings of Neptune, some of which have not been detected since NASA’s Voyager 2 flew by the planet in 1989.

take everything in the Bible literally, and God bless them. But they will come on and attack me, saying the universe is 10,000 years old, something like that. I usually listen politely and give the standard answer. But at a NASA event near Wall Street, one guy just kept telling me I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Now, I’ve read the Bible back and forth four or five times, and I finally said, “OK, you take the Bible literally?” “Yeah, I do.” “Ever read the Second Letter of St. Peter, chapter three?” “Yeah.” “A day to God is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is like a day to God.” I started doing the math and got the world to billions of years old. He was getting so mad at me, and he finally said, “Well, you can’t take that literally!”

COLUMBIA: What led you to get connected to the Knights of Columbus at your parish, St. John the Evangelist in Frederick?

MICHAEL MENZEL: I’ll tell you the truth. You’re not gonna like it. My wife urged me to join. I was beyond busy. My wife, Cathy, was a very active member at St. Aloysius Parish in

Jackson, New Jersey. e Knights there had a women’s auxiliary, and she wanted to be in the women’s auxiliary here. So, she asked me to join, only to nd out there wasn’t a women’s auxiliary here. I said, “ ere, Cat, OK?” But now I’m a Knight. And I think the Knights do great work. But, you know, I have been buried this deep in James Webb for the past 25 years.

COLUMBIA: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers about the James Webb project?

MICHAEL MENZEL: I could share a lot, but one thing that really stands out is how much we’ve affected folks all over the world. It just amazes me. I got an extremely nice letter from a sister in Italy, Sister Theotokos. She’s a nun with a Ph.D., so that catches our attention. She wrote us this beautiful poem, and we got to meet her. She gave a lecture here at Catholic University, and myself and the other leads who are practicing Catholics attended. She was a fan of astronomy, and she said she would introduce me to some sisters over at Catholic University who are also interested in astronomy. It just impressed me how far-reaching this interest was. ✢

Webb’s complete optical telescope element is displayed inside a clean room at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2007. The telescope’s 18 hexagonal mirrors, made of lightweight beryllium, are covered in a microscopically thin layer of gold to reflect as much light as possible.

A protostar forms at the center of a blazing hourglass of interstellar gas and dust, captured by Webb’s NearInfrared Camera.

In the Beginning

Nearly a century after a Belgian priest proposed the “Big Bang” theory, astronomers peer back in time to the first galaxies

By Christopher M. Graney

Question: A Catholic priest and the James Webb Space Telescope both look at the universe. What do they see?

Answer: A day without a yesterday!

If that sounds like a bad a empt at a “dad joke,” it’s not. It is actually true — and something we should keep in mind when we look at the spectacular images from the JWST, the space telescope NASA launched in 2021.

A century ago, Father Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest who was also a physicist, looked at what was being learned about the universe. He also looked at the then-new ideas of Albert Einstein. Father Lemaître concluded that science suggested there was once a beginning to everything — even time itself. There was once, in his words, a “now which has no yesterday.”

Scientists had long thought of the universe as beginningless, changeless and eternal. “We [scientists] expected the universe to be static,” Father Lemaître stated in a 1964 interview. “We expected that nothing would change. It was an a priori idea that applied to the whole universe … for which there was no experiment.”

An a priori idea — an assumption. Since at least the time of Aristotle, several centuries before Christ, scientists had operated on this assumption. e changeless universe just went through endless (and beginningless) cycles.

is makes some sense. e sun rises and sets daily. e moon goes through its phases — crescent, quarter, full — every month. e stars seen in the evening sky change in a yearly cycle; the deepening twilight of every Christmas Eve always reveals Orion rising in the east. We see the same sun, moon and stars that our great-grandparents saw. Even Job in the Bible knew the constellations we see today:

God alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the crests of the sea. He made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. (Job 9:8-9)

e changeless night sky suggested a changeless universe.

SCIENCE ‘VERSUS’ RELIGION

e idea that science challenges religious ideas is a commonplace. As Pope Benedict XVI noted in his spiritual testament, “O en it seems as if science … has irrefutable insights to o er that are contrary to the Catholic faith.” However, Pope Benedict understood that the challenge is not new, and he emphasized that these seeming contradictions, viewed over the longer term, vanish with further understanding.

ey even vanished in the case of Aristotle’s changeless universe, which presented a real challenge to the biblical image of creation.

Across much of Church history, theologians held that there was no contradiction between the Book of Genesis and the view that the universe had no beginning in time — because God still created, and continually creates, the universe. Yes, there are some mental gymnastics in that, with God being outside of time, with Genesis being a metaphorical description of creation, and so on. Of course, as Father Lemaître

noted, there was no hard evidence that the universe was unchanging, no experiment that said Aristotle was right. It’s just that Aristotle’s ideas made some sense, and he was so widely respected that theologians had to take his ideas seriously, even if they seemingly con icted with Genesis.

