Columbia September 2020

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K N I G H T S O F C O LU M BU S

S EPTEMBER 2020

COLUMBIA

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COLUMBIA F E AT U R E S

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Defending St. JunĂ­pero Serra California bishops respond to the vandalism and removal of memorials to the Catholic missionary.

10 Columbus Rediscovered The navigator who united two hemispheres was not a saint — but his momentous role in history should be celebrated.

BY FELIPE FERNĂ NDEZ-ARMESTO

The Columbus Memorial by sculptor Lorado Taft stands outside Union Station in Washington, D.C. The Knights of Columbus was instrumental in planning the monument, dedicated in 1912.

14 Five Myths About Columbus

D E PA RT M E N T S

Outrageous claims about Columbus need to be tempered by a sober look at the historical record.

BY ROBERT ROYAL

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16 Why the Knights of Columbus?

For much of U.S. history, Columbus has symbolized civic unity and the hope of building an inclusive society.

BY WILLIAM J. CONNELL

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BY SUPREME CHAPLAIN

A century of charity in the Eternal City began with a historic Knights of Columbus pilgrimage.

ARCHBISHOP WILLIAM E . LORI

PLUS: Catholic Man of the Month

28 Knights in Action MORE

21 Built on the Rock of Faith The Knights of Columbus celebrates the centennial of the foundation of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

BY GERALDINE M. ROHLING AND COLUMBIA STAFF

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24 Overruling Roe In a recent dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas explains how the so-called right to abortion was invented “out of whole cloth.�

26 The Legal Battle for Liberty Recent Supreme Court victories hold off challenges to the free exercise of religion.

BY TIM SACCOCCIA

Learning the faith, living the faith In response to attacks on churches and sacred art, we are called to model charity, reason and civility.

18 In Service to Rome

BY COLUMBIA STAFF

Building a better world The authentic history of saintly missionaries, Native Americans and Our Lady of Guadalupe shows us the path of reconciliation and justice.

BY SUPREME KNIGHT CARL A. ANDERSON

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Why Father Serra Is a Saint St. Junípero Serra fought to protect my ancestors — and bring them the Gospel of Jesus Christ

BY ANDREW A. GALVAN

13 Lessons of History Righting wrongs against Native Americans must start with a just appraisal of the past.

BY PATRICK T. MASON

20 A Monumental Day in Metz After World War I, the Knights memorialized the bonds of fraternity forged between the United States and France.

BY ANDREW J. MATT

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Our History Recalled IN SEPTEMBER 2015, a news headline read: “Junipero Serra was a brutal colonialist. So why did Pope Francis just make him a saint?� As evidence of the Spanish missionary’s alleged brutality, the author claimed that by evangelizing Native Americans, Serra “helped to erase and destroy their culture.� The article went on to disparage the Church for “taking the Gospel to people who haven’t heard it and might not have interest in it� and further cautioned readers that Serra “was canonized because what he did during his life was good according to Catholic teaching� (emphasis in original).

Among the many problematic assumptions in this critique of Serra is its failure to recognize that the Church and its mandate to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ are not “Spanishâ€? or more broadly “European,â€? but universal. As Pope Francis said in his homily during St. JunĂ­pero Serra’s canonization Mass, “A Christian finds joy in mission: Go out to people of every nation!â€? The reality is that Serra defended the native peoples and, embracing the model of Our Lady of Guadalupe, brought the universal truth of the Gospel to them and their culture (see pages 3, 6).

The objection to Serra’s sanctity further presupposes relativism as a starting point — with regard to both morality and history. It pushes “Catholic� morality to the fringes, as one subjective option among many, and it replaces an honest assessment of the historical record with a “cancel culture� that silences dialogue and presumes guilt in relation to past events. In this way, it also reflects what

Pope Francis has called “a massive amnesia in our contemporary world,� which ignores or rejects universal truth at “the origin of all that is� (Lumen Fidei, 25).

St. John Paul II warned what happens when “agnosticism and skeptical relativism� become the default philosophy. “If there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity,� he wrote, “then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism� (Centesimus Annus, 46). In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville similarly spoke of the “tyranny of the majority.�

An adequate response to these challenges of moral and historical relativism must take seriously our tradition and history. That is, true progress is grounded in the wisdom of the past, not merely in mass opinion of the present moment.

G.K. Chesterton famously wrote in Orthodoxy (1908): “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.�

With this in mind, this issue Columbia presents articles related to the history of the Knights of Columbus as well as its oft-maligned namesake — for it is in seeking to better understand our history that we might build a more just and hopeful future.♌ ALTON J. PELOWSKI EDITOR

Beatification of Father Michael J. McGivney: Oct. 31 The Mass of Beatification of Venerable Michael McGivney will be broadcast live from the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, Conn., on Saturday, Oct. 31. An apostolic letter from Pope Francis will formally recognize the founder of the Knights of Columbus as “Blessed.� To support the cause for canonization, join the Father Michael J. McGivney Guild at fathermcgivney.org. All members receive a quarterly newsletter and are remembered in a weekly Mass offered for their intentions.

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SEPTEMBER 2020

COLUMBIA PUBLISHER Knights of Columbus ________ SUPREME OFFICERS Carl A. Anderson SUPREME KNIGHT Most Rev. William E. Lori, S.T.D. SUPREME CHAPLAIN Patrick E. Kelly DEPUTY SUPREME KNIGHT Michael J. O’Connor 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 Margaret B. Kelly ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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

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HOW TO REACH US MAIL COLUMBIA 1 Columbus Plaza New Haven, CT 06510-3326 ADDRESS CHANGES 203-752-4210, option #3 addresschange@kofc.org COLUMBIA INQUIRIES 203-752-4398 K OF C CUSTOMER SERVICE 1-800-380-9995 EMAIL columbia@kofc.org INTERNET kofc.org/columbia ________ 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 Š 2020 All rights reserved ________ ON THE COVER A statue of St. Junípero Serra stands outside Mission San Gabriel Arcångel in San Gabriel, Calif., in 2015.