A tougher problem was in the biblical description of God creating “the two great lights” — the sun and moon — and the stars (Gen 1:14-16). As early as the days of St. Augustine, in the late fourth century, astronomers concluded that even though the stars look small in the night sky, they are in fact much larger than the moon, just much more distant. is conclusion that the moon was not so “great” involved hard evidence — careful measurements and applied geometry — and not merely a priori assumptions.

However, St. Augustine was unconcerned about this apparent conflict. It may be true, he wrote in On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis , that the stars are large, and merely “seem small because they have been set further away.” But, he said, “at least grant this to our eyes … it is obvious that the sun and moon shine more brightly than the rest upon the Earth.” St. Thomas Aquinas, writing in the 13th century, was not concerned either. “The two lights are called great, not so much with regard to their dimensions as to their influence and power,” he wrote in the Summa Theologica “For though the stars be of greater bulk than the moon … as far as the senses are concerned, its apparent size is greater.” With a little of that further understanding that Pope Benedict described, namely that Genesis is not written to provide a scientific description of the physical dimensions of the moon and stars, any contradiction between Genesis and science here vanished.

Christopher Graney, a scholar at the Vatican Observatory and a member of St. Louis Bertrand Council 10682 in Louisville, Ky., is pictured in the Archdiocese of Louisville History Center.

Photo by Bryan Moberly

( en why did Galileo so famously run into di culty? His discoveries were striking, and all con rmed by church astronomers. But his interpretation of those discoveries as supporting a moving Earth — Scripture spoke of Earth as xed — was much less persuasive than the case for the greatness of stars.)

FATHER LEMAÎTRE’S THEORY

By Father Lemaître’s time, what scienti c discoveries were contradicting was the long-established idea of a beginningless, changeless universe. Heat energy ow, fossils, Einstein’s theory of gravity, the motions of galaxies — they all suggested that the universe changed over time.

Building on Einstein’s ideas and supported by Edwin Hubble’s evidence that the universe is expanding, in 1931 Lemaître proposed what he called “the hypothesis of the primeval atom,” in which the universe and time itself all begin at once. He later described his hypothesis in the 1964 interview noted above: “ ere is a beginning very di erent from the present state of the world … described in the form of the disintegration of all existing ma er into an atom. What will be the rst result of this disintegration, as far as we can follow the theory, is in fact to have a universe, an expanding space lled by a plasma, by very energetic rays going in all directions.” is universe continued to expand and change, becoming in time the universe we see today.

In the 1940s, the astronomer Fred Hoyle dubbed Lemaître’s idea the “Big Bang.” Hoyle was not paying a compliment, but with time, the name stuck.

Father Lemaître’s Big Bang idea aligned with Genesis better than Aristotle’s unchanging universe; in both Genesis and the Big Bang there is a beginning! Indeed, in a 1951 address to the Ponti cal Academy of Sciences, Pope Pius XII stated that science might be “entirely reconcilable” with the idea of creation, since “It seems that the science of today, by going back in one leap millions of centuries, has succeeded in being a witness to that primordial Fiat Lux [Let there be light], when, out of nothing, there burst forth with ma er a sea of light and radiation, while the particles of chemical elements split and reunited in millions of galaxies … [although] the facts pertinent to natural sciences … still wait for further investigation and con rmation.”

e story goes that Father Lemaître quietly cautioned the Holy Father a er this statement. What if further investigation showed Lemaître’s theory to be wrong, just as science had shown the long-standing changeless universe theory to be wrong? Indeed, the seemingly solid, persuasive astronomy of St. Augustine’s time, about the star and moon sizes, turned out to be wrong (yes, today we know that stars are large, but we know that based on entirely di erent evidence than the astronomers of Augustine’s time used).

Science is not like math. Pick up a 150-year-old math textbook and you can still learn from it the Pythagorean theorem or how to divide fractions. Pick up an astronomy text of that age, and it will explain neither what galaxies are nor that

nuclear reactions power stars. Indeed, the Webb telescope exists so we can discover new things and thus modify our science based on new evidence.

Nevertheless, the JWST is built on the hope that changes in the study of astronomy are bringing us toward a truer view of the universe. The telescope is specifically “tuned” to Father Lemaître’s ideas. It is designed to see the most distant objects, whose light waves have been “stretched” by the expansion of the universe to now appear as longer-wavelength infrared light. Because of the time it takes light to travel such distances, the JWST will be seeing those objects as they appeared in the early days of the universe — showing us, we hope, the first stars and galaxies to form after Father Georges Lemaître’s Big Bang, on that dazzling “day without a yesterday.” ✢

CHRISTOPHER M. GRANEY is an astronomer and historian of science with the Specola Vaticana (the Vatican’s astronomical observatory) in Rome and Tucson, Ariz. He is a member of St. Louis Bertrand Council 10682 in Louisville, Ky.

Father Georges Lemaître (right), who first formulated the “Big Bang” theory, meets with Albert Einstein at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., in 1933.

A Light in Darkness

Pittsburgh-area Knights build an observatory at the local VA hospital to give veterans a view of the heavens

By Cecilia Hadley

BY DAY,

HOSPITALS

bustle with noise and movement, but their atmosphere changes when the sun goes down. Lights dim, visitors go home, sta members pack up. Patients are le with their thoughts and the beeping of medical devices.

Jim Surman, a retired hospital management consultant, described the mood in grim terms: “Hospitals are like morgues at night,” said the longtime Knight, a member of St. Michael’s Council 10077 in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, and Stephen P. Barry Assembly 940 in McKeesport.

Surman began thinking about these lonely nigh ime stretches in 2017, a er a conversation at a gathering of health care professionals. He and Nick Haller, then the head nurse at the Veterans A airs hospital in Pi sburgh, discussed the high rates of depression and suicide among military veterans, and Surman came away wondering if Assembly 940 could sponsor some kind of regular evening activity at the VA hospital — something to engage veterans’ minds through the dark hours.

When Surman met with a group of patients at the VA Pi sburgh H.J. Heinz campus to gauge interest in various hobbies, a clear winner emerged: astronomy. Great, he thought, the Knights can raise a few thousand dollars and buy a telescope for the patients.

Not quite. Complications came thick and fast. First, the Knights learned that any program o ered at the VA must be accessible to everyone, regardless of mobility. Since many patients are unable to look through the eyepiece of a telescope, the telescope would need cameras and computers to display its images on a screen inside the hospital. Moreover, for security reasons, the telescope and the screen couldn’t communicate wirelessly. Connecting them required digging a conduit from the telescope, under a road, to a hospital building. e telescope itself is housed in a small observatory equipped with a motorized sliding roof; just ge ing the permit to build the shed-like structure on VA property took almost a year.

“We got quite the education in government regulations,” said Frank Conte, a member of Assembly 940 who worked closely with Surman on the project. “You can imagine that there were times when we wanted to throw up our hands.”

Surman and what he calls his “A-Team” of seven volunteer Knights from Assembly 940 persevered. ey visited dozens of local K of C meetings to advertise the initiative, which they dubbed Astronomy for Disabled Veterans. Knights across

western Pennsylvania gave generously, ultimately donating more than $30,000.

“Our members are so good,” Surman said. “Every time I would go back to give a status report to a council or assembly, they would write another check.”

Meanwhile, the Knights found a supportive partner: e Amateur Astronomy Association of Pi sburgh contributed about $16,000 in equipment to the program, and its members gave their time and expertise to set up the Celestron telescope, which is preprogrammed with the coordinates for hundreds of celestial objects.

A er a further two-year delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the completed Sky Shed Observatory was nally dedicated Oct. 14, 2022. at night, veterans gathered both inside and out to peer into the heavens at the observatory’s inaugural “star party.”

Volunteers from AAAP and Carnegie Mellon University regularly host stargazing sessions for the veterans in a hospital gathering room, where they are also building up a library of astronomy books and magazines.

“It’s always capturing someone’s interest. Many people there really enjoy seeing the di erent things in the sky that I can show them,” said Rich Dollish, a AAAP volunteer. “ e comet that came through a month ago — that drew a lot of interest from the patients, thinking that it’s something that won’t be seen for another 75,000 years.”

e observatory is the rst of its kind at a VA hospital, but Surman hopes that others will take Astronomy for Disabled Veterans as a model. e point is not to produce an army of expert astronomers, he noted, but to serve veterans at a time when they are vulnerable.

“The whole aim is to save lives,” Surman said. “These guys made a contract with the country to give of themselves to the point of giving their own lives. We’ve got to do more for them.” ✢

CECILIA HADLEY is senior editor of Columbia .

Jim Surman (in red) and other Knights from Assembly 940 gather with astronomy volunteer Rich Dollish (center) and several veterans in the new Sky Shed Observatory.

Photo by Joe Appel

‘GOD CHOOSES THE ORDINARY’

A new shrine honoring Blessed Stanley Rother, the first U.S.-born martyr, is dedicated in Oklahoma

By María Ruiz Scaperlanda

History was made in Oklahoma City this winter with the solemn dedication Feb. 17 of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine church, built in honor of an Oklahoma priest and America’s rst martyr.