The mission, which removed the statue for safekeeping this summer, suffered major damage in a fire July 11.

E D I TO R I A L

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BU I L D I N G A B E T T E R WO R L D

A Sure Way Forward The authentic history of saintly missionaries, Native Americans and Our Lady of Guadalupe shows us the path of reconciliation and justice

by Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson RECENTLY, WE HAVE witnessed throughout the United States attacks on our Catholic heritage. Catholic churches and statues of saints have been desecrated, especially statues of St. Junípero Serra. This heroic and holy missionary has become the victim of a false history.

In the late 18th century, Father Serra walked from Mexico City up the coast of California, founding missions that became great cities. He demanded a declaration of rights to protect the native peoples. And he obtained it. At his death, the Native Americans who gathered around him referred to Junípero Serra as “el santo” — “the saint.”

Why is the truth about Father Serra not more widely known? Catholics should realize that, for generations, much of the history of Catholic missionaries in New Spain and New France was written by their historic competitors — that is, English-speaking Protestants. And today, the legacy of our missionaries is viewed by many through the distorting lens of a militant, anti-Catholic atheism.

Catholic missionaries sought to lead native people to the faith. They never sought to eliminate whole peoples, as the Puritans did when they destroyed the Pequots in Connecticut or other tribes during King Philip’s War. In fact, Junípero Serra sought to protect from the death penalty even Native Americans who had killed Europeans.

In the mid-1800s, Alexis de Tocqueville, writing in Democracy in America, recounted the condition of the Native Americans he observed.

“I was the witness of sufferings which I have not the power to portray,” he wrote, concluding, “I believe that the Indian nations of North America are doomed to perish.”

None of these sufferings were caused by Catholic missionaries.

They did not map out the Trail of Tears walked by the Cherokee, nor were they at the massacres of Sand Creek or Wounded Knee. Junípero Serra never called for the “extermination” of the native people of California as did the governor of that state after gold was discovered there.

We do not fear an honest review of the Catholic legacy in North America. Indeed, we welcome it. We urge every city, state and province to undertake a careful review of its own treatment of native peoples.

Tragedy and hardship are only one aspect of the story of Native Americans. For centuries, many tribes have also witnessed to their strong Catholic faith. As brothers and sisters in the faith, their story is part of our story.

They, too, are part of the history of our Church in North America.

Native peoples have a right to have their story told with accuracy and integrity. Only in this way can we find a path of reconciliation, healing and justice. The Knights of Columbus is prepared to walk that path with them.

Twenty years ago, I dedicated the Knights of Columbus to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Just two years before the Virgin Mary’s appearance in 1531, Bishop Juan de Zumárraga of Mexico said of the situation in New Spain,

“If God does not provide the remedy from His hand, the land is about to be completely lost.”

We know the land was not lost. Instead, millions were converted and a new Catholic culture emerged as a result of Our Lady’s message of love, hope and reconciliation.

Our Lady of Guadalupe was not imposed upon native peoples by Europeans. And her message was not introduced by the Spanish. To the contrary, St. Juan Diego, a Native American, brought her message to the Spanish.

It was with her image that missionaries such as St. Junípero Serra brought Christianity to the Indigenous peoples.

St. John Paul II told us she is the “example of a perfectly inculturated evangelization” (Ecclesia in America, 11).

I believe she is Our Lord’s answer to the crisis our nation faces today. Our nation once again needs her message.

During the canonization Mass of Junípero Serra five years ago, Pope Francis said, “He was the embodiment of ‘a Church which goes forth.’”

Perhaps this is why today he is under such attack. His motto was Siempre adelante! Always forward!

So let us go forward with renewed confidence under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe. May she again lead our Church to a new and inculturated evangelization!

Vivat Jesus!

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L E A R N I N G T H E FA I T H , L I V I N G T H E FA I T H

Intolerance of Religion In response to attacks on churches and sacred art, we are called to model charity, reason and civility

by Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori IN RECENT MONTHS, there have Though many sacred images reflect been reports about the destruction of the Church’s European heritage, Chrischurch property almost daily. In July, for tian iconography is amazingly diverse. example, the medieval Cathedral of St. It often reflects the primitive art of the Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France, was early Church, and indeed, all the counset ablaze by an arsonist. In Florida, a tries and cultures where the faith has on churches often constitute a blatant atman rammed a car into the front of a taken root. The very diversity of Chris- tempt to chill, if not silence, expressions Catholic church and poured gasoline on tian art calls each of us to a deep admi- of religious faith and to diminish the inthe floor. Vandals have destroyed statues ration of the universal faith shared by fluence of religion on the broader society. of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary those whose language, race and culture Such destruction is thus an affront to our and other saints. On one statue of Mary, differ from one’s own. While there is most fundamental freedoms: religious the word “idol” was scrawled with spray some justification to the protests cur- liberty, freedom of expression and even paint. Numerous statues of St. Junípero rently roiling through our country, a freedom of assembly.

Serra have been destroyed, both How, then, should we respond? on public and church property.