Stanley Francis Rother grew up on a farm in Okarche, Oklahoma, and was ordained in 1963. He later served for 13 years in Oklahoma’s mission in Guatemala until the country’s violent civil war reached his remote parish. ough his name was put on a hit list, he chose to remain with his parishioners. On July 28, 1981, unknown assailants murdered him in the church rectory. He was 46. Father Rother was declared a martyr by Pope Francis in 2016, clearing the way for his beati cation, which took place Sept. 23, 2017, in Oklahoma City.

“He was a good shepherd,” Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City said in his homily at the shrine’s dedication Mass. “Long before Pope Francis coined the beautiful expression, Father Rother — or as he was known in Guatemala, Padre Francisco or Padre Apla’s — had already ‘taken on the smell of his sheep.’”

Knights in Oklahoma were involved in the capital campaign to build the $40 million shrine, and dozens of them served as volunteers at the dedication and at the events leading up to it; Knights have also been instrumental in funding the shrine’s Tepeyac Hill, which was dedicated in December. e Spanish colonial-style shrine church and Tepeyac Hill stand as bookends on the 53-acre campus, with a pilgrim center and museum in between.

The hill, a re-creation of the site in Mexico City where the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego, is a fitting addition to the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine, Archbishop Coakley explained in December.

“Our Lady of Guadalupe has been called the Star of the New Evangelization. She appeared to Juan Diego near Mexico City in 1531 to inaugurate one of the most significant chapters in history in the spread of the Gospel,” he said. “Blessed Stanley’s parish church in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, was established only 16 years after Mary’s apparition! Clearly that event provided a remarkable evangelical impetus, one we hope will be renewed here.”

Nearly 300 clergy prepare to process into the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City for its dedication Mass on Feb. 17.

Right: Blessed Stanley Rother baptizes a baby at the Oklahoma diocesan mission in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, where he served from 1968 until his martyrdom in 1981.

LEFT: Photo by Theresa Bragg/ Sooner Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City — TOP: OSV News photo, CNS file

PILGRIMAGE TO TEPEYAC

ousands a ended the dedication of Tepeyac Hill on Dec. 11, the eve of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feast day. A er Mass at the foot of the hill, a Fourth Degree honor guard led a procession to the top, where Archbishop Coakley blessed newly installed bronze statues of Our Lady and St. Juan Diego by Mexican artist Georgina Farias. Both of them are being funded by an ongoing project of the Knights in Oklahoma and Texas.

“We are very proud to have the Knights involved in this,” said Archbishop Coakley, who is a member of Oklahoma Council 1038 in Oklahoma City. “ e Supreme Council made a signi cant gi to the development of the museum and pilgrim center, and we are grateful for the Oklahoma and Texas Knights for their work to fund the images of Our Lady and St. Juan Diego.”

Before they were shipped to Oklahoma, the larger-than-life-size statues were taken to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where they were blessed by Msgr. Eduardo Chávez, the postulator for the cause of canonization for St. Juan Diego and a longtime Knight.

“It has been a privilege to work with national, state and local Knights to promote devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn and of the Knights of Columbus,” said Leif Arvidson, executive director of the Rother Shrine and a member of Christ the King Council 12669 in Oklahoma City. “Many pilgrims are already nding great inspiration in visiting Tepeyac Hill, a beautiful site where they can honor Our Lady, our mother.”

Father Don Wolf, rector of the Rother Shrine and a member of St. Eugene Council 10822 in Oklahoma City, sees a strong link between Our Lady of Guadalupe and Blessed Stanley Rother’s missionary work.

“ is hill recalls and celebrates the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego, which is integral to the experience of evangelization in North America, and it also represents what Stanley Rother was doing in Guatemala,” Father Wolf said.

Noting that a large, growing community of Hispanic Catholics will call the shrine church their parish home, Archbishop Coakley said, “We hope that Mary’s presence here will a ract pilgrims near and far to come and honor her, but also to learn about and venerate Blessed Stanley Rother.”

‘HOLY WEEK’

e week before the dedication of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine church on Feb. 17 was an exceptionally holy — and busy — one for the Church in Oklahoma.

Five days prior, the casket holding Blessed Stanley’s body

was exhumed from Resurrection Memorial Cemetery and brought to Oklahoma City’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help for an all-night vigil. Knights provided an honor guard for the casket from 3 p.m. Feb. 12 to 5 a.m. the next morning, as thousands gathered to pray for his intercession.

Larry Hallauer, a member of St. Mark’s Council 12108 and Father Elmer Robne Assembly 2233 in Norman, was one of the Knights who escorted the casket into the cathedral and stood guard for the rst shi . “It was an honor to be in the presence of his body, knowing his soul is with the Lord,” he said. “I knew that Blessed Stanley was with me.”

Father Brian Bue ner, director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, was moved by the joy and devotion he witnessed as people approached the casket with reverence — bowing, kneeling, kissing it, praying over it.

“I waited with hundreds of people for almost two hours to have the opportunity to kneel next to him,” said Father Bue ner, a member of the Knights since 2007. “My prayer was one of thanksgiving for the life of this dedicated priest, and for young men to be encouraged to follow his example. We are so blessed to have this saintly example before us, inspiring each of us to strive for nothing less than heaven.”

State Deputy Dennis Kunnanz, who a ended the vigil, a rmed that Father Rother is a particular inspiration to Knights in Oklahoma.

“He reminds us Knights that we are all called to spread the word of God and assist with the needs of our communities,” he said. “At our state meetings, we pray for the canonization of Blessed Stanley Rother as well as Blessed Michael McGivney. ey both had a mission to serve the poor, to protect the families in their communities, and to promote our Catholic faith.”

A er the vigil, Father Rother’s remains were brought to their nal resting place inside the altar of the Rother Shrine chapel. e chapel was dedicated later that day with a Mass for Oklahoma priests.

Other signi cant events leading up to the church dedication included the blessing of the pilgrim center and museum; a Mass for all diocesan sta ; and a preview of the shrine and pilgrim center for 37 visiting bishops.

A SHRINE FOR ALL PEOPLE

e dedication Mass on Feb. 17, celebrated by Archbishop Coakley, was standing-room-only. Two giant screens broadcast the Mass on the shrine’s plaza for the over ow crowd. Among the dozens of bishops present were Archbishop Christoph Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States and representative of Pope Francis, and Guatemala City’s Archbishop Gonzalo de Villa y Vásquez.

Photos by Spirit Juice Studios

Above: Archbishop Paul Coakley blesses the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe atop the shrine’s Tepeyac Hill on Dec. 11. Oklahoma and Texas Knights are funding the statue and its companion statue of St. Juan Diego. • Below: Fourth Degree Knights and clergy make their way down Tepeyac Hill after the blessing, which took place at the end of an outdoor Mass. • Opposite page: Father Stanley Rother is pictured in an undated file photo.

Archbishop Coakley observed in his homily that though the shrine honors Father Rother, “none of this, ultimately, is about Blessed Stanley.”

“We honor Blessed Stanley because we are giving glory to God,” he said. “The life of each and every saint in the history of the Church manifests something of the perfections of Christ, reveals God’s beauty, God’s truth and God’s goodness.”

Blessed Stanley was “an ordinary man from Okarche, Oklahoma, but God chooses the ordinary,” Archbishop Coakley noted. “God chooses the weak to make them strong.”

Numerous members of the extensive Rother family were able to a end the dedication Mass, including Stanley’s own sister, Sister Marita Rother of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Wichita, Kansas. e shrine rector, Father Wolf, is also a relative of Blessed Stanley; in fact, Father Rother’s nal trip to the United States from Guatemala in 1981 was for Father Wolf’s ordination.

Re ecting on his cousin, Father Wolf emphasized that Blessed Stanley’s example is important to the Church in Oklahoma because it is important to the Church universal.

“To have someone from among us who lived a life of faith, whose willingness to stand with his people cost him his life, who did not know what to do in the face of brutality and hatred other than persevere in his commitments to the Lord — it allows us to encounter faith as living truth,” he explained. “ e shrine is the place where our grasp of Stan’s legacy allows us to be grasped by Christ.” ✢

MARÍA RUIZ SCAPERLANDA is an award-winning journalist and author or contributor to numerous books, including The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Blessed Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma.

TOP RIGHT:

Photo by Avery Holt, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City — LEFT:

Photo by Chris Porter, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City

“The life of each and every saint in the history of the Church manifests something of the perfections of Christ, reveals God’s beauty, God’s truth and God’s goodness.”

Above: Sister Marita Rother of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, Father Stanley Rother’s sister, sits with emeritus Archbishop Eusebius Beltran of Oklahoma City during a Feb. 12 prayer vigil at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City. • Left: A K of C honor guard participates during the shrine’s dedication Mass on Feb. 17.

READY TO RESPOND

Ohio Knights assist their community following an environmental disaster

By Elisha Valladares-Cormier

Since 38 cars of a freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, sparking res and releasing hazardous chemicals into the air and waterways, the village’s 4,700 residents have needed help. Knights in East Palestine and nearby towns have risen to the occasion, with assistance from Knights around the country.