Of course, we must do all we can These are not isolated incito protect our churches and our The deliberate destruction dents. Christian iconography is, artistic heritage — taking measunfortunately, caught up in the ures to secure property and calling of Christian art often constitutes a cultural debate about statues on local authorities for assistance. erected in honor of historical fig- blatant attempt to chill, if not silence, Beyond such practical and ures, such as presidents, military necessary measures, another expressions of religious faith. leaders, and explorers, including kind of response is called for.

Christopher Columbus. To be Our first impulse might be to sure, history has produced more than its number of them arise from a culture of react with anger; but anger never brings share of scoundrels, but vandalism leaves intolerance that seems to be belliger- hope and healing, but only further dino room for reasoned discussion and no ently ignorant of this reality. vision. Rather, as followers of Christ, regard for historical accuracy. The quesThese attacks on Christian art, and the we are called to defeat hatred with love, tion of which statues should stand on churches that house them, are costly. Sa- evil with goodness, and division with public land should be decided not by an cred art is expensive to replace and pro- peacemaking. Indeed, our parishes and angry mob but by civil dialogue. tect, but such attacks are costly in a more our K of C councils must model what But churches do not belong to the profound sense as well. Christian art ex- our society so desperately needs today: public, and the statues that adorn them presses the truth and beauty of the faith. the ability to discuss difficult topics and are treasured by their parishioners. Fur- The Catechism of the Catholic Church decide sensitive matters on the basis of thermore, these are statues of saints: holy speaks of Christian art as a “vocation: fact, mutual respect and an authentic men and women, witnesses to Jesus, evoking and glorifying, in faith and ado- spirit of tolerance. models of conversion, benefactors of the ration, the transcendent mystery of God.” As Knights of Columbus, our principoor, and makers of peace. Often they It then adds, “Genuine sacred art draws ples of charity, unity and fraternity help were champions of justice and human us to adoration, to prayer, and to the love us in this regard. Most of all, as followers rights — such as St. Junípero Serra — of God” (2502). of Jesus and members of his Body, the even if a historically accurate picture of From this perspective, the deliberate Church, we must strive to be living imtheir lives is lost on the madding crowd. destruction of Christian art and attacks ages of Christ in the world today.♦ 4 ♦ COLUMBIA ♦

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SUPREME CHAPLAIN’S CHALLENGE

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

great things. May we, my brothers, form strong bonds of fraternity founded on Christ as we labor to build up the kingdom of heaven.

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.�

(Gospel for Sept. 6, Mt 18:20) There is power in numbers. It’s often how we get things done.

When men are united by a clear mission, they become a “band of brothers� whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

And when that mission is given to us by Jesus, we are united in Christ, who directs and strengthens us to accomplish

H O LY FAT H E R ’ S P R AY E R I N T E N T I O N

Challenge by Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori: This month, I challenge you to learn more about fraternity by viewing the “Brotherhood� episode of the Into the Breach video series produced by the Knights of Columbus.

Second, I challenge you to help build bonds of brotherhood in your parish by offering the Faith in Action Into the Breach program.♌

C AT H O L I C M A N O F T H E M O N T H

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Father Patrick Ryan (1844-1878)

We pray that the planet’s resources will not be plundered, but shared in a just and respectful manner.

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St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary St. Peter Claver, Priest (USA) The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Our Lady of Sorrows Sts. Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church

WHEN YELLOW FEVER hit Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1878, there were few treatments and no vaccine; it was not even understood how the disease spread. Most people panicked and deserted the city, but a young parish priest, Father Patrick Ryan, remained to serve the afflicted.

Born in Ireland in 1844, Ryan immigrated with his family to the United States as a boy and grew up in New York City. He entered seminary in Missouri at age 21 and became known for his sound faith, common sense and athleticism. In 1869, he was ordained for the Diocese of Nashville, whose bishop was from the same county in Ireland as the Ryan family.

Father Ryan enthusiastically built up his small, mostly poor flock, first in Clarksville, Tenn., and then in Chattanooga. He was particularly determined to improve Catholic education, and he convinced the Dominican Sisters in Nashville to establish a school in his parish in 1876.

Two years later, as more than 4 out of 5 residents fled in the face of the epidemic, Father Ryan continued his work. A local journalist described

seeing him in an infected neighborhood: “Cheerfully but resolutely he was going from house to house to find what he could do for the sick and needy ‌ like one so absorbed in the afflictions of his fellow men that he was unconscious of personal suffering.â€?

Father Ryan died of yellow fever Sept. 28, 1878, at age 33. “Bury me in Chattanooga among my peopleâ€? was his last request. When his remains were reinterred in a new cemetery in 1886, a mile-long procession followed his coffin. Council 610 and Assembly 1084, both in Chattanooga, were later named in honor of Father Ryan, and the Diocese of Knoxville opened his cause for canonization in 2016.♌

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DEFENDING ST. JUNĂ?PERO SERRA California bishops respond to the vandalism and removal of memorials to the Catholic missionary nly five years after St. JunĂ­pero Serra was canonized, statues of the Franciscan missionary have fallen like dominoes in the state of California. Protestors toppled Serra statues in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento in June, and more were removed in July.

Serra was a philosophy professor in Spain when he felt called at age 35 to evangelize in the Americas. He worked in Mexico and Baja California for 20 years before he was sent north in 1769. He then founded the first nine of 21 missions in present-day California, spanning from San Diego to San Francisco, before his death in 1784. This year marks the 250th anniversary of his mission headquarters, San Carlos de BorromĂŠo in Carmel, where he is buried.

In St. JunĂ­pero’s time, the area was part of the Spanish empire, but modern-day protestors who view him as a symbol of colonial oppression of Native Americans are misreading and distorting history, explain the bishops of California. “The historical truth is that Serra repeatedly pressed the Spanish authorities for better treatment of the Native American communities,â€? the California Catholic Conference of Bishops affirmed in a June 22 statement. “Serra was not simply a man of his times. In working with Native Americans, he was a man ahead of his times who made great sacrifices to defend and serve the Indigenous population and work against an oppression that extends far beyond the mission era.â€?