“It wakes you up out of your slumber when something like this happens,” said Rich Ferris, grand knight of Reagan Council 1890 in East Palestine. “ ese Knights will help at the drop of a dime.”

A few days after the derailment, many residents were required to evacuate while officials conducted a “controlled venting” of toxic substances. In the town of Columbiana, 10 miles

west, St. Jude Council 10183 served meals to displaced people. Then, as residents returned to East Palestine, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish began receiving calls offering water, food and more. Knights from Council 1890 jumped into action, unloading donated supplies into the church basement as they arrived.

“I’ll hear that a delivery is a half-hour out and send a text to 20 Knights,” Ferris said. “No one responds, but I know guys will be there.”

Even weeks a er the incident, Knights continue to unload deliveries four to ve times a week to restock the basement, where people receive free supplies daily. With residents uneasy about possible phosgene and hydrogen chloride poisoning, bo led water and cleaning materials are particularly in demand.

Donations have come in from councils in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as the Supreme Council. And Ferris has received calls from councils across the country o ering aid.

“I’m so grateful the Knights stepped up to the needs of our community,” said Father David Misbrener, pastor and council chaplain. “They’re always present.”

When the a ention dies down, Ferris said, the need will remain; the long-term e ects of the disaster won’t be known for years. With help from a disaster relief fund established by the Ohio State Council, the Knights will continue supporting their community.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” Ferris said. “But the kindness and prayers we’ve received has restored my faith in humanity.” ✢

Photo by Lucy Schaly

ELISHA VALLADARES-CORMIER is associate editor of Columbia and a member of Sandusky (Ohio) Council 546.

Above: Train cars burn Feb. 4, a day after the Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. • Below left: Rich Ferris, grand knight of Reagan Council 1890 in East Palestine, assists a member of the community picking up cleaning supplies at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

NEW VESTMENTS FOR PASTOR

Ki anning (Pa.) Council

1011 presented Father Ron Maquiñana, pastor of St. Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, with a K of C vestment set to thank him for his service as council chaplain and congratulate him on becoming a United States citizen.

LIVESTREAMED LITURGIES

Upon learning that some parishioners of Saint Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Sudbury, Ontario, were still unable to a end Mass a er pandemic restrictions were li ed, Father Brian McKee Council 1387 donated CA$4,500 to the parish for the purchase and installation of a permanent camera for livestreaming all its liturgies. e council previously purchased a similar camera for the Church of Christ the King.

COLLECTING PARISH PALMS

Members of Ave Maria Council 7880 in Parker, Colo., noticed that palms distributed on Palm Sunday — traditionally burned to make the ashes used the following Ash Wednesday — were going uncollected. A er consulting with their pastor and chaplain, Father Nathaniel Hinds, several Knights constructed a special container to collect old palms from parishioners; the handcra ed wooden box is engraved with the K of C emblem and the Gospel verse “So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him” (Jn 12:13).

INTERNATIONAL CHALICE DONATION

Precious Blood Assembly 2947 in West Chester, Ohio, has a tradition of presenting the family of a deceased Knight with a chalice bearing his name; the chalices are later donated. Most recently, the family of Franco Tozzi sent their chalice to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Lawrence the Martyr, Tozzi’s childhood parish in Tivoli, Italy. District Deputy Dale Bo oms, who was traveling in Italy, made the presentation.

CHURCH ALTAR-ATION

For several years, parishioners of St. Joseph Church in Dolgeville, N.Y., have wanted to restore an altar of repose for the church, which originally had three altars, all removed in the 1970s. A er the parish found a suitable altar from a nearby church, Knights from Li le Falls Council 220 helped restore it and install it in the sanctuary. e new altar was consecrated by Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany during a special Mass, for which Knights provided an honor guard.

Bishop Vitaliy Kryvytskyi of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, Ukraine, greets

Deputy Grand Knight Bill Hand of Pere Le Duc Council 1522 in Bay St. Louis, Miss., following a Mass for peace in Ukraine at Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church. Several Mississippi State Council o cers joined other Knights and parishioners for the Mass, which Bishop Kryvytskyi, Bishop Louis F. Kihneman of Biloxi, and other clergy concelebrated with Archbishop Thomas Rodi of Mobile, Ala.

District Deputy Joe Serrano and other Knights pray during a vigil at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Hacienda Heights, Calif., for Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, who was shot and killed in his home Feb. 18. Parishioners and members of the San Gabriel Valley Chapter, which comprises 37 local K of C councils, organized a novena for Bishop O’Connell, a member of St. Anthony, Finder of the Lost Council 15089 in San Gabriel.