Several bishops further addressed St. Junípero’s life and legacy — and the movement to remove his statues — in articles and letters. The following are excerpts from three of their responses.

A bronze statue of St. JunĂ­pero Serra stands in front of Ventura City Hall June 24. Following public protests, the city council has decided to remove the statue, which was originally commissioned in the 1930s and later replaced in 1989.

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From “Statues of St. JunĂ­pero Serra Deserve to Stayâ€? — The Washington Post, June 30:

From “Letter to the faithful for the memorial of St. JunĂ­pero Serraâ€? — June 29: I UNDERSTAND the deep pain being expressed by some native peoples in California. But I also believe Fray JunĂ­pero is a saint for our times, the spiritual founder of Los Angeles, a champion of human rights, and this country’s first Hispanic saint. ‌ The sad truth is that, beginning decades ago, activists started “revisingâ€? history to make St. JunĂ­pero the focus of all the abuses committed against California’s Indigenous peoples. ‌ It was California’s first governor who called for “a war of exterminationâ€? against the Indians and called in the U.S. Cavalry to help carry out his genocidal plans. That was in 1851.

St. JunĂ­pero died in 1784.

The real St. JunĂ­pero fought a colonial system where natives were regarded as “barbariansâ€? and “savages,â€? whose only value was to serve the appetites of the white man. For St. JunĂ­pero, this colonial ideology was a blasphemy against the God who has “created (all men and women) and redeemed them with the most precious blood of his Son.â€? ‌ 8 ♌ COLUMBIA ♌

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A painting of St. JunĂ­pero Serra hangs in the Santa Barbara Mission Archives-Library in Santa Barbara, Calif. The Franciscan friar founded the first nine Catholic missions in what is now the state of California.

St. JunĂ­pero came not to conquer; he came to be a brother. “We have all come here and remained here for the sole purpose of their well-being and salvation,â€? he once wrote. “And I believe everyone realizes we love them.â€? ‌ St. JunĂ­pero was 60 years old when he traveled 2,000 miles from Carmel to Mexico City to protest the injustices of the colonial system and demand that authorities adopt a “bill of rightsâ€? that he had written for the native peoples. That was in 1773, three years before America’s founders declared this nation’s independence with those beautiful words: “all men are created equal ‌ endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.â€?

Pope Francis called St. JunĂ­pero “one of the founding fathers of the United States.â€? He recognized that the saint’s witness anticipated the great spirit of human equality and liberty under God that has come to define the American project.

Yet in online petitions today we find St. Junípero compared to Adolf Hitler, his missions compared to concentration camps. No serious historian would accept this, and we should not allow these libels to be made in public arguments about our great saint. — Archbishop JosÊ H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

TO THE PROTESTERS who tore down his statue in Los Angeles this month, the priest, friar and saint JunĂ­pero Serra represents “hate, bigotry and colonization,â€? as one activist put it. Nothing would have made Serra sadder, for the real man was a profound lover of all people and especially of the Indigenous peoples he came to serve.

Who, then, is JunĂ­pero Serra after all?

First and foremost, Serra represents the true spirit of a Church identified with the poor and outcast. He left his home, his family, his sinecure as a philosophy professor to offer the very best thing he had to the California people: the news that God himself loved them enough to send his only Son to die on a cross to redeem them. St. JunĂ­pero Serra is “the Apostle of California.â€? Serra repeatedly intervened for mercy on behalf of Indigenous rebels against Spanish authorities. He famously walked to Mexico City with a painful ulcerated leg to obtain the authority to discipline the military who were abusing the Indigenous people. Then he walked back. ‌ There is no denying that Native Americans in California endured grave human rights abuses. They suffered wrongs during all three eras: the Spanish colonization (known as the Mission era), the Mexican secularization and the American era. But Serra should not bear the weight of all that went wrong and all who did wrong. If we looked at him with clear eyes, we would see Serra as one of the first American champions of the human rights of Indigenous peoples, a man who protested abusive police powers by government authorities. — Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco

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From “Canceling Padre Serra� — Word on Fire article, July 20: WHEN I SAW the videos of Serra statues being torn down, burned, spat upon, trampled and desecrated in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I shuddered — not only because such behavior was boorish and unjustified, but also because it called to mind very similar activities at earlier stages of American history.

In the mid-to-late 19th century, anti-Catholicism was rampant in the United States, due in part to prejudices inherited from Protestantism but also due to the arrival of large groups of immigrants from Catholic countries, who were considered inferior. A powerful political party, the Know-Nothings, was organized precisely around the theme of opposing Catholicism, and in many of the major cities of our country, Catholic convents, parishes, cathedrals, statues and churches were burned to the ground by unruly mobs. Moreover, in that same period, the Ku Klux Klan, which was active not just in the South but

in many northern cities as well, endeavored to terrorize blacks and Jews, of course, but also, it is easy to forget, Catholics.

If you doubt that this sort of knee-jerk opposition to Catholicism endured well into the 20th century, I would recommend you consult some of the histrionic rhetoric used by the opponents of John F. Kennedy during the presidential campaign of 1960. ‌ So when I see mobs of people tearing down and desecrating statues of a great Catholic saint, canonized just five years ago

by Pope Francis, how can I not see the ugly specter of antiCatholicism raising its head?

We are passing through a Jacobin moment in our cultural history, and such periods are dangerous indeed, for there is no clear indication what can stop their momentum. ‌ One can only hope that cooler heads will prevail and that responsible people might bring to an end this ridiculous and dangerous attempt to erase Padre Serra. — Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries

WHY FATHER SERRA IS A SAINT St. Junípero Serra fought to protect my ancestors — and bring them the Gospel of Jesus Christ

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peoples as a community. That was ununĂ­pero Serra did not become a saint heard of in other parts of the continent at because he founded missions in Califorthat time. At the time of Serra’s death, the nia. He was named a saint because he lived Carmel Indians were weeping because a holy life, and he did so while stuck in a they knew they were losing their protector, corrupt institution known as Spanish and he was remembered as “el santoâ€? — colonialism. the saint.

To get a true sense of Father Serra, I always tell people to go back to his writings So, when people accuse Father Serra of and see how he described the Indians. He all kinds of horrors, I ask them, “What are was in love with the native peoples; there’s your sources? Have you read how he deno other way to put it. And he saw the faith scribed the Indians of California?â€? Some as the greatest good he could give them. wonderful biographies were written just beSerra fought to protect my ancestors fore Father Serra’s canonization based on from the military governors. Four military new scholarship, which is not romantic but presidios had missions attached to them — simply tells the truth about JunĂ­pero Serra.

Santa Barbara, San Diego, Monterey and If Father Serra could visit the missions San Francisco — and if you look at the today, he would be out there ringing that map, the presidios are 4 or 5 miles away same old bell, begging the Indians to come Andrew Galvan points to the entry from the missions. That was by Serra’s deto receive the message of Jesus Christ. This for his great-great-great-great-grandsign to protect the native women from the is the opportunity of every California misfather in an early baptismal registry sion today — to ring the bells and invite military men who were violating them. for Mission San Francisco de Asís, the native people in.

Father Serra also advocated for self-rule also known as Mission Dolores, in — Andrew A. Galvan, a descendant of at the missions. He established what was San Francisco. the Ohlone, Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok and known as the alcalde role: He would have Patwin Indians, is curator at Mission Dothe native peoples select their own mayor from among their population, to negotiate with the padres lores in San Francisco. He also served on the board of directors and with the military leaders what would happen to the native of Serra’s cause for canonization.

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COLUMBUS REDISCOVERED The navigator who united two hemispheres was not a saint — but his momentous role in history should be celebrated

by Felipe FernĂĄndez-Armesto

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isplaced vengeance topples Columbus’ statues. Tweets traduce him.

He was mendacious, self-righteous, humorless and mean. But his virtues — including dazzling bravery and ingenuous charm — balanced his vices. He was sympathetic toward cultures other than his own, including those of Native Americans: Detractors are unpardonably ignorant of that.

Hero? Yes. Villain? Of course, because you can’t be one without the other. While sainthood is universal, heroism is partisan. Someone’s hero is always someone else’s villain.

To understand Columbus’ follies and feats, one has to realize that social ambition drove him: the desire, as some of his men noticed, “to be a great lord.� What mattered was not so much where he was going as whether, in a social sense, he would “arrive.�

From his allusions we know that he read the 15th-century equivalent of stationbookstall pulp: Storybook heroes take to the sea, discover islands, battle monsters and become great rulers. That was Columbus’ quest: to imitate in real life the romantic protagonists of sensational tales; or recreate, like the Knights of Columbus, a chivalric trajectory for modern times.

He was willing to take a risk that no reallife predecessor embraced: to ride the sea

with the prevailing wind. Modern yachtsmen love breeze in their sails, but, until Columbus, seaborne explorers struggled outward against the wind, because the guarantee of a passage homeward was vital.

Columbus needed patrons. He hawked his services, extemporizing proposals suited to the audience of the moment. When he appealed to Ferdinand and Isabella, he emphasized what they wanted: a short route to Asia, where the world’s richest economies beckoned. He scoured the literature. Misreading some data and misrepresenting the rest, he speculated that Asia might lie only “a few days� from Spain.

Geographers knew the size of the globe and realized that the distance was untraversable. The monarchs, however, had nothing to lose: Bankers and bureaucrats put up the money. In 1492, the king and queen commissioned the attempt, promising Columbus noble rank and ill-defined shares in any profit.

He juggled newfangled instruments of navigation to impress his men, like a conjurer waving a wand; in reality, however, he navigated by timing the hours of daylight and reading the corresponding latitude off printed tables. Stories of impending mutiny among fear-struck seamen were probably

The largely uncharted “New World� (left) looms across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe and Africa in a copy of a map by Christopher Columbus’ cartographer, Juan de la Cosa. De la Cosa, who traveled with Columbus in 1492, drew the original version in 1500. It was the first world map to depict the Americas.

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part of a legend of his own making: the lonely visionary, persevering in adversity.

The islands he encountered were disappointing, bereft of evidence of the proximity of the Orient. About the natives he was genuinely conflicted. He recognized them as rational, redeemable humans, admiring their nakedness as a token of dependence on God, like the nakedness of St. Francis, or as a relic of the classical Golden Age. On the other hand, it also repelled him as a reputed feature of “savagery.”

As for the natives, at first they treated the strangers not as some in the United States do today, as “illegals” to reject or exploit, but as usefully objective arbiters, marriage partners, allies and holy men, touched with sanctity from the divine horizon.

The following year, however, Columbus’ return to what he called Hispaniola was disastrous. He found that 30 of his men, whom he had left on the island, were dead. The local chief blamed inland enemies for the massacre. Columbus set off with him on a punitive expedition, while desperados from Spain proved uncontrollable. The enterprise got ever costlier and less productive. Columbus’ main banker faced 12 ♦ C O L U M B I A ♦

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unmanageable debts. He fell back on a desperate, doomed expedient: enslaving natives. The monarchs banned the sale, ordering the liberation of the captives. Eventually, Columbus was recalled in disgrace.