Photo by Slav Zatoka — LOWER RIGHT:

Photo by Juliana Skelton/Diocese of Biloxi

Family

HOMES OF THE BRAVE

St. Joseph the Worker Council 10921 in Orefield, Pa., donated $2,000 to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which builds custom homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders and provides mortgage-free homes to families of fallen service members and first responders with young children. The funds were collected from the council’s golf tournament.

SCOOTER SUPPORT

Holy Rosary Council 3166 in Detroit Lakes, Minn., held a breakfast fundraiser that collected $3,600 toward the purchase of a mobility scooter lift for a member of the council. The lift attaches to the Knight’s car, allowing his scooter to be hauled behind.

DISHING FOOD OUT IN DELAWARE

outreach programs throughout the state. Christopher Council 3182 in Claymont led the way with 3,250 pounds of food.

TOYS FOR TORNADO VICTIMS

Members of St. Lorenzo Ruiz Council 14866 in Atlantic Beach, Fla., held a toy drive for the children of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Mayfield, Ky., which had been recently devastated by a tornado. The Knights gathered and delivered more than 250 boxes of toys and coats — an estimated value of $10,000 — as well as $3,000 in cash donations.

NOVENA FOOD DRIVE

Grand Knight Gary Graham (center) and Glen White of Cumberland Council 2916 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, present a check for CA$1,000 to Charlotte Ross, executive director of the Amherst Food Assistance Network. The donation was made on behalf of the Nova Scotia State Council.

GROCERY HAUL

Sacred Heart Council 2577 in Bowie, Md., collected 1,000 food items from parishioners of the four churches the council serves. e food was donated to the Bowie Food Pantry.

FEED THE NEED

Members of Columban Council 6192 in Bellevue, Neb., gather monthly to prepare 150 bag lunches for people experiencing homelessness. e lunches are delivered to the Siena Francis House in Omaha.

Twelve councils in Delaware held Souper Bowl Food Drives at their parishes the same weekend as the Super Bowl, collecting more than 12,900 pounds of groceries and $16,900 for

Knights from Mary Immaculate Council 12769 in Secaucus, N.J., collaborated with the Filipino Society of Secaucus to hold a food drive during the annual celebration of Simbang Gabi at Immaculate Conception Church. Simbang Gabi, a traditional Filipino devotion, is a novena of Masses leading up to Christmas. The drive collected more than 900 pounds of food for local pantries.

Knights from Santa Maria Council 4526 in Eastern Samar, Visayas, Philippines, deliver food and water to families in Jipapad following severe flooding in the area. The council worked with the Cathedral Parish of the Nativity of Our Lady in Borongan City and Caritas of the Diocese of Borongan to distribute 78 packs of food, more than 55 gallons of water and 10 bags filled with clothes to people in need.

ANNUAL FUNDRAISER SURPASSES $230K

Mother Seton Council 5427 in Washington Township, N.J., recently raised more than $37,000 during its 12th annual wine-tasting and silent auction. The event has brought in more than $233,000 for the council’s charitable works since 2010.

HOUSE FOR A HERO

Members of Espiritu Santo Assembly 2474 in Safety Harbor, Fla., donated $25,000 to the Florida chapter of the Gary Sinise Foundation. The funds, raised by the assembly’s annual golf tournament, will benefit the foundation’s project to build a home for a local wounded veteran.

BUNDLE UP THE KIDS

Msgr. Bornemann Council 16066 in West Reading, Pa., donated an assortment of winter gear for babies to LifeLine of Berks County, a local pregnancy resource center. The Knights additionally donated several dozen coats to Catholic Charities as part of its annual Coats for Kids effort.

NOURISHMENT FOR VETERANS

Members of Arroyo Grande (Calif.) Council 1375 prepared a pork loin dinner for parishioners of St. Patrick’s Church who are veterans. After the meal, Father Mike Cicinato spoke to attendees about Elder Warriors, an organization he founded that runs healing retreats for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

STEWARDS OF CREATION

Knights from Fatima Council 5672 in Carmen, Visayas, regularly plant trees in the area as a way of contributing to the community and responding to Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for our common home, Laudato si’ .

FLAG RETIREMENT PROJECT

Msgr. August J. Sprigler Assembly 253 in Evansville, Ind., has introduced a program to help local parishioners retire United States flags respectfully. The assembly placed boxes at several churches where parishioners can put worn or tattered flags; the Knights will then retire them according to the U.S. flag code.

SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE

St. Volodymyr the Great Council 9557 in Ottawa, Ontario, held its long-running Ukrainian Night dinner for the first time in several years, raising CA$8,000 for Ukraine relief. The council, which serves St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine, also purchased several boxes of coats for refugees arriving in Canada from Ukraine.

A singing group that includes several members of Christ the King Council 18012 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, performs during Malabar Fest, a fundraiser hosted by the council. More than 220 people attended the event, which raised CA$4,000 toward the construction of a church building for Christ the King Syro-Malabar Catholic Parish.