He also turned to religion. He had begun to have visions on his way home on the first voyage, amid a terrible storm. Visions now multiplied. He found “prophecies” of his life in sacred and classical texts. He affected a Franciscan habit.

Christopher became “Christoferens” — “bearer for Christ” — and the evangelization of indios became a reward worth more than riches. He wrote self-pitying poetry and petitions. His last few years were spent in disillusionment, begging the monarchs to meet their side of a bargain he had failed to fulfill.

Columbus’ legacy was inauspicious for the people whose islands were ravaged by disease and disrupted by intruders. It was equivocal for his heirs, who spent generations litigating against the crown. He left a myth of his own indomitability that suckered historians for centuries. The adamantine Columbus of the old history books must be rebuilt in mercury and opal — poor materials for statues.

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Eventually, however, almost everyone in the Americas claimed him, as if he were an adoptive founding father: Italians by right of birth, Spaniards by naturalization. Nineteenth-century immigrants in the United States — Jewish, Portuguese, even Polish, Greek, English and Scottish — invented “evidence� to link him with their own communities. Now, at an even more perverse stage of the myth, postcolonial “correctness� blames him for consequences he never foresaw.

What he really accomplished matters more than the myths. His discovery, not of America but of a viable route there and back, put sundered cultures in touch and opened unimagined prospects for commercial and cultural exchange.

He launched the greatest humanly induced upheaval in the course of evolution: Until Columbus’ second voyage — for perhaps 150,000 years — life forms had diverged as landmasses drifted apart. Now, convergent evolution began, swapping biota between continents, enriching diversity and multiplying sources of food.

Columbus helped launch departures in Western science. China had long been ahead in innovation. But, thanks to Columbus’ wind-riding technique, access to specimens, samples and observations from afar gave Latin Christendom the chance to catch up.

The empire he adumbrated encompassed more cultures and biomes than ever before: a creative — as well as destructive — arena of exchange. Outcomes included ways of life, food, thought, worship, work, language and art that enrich our world.

His legacy resembles his life: complex, morally equivocal and full of wonder.

Few individuals are more worthy of commemoration.♌ FELIPE FERNà NDEZ-ARMESTO is the William P. Reynolds professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and a leading Christopher Columbus scholar. Among his many books are Columbus (1991), 1492: The Year the World Began (2009) and Columbus on Himself (2010).

LESSONS OF HISTORY Righting wrongs against Native Americans must start with a just appraisal of the past

by Patrick T. Mason EDITOR’S NOTE: The following text was abridged from an editorial first published on RealClearPolitics.com.

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oday’s protestors — with great vigor but little historical sense — seem eager to look for scapegoats. They want to cast all blame for the atrocities committed against American Indians at the feet of Christopher Columbus. Such efforts only serve to whitewash and revise the true history of the Americas.

We need to remember our history, the good and the bad, so that we are not set up to repeat history’s mistakes. We need to take an honest look at all our forefathers. We need to give them the credit they deserve for what they did well, while being mindful of the things that they should have done differently or better.

What we lose in the rush to scapegoat Columbus is perspective on how America came to the present moment in its troubled relations with Native Americans. Spain outlawed almost all enslavement of Indigenous people by 1500. Yet, 200 years later, enslavement of American Indians thrived in British Connecticut. In 1850, Peter Hardeman Burnett, the Gold Rush governor of California, summed up the Anglo-American perspective when he said, “It is inevitable that the Indian must go.� By contrast, Columbus and the Spanish sought coexistence, however complicated that sometimes became.

Columbus Day is a day for us to remember that bold and courageous voyage in 1492 that led to the first sustained contact between two very different worlds. It is a day to remember the many good things that have come out of that contact, such as the founding of the United States, the first lasting democratic republic.

It is also a day to remember our failings as a country, such as the Trail of Tears and the forced removal and re-education of native children in the 20th century — episodes that occurred centuries after Columbus and that the explorer neither caused nor condoned.

Each day, I see the continued hardships facing the first people of the Americas. I see the poverty, the lack of quality education options, and the constant interference in Native American tribes’ right to selfdetermination.

Instead of vandalizing statues or spreading misleading history, I would call on all Americans to follow the example of groups like the Knights of Columbus, and reach out to these communities or to those on the peripheries in your own neighborhood. Bring companionship to your lonely elderly neighbor. Form friendships with those who are suffering.

Rather than dubiously assigning blame to one man, together we can truly help make the United States a better place for all of us, and achieve a harmony and understanding between native and immigrant peoples that has too often eluded us in our history.

PATRICK T. MASON, a member of the Osage Nation and past state deputy of New Mexico, serves on the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors.

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About Columbus Outrageous claims about Columbus need to be tempered by a sober look at the historical record

by Robert Royal

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t a moment when even George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are under attack, it was inevitable that the current unrest would also engulf Christopher Columbus. His case is unique, though, because unlike the others, few people — least of all those who took turns stomping on his statues — know much about him.

They assume that he brought slavery and genocide to the New World. Europeans did, of course, commit many sins. But they did not introduce new evils; all of them — including slavery and genocide — already existed among Indigenous peoples, as they did throughout the world.

One person who knew Columbus personally was the Dominican missionary BartolomĂŠ de las Casas. He earned the name defensor de los indios (“defender of the Indiansâ€?) because of his passionate diatribes against exploiters of native peoples in the Americas.

Las Casas did not spare Columbus from criticism, but he also defended him against those who blamed him for all the disorders and violence that followed the first contacts with Indigenous peoples.

The great explorer’s missteps, he said, were the result of ignorance and misjudgments about how to proceed: “Truly, I would not dare blame the admiral’s intentions for I knew him well and I knew his intentions were good.�

It’s good, then, to examine some of the contemporary charges against Columbus in order to assess him fairly.

Myth 1: He was a violent man.

Las Casas spoke of Columbus’ “sweetness and benignity.â€? Far from being a violent man, he often got into difficulties because 14 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

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he would be indulgent — toward natives and Spaniards — and would then take extreme measures against both when things got out of hand. He was a great navigator but a poor governor.

By his third voyage, he was cautioning Ferdinand and Isabella about who they were allowing to sail to the New World. He needed, he said, 60 missionaries to preach Christianity to arrogant and abusive Spaniards, and another 60 upstanding men to help him run the colony.

Myth 2: He committed genocide.

There was no “genocide� during these early voyages, though many natives died from unfamiliar diseases and clashes between two very different cultures. The Americas had been isolated from the rest of the world for millennia, which is why people here, though they had had their own plagues, were especially vulnerable to diseases from outside.

Nonetheless, the Spaniards never intended to commit “genocide.�

In even a cynical reading, a ready supply of native workers served Spanish interests.

Myth 3: He instituted the slave trade.

Columbus was not interested in the slave trade; his goal was to set up a trading post or, later, an agricultural colony on the island of Hispaniola, today’s Dominican Republic and Haiti. He did, however, take slaves as prisoners of war, or where he found violations of natural law, such as human sacrifice or cannibalism — the only reasons Spain permitted.

Slavery was never the admiral’s intention, except as a — not very effective — way to maintain order in unprecedented circumstances.

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Five Myths

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A painting depicts Christopher Columbus and shipmates landing at sunrise Oct. 12, 1492, on the island he named San Salvador.

Myth 4: He had only worldly interests.

People often claim that Columbus was motivated by “God, gold and glory,” but assume God was just a cover for worldly interests. In fact, his religious devotion was sincere. Among other things, we know from his writings that he felt that he had been given a role in spreading the Gospel to all nations, which had to happen before Christ could return. In later years, he often dressed as a Third Order Franciscan.

Myth 5: He did not accomplish anything extraordinary.

Many also claim that Columbus did not “discover” the New World. Those living here already knew where they were, the argument goes, and didn’t need to be discovered. This is a half-truth. Indigenous peoples, of course, knew their own lands. They did not know that they were part of a larger world.

One reason we especially honor Columbus is that he began the process toward the one interconnected world that we now inhabit. Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and reached “the

Indies” five years after Columbus arrived in the New World.

But great as that feat was, he only found a new route to longknown lands. Columbus, by skill, imagination and sheer grit gave us the world.

Columbus is often dismissed today on other grounds — usually by people who have come to hate “Western civilization” and, frankly, traditional Christianity. They want to blame him for everything wrong on these shores since 1492.

Following that logic, though, he deserves some credit — and gratitude — as well, for the many good things that also followed his discoveries.♦ ROBERT ROYAL is director of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., and a member of St. John Bosco Council 12846 in Springfield, Va. His latest book, Columbus and the Crisis of the West, will be published by Sophia Institute Press this fall.

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Why the Knights of Columbus?

For much of U.S. history, Columbus has symbolized civic unity and the hope of building an inclusive society

by William J. Connell

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uring the long summer of 2020, when scores of statues hopes of a new civilization no longer bound to Europe. of Christopher Columbus have been vandalized or reIt was especially after the Civil War, however, that Columbus moved around the United States, it is important to remember soared in popularity. Much of this attraction can be explained why those statues were erected. How did Columbus come to by the explosion in sea traffic in the second half of the 1800s. be such an important figure in the popular imagination dur- The technological shift from sail to steam and the lower cost ing most of the nation’s history? of travel opened the oceans to the masses on both sides of the Above all it had to do with the possibility of building in the Atlantic. As the first transoceanic seafarer, Columbus became Western hemisphere a new civilization — one that would a popular hero, and in the decades before and after 1900 he bring together European traditions was admired in Europe almost as much and ideas with the Native American as in the Americas. It was no coincipeoples, traditions and the flora and dence that the many statues and monfauna of the new continent. What reuments to him (Barcelona, Genoa, mains striking, after more than five Buenos Aires, New York City) began to ATHOLICS HAD BEEN IN centuries, is the hopefulness of this be built around that time. venture, and the belief that there was It was also no coincidence that cerTHE NEW WORLD FROM an opportunity to create a better way tain immigrant groups — Irish, Italof life that immigrants to, and within, ians, Hispanics and other Catholics — THE BEGINNING — THAT the New World still share today. that felt marginalized in a still WASPThe first members of the Knights of dominated United States identified IS, FROM THE VERY DAY Columbus were influenced by this vithemselves with a universally admired THAT IT BECAME ‘NEW.’ sion and also instrumental in promothistorical figure who also happened to ing it. Just two years after the death of have been Italian, to have sailed for the Knights’ founder, Father Michael Spain, and to have brought Catholic McGivney, councils enthusiastically Christianity to the Western Hemiparticipated in the first national Columbus Day, declared in sphere. Columbus could be presented as legitimating their 1892 for the quadricentennial of the great navigator’s landing. presence at a time when anti-Catholicism and anti-immigrant For them and many others, Columbus was celebrated as a fig- nativism were quite common. This, of course, was the atmosure of civic unity and a symbol that immigrants, particularly phere in which the Knights of Columbus was founded.