Deputy Grand Knight Doug Bauer (left) and Grand Knight Rudy Novissimo (right) of St. Jude Council 5814 in Rocky Point, N.Y., present a donation of more than 300 blankets to a sta member of the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook. Each of the home’s residents also received a card from the council.

Photo by Nithul Peter

Life

ULTRA SUPPORTIVE

rough the Knights of Columbus Ultrasound Initiative, Good Shepherd Council 6358 in Schertz, Texas, helped purchase a new ultrasound machine for the South Texas Pregnancy Care Center in Seguin. e council raised half the purchase cost — $17,500 — which was matched by the Order’s Culture of Life Fund. e council also donated $13,000 to the center to assist with the building fund for its new facility.

TRIPLE ASAP

Knights from Queen of Peace Council 9263 in Salem, Ore., voted to donate $200 to each of three local pregnancy resource centers. Wanting to maximize the council’s impact through the ASAP (Aid and Support A er Pregnancy) initiative, two members each contributed $450, bringing the total to $500 per center. For every $500 a council donates to a PRC through ASAP, the Supreme Council donates an additional $100.

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

were able to collect more than $11,000 in 2022, in part by soliciting donations directly from local businesses.

INSULATED INFANTS

Knights from St. Mary’s Longmeadow (Mass.) Council 5406 collected 90 snowsuits and several large boxes of diapers for Bethlehem House, a pregnancy resource center in Easthampton.

SAVING LIVES FOR HALF A CENTURY

Ed

and Deacon

Joe Mueller of Thomas Dooley

Council 6727 in Dothan, Ala., display diapers and baby supplies collected during a drive at St. Columba Parish. The supplies and an additional donation of $600 will benefit Wiregrass Emergency Pregnancy Service in Enterprise, which provides education and resources for new parents.

St. Edward Lake Odessa (Mich.) Council 14404 worked with a local Lion’s Club to hold a diaper drive and ra e in conjunction with their pancake supper. eir e orts brought in more than 900 diapers and $500 in cash donations for a local pregnancy resource center.

FUND DRIVE SUCCESS

For many years, Mount Prospect (Ill.) Council 6481 has held a fund drive for people with disabilities. e Knights

Trois-Pistoles (Québec) Council 3917 has conducted twice-annual blood drives for 50 years. eir most recent drive welcomed more than 100 donors and bene ted Héma-Québec, a regional blood bank.

See more at www.kofc.org/knightsinaction

Please submit your council activities to knightsinaction@kofc.org

Bishop Enrique Sánchez Martínez of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, passes a Knights of Columbus Silver Rose from Texas State Deputy Terry Fruge (right) to Filadelfo Medellín Ayala (left), past state deputy of Mexico Northeast; Bishop James Tamayo of Laredo, Texas (second from right), and District Master Juan José González look on. The annual transfer of silver roses between the two jurisdictions took place on the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge, bringing Knights, their families and community members from both countries together in support of the dignity of human life.

Zdunowski

Photo by Juan Castillo

The Joys of Spring

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Knights of Charity

Every day, Knights all over the world are given opportunities to make a di erence — whether through community service, raising money or prayer. We celebrate each and every Knight for his strength, his compassion and his dedication to building a be er world.

Knights process behind Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, as he arrives Feb. 4 to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chortkiv, Ukraine. After the liturgy, the archbishop consecrated the city of Chortkiv, which celebrated its 500th anniversary this year, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Buchach to the protection of St. Michael the Archangel.

Photo by Oleksandr Savransky, courtesy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Early in my time in seminary, I was wandering down a hallway — about the most mundane place in the whole campus — when I had an epiphany. I had just heard a conference on the sacri cial nature of the priesthood, and at that time in my discernment, my chief struggle was the sacri ce of celibacy. I had an acute, daily awareness of my desire for a family of my own. ere in the hallway, it struck me that if the life of the priest is one of sacri ce for God’s people, what be er sacri ce could a man o er than his greatest human desire? From there, discernment became a bit easier. I could see this sacri ce as a gi , given to God daily and pleasing to him. I wasn’t excited about it, but I could see the good of the sacri ce in God’s plan for me. at epiphany was 10 years ago. In my many experiences as a priest, some heavenly, some mundane, I’ve been frequently aware of a consequence of that epiphany. rough my “yes” to God’s invitation, I’ve been given an unexpected fruit of a life of celibacy — joy.

Father Brian Becker Diocese of Charlo e St. Margaret Mary Council 13016 Swannanoa, North Carolina

‘I could see this sacrifice as a gift.’

Photo by Erin Adams