Catholics, possessed a rightful share in American identity.

When Father McGivney, the son of Irish immigrants, proposed a name for the fraternal and charitable organization in THE ATTRACTION OF ‘COLUMBUS’ 1882, his choice was “Sons of Columbus.” After debate with As early as the colonial period, the name “Columbia” was used the founding members — all of them laymen, most of them as a figurative synonym for America. The poet Phillis Wheat- Irish — the group finally settled upon “Knights of Columbus.” ley, an African American, wrote several striking poems in While “Knights” invoked the chivalric orders, with their praise of Columbia during the Revolutionary War. After in- code of ethics, aspiration to virtue and defense of the most dependence, the capital of the United States was sited in a dis- vulnerable, the adoption of Columbus as patron signified that trict called Columbia, while artists represented Columbia as Catholics had been in the New World from the beginning — an allegorical female figure embodying the virtues and the that is, from the very day that it became “New.”

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The Columbus Memorial at Union Station in Washington, D.C., is unveiled June 8, 1912. The Order was instrumental in the planning of the monument, and the dedication ceremony included a speech by President William Howard Taft, followed by a parade with soldiers and 20,000 Knights of Columbus.

As founding member William Geary put it, the name conveyed that Catholics “were not aliens� in America but rather participated in the very foundation of this new civilization.

With respect to American society at large, the choice of Columbus was a comfortable one, since it embraced an existing and very popular object of admiration.

CELEBRATING CIVIC UNITY When President Benjamin Harrison first proclaimed Oct. 12, 1892, as Columbus Day, the idea — lost on present-day critics — was that the holiday would recognize both Native Americans, who were here before Columbus, and the many immigrants who were then coming to this country in astounding numbers. Like the Columbian Exposition dedicated in Chicago that year, it was to be about our land and all its people.

The 1892 Columbus Day parade in New York City was telling in this regard. Harrison had especially designated the schools as centers of the Columbus celebration, and thousands of public school students marched, followed by students from Catholic and other private schools, each wearing their respective uniforms. These included the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Dante Alighieri Italian College of Astoria and the Native American marching band from the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, which speaks volumes about the spirit of the original Columbus Day. On the same day, 6,000 Knights of Columbus marched in a parade in New Haven, Conn., where a 600-voice choir, led by the choir director of St. Mary’s Church, performed a concert that included various national anthems. The event drew some

40,000 people, then the largest crowd in New Haven’s history.

In the years that followed, the Knights of Columbus encouraged Columbus Day celebrations around the country as well as monuments in Columbus’ honor.

In 1906, Colorado became the first state to declare Columbus Day an annual holiday, and within six years, the movement had taken on national proportions, with observances in 30 states.

The Ku Klux Klan was among the holiday’s strongest opponents, since it commemorated a man who was Catholic and a non-Anglo. Despite attempts to put an end to Columbus Day as a state holiday, it continued to be observed. Oct. 12 was established as a national celebration by annual presidential proclamation in 1934; it became a federal holiday in 1968.

What sometimes gets overlooked in current discussions is that we neither commemorate Columbus’ birthday (as is the practice for many public figures) nor his death date (when Christian saints are usually memorialized), but rather the date of his arrival in the New World.

Columbus Day marks the first encounter that brought together the original and future Americans. A lot of suffering followed Columbus’ landing on San Salvador, and a lot of achievement, too. It was a momentous, world-changing occasion, such as has rarely happened in human history.♌ WILLIAM J. CONNELL holds the La Motta Chair in Italian Studies at Seton Hall University. He is author and editor of several books, including the Routledge History of Italian Americans (2018).

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In Service to Rome A Louisiana priest reflects on the task of racial reconciliation in light of the Church’s mission A century of charity in the Eternal City began with a historic Knights of Columbus pilgrimage

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peaking to a K of C delegation on pilgrimage to Rome 100 years ago, Pope Benedict XV said, “Knights of Columbus, you have done great things — you are destined to do still greater.�

The group of 235 Knights met with the Holy Father on Aug. 28, 1920, followed by a private papal Mass the next day.

The Knights, led by Supreme Knight James Flaherty, processed into the papal audience in faultless formalwear, but the event was much more than a formality. In fact, it turned out to be a pivotal moment in the Order’s relationship with the Vatican, inaugurating a century of service and collaboration. “The Knights of Columbus, besides being a magnificent example to their brethren in the faith, are also the best of citizens,â€? Pope Benedict XV stated. “Truly they deserve to be 18 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

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honored with the name of ‘Knights,’ a name which, in the Middle Ages, was the hallmark of an institution among whose aims were respect for and defense of the Church, care and love for the weak and poor.�

Noting that the Order had offered to extend its charitable work to Rome, Benedict XV presented a problem that the Knights were equipped to solve. Catholic children, the pope said, were being drawn toward non-Catholic groups through the sports programs they offered. He urged the Knights to make their presence felt in Rome so as to counter this antiCatholic “propaganda, which to our sorrow we see so widely spread in this dear city.�

Here, the pope added, “is another field of competition before you.�

by Father Joshua Johnson

by Columbia staff

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Opposite page: Pope Benedict XV welcomes a delegation of 235 Knights of Columbus to the Vatican Gardens after celebrating Mass with them at the Madonna della Guardia altar Aug. 29, 1920. Standing to the right of the Holy Father is Supreme Knight James Flaherty. • Above: Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors and support staff are pictured after Mass at the same location Feb. 10, 2020. The Mass was preceded by a private audience with Pope Francis, during which the Holy Father reflected on the centennial of the Order’s charitable activity in Rome.

It did not take long for the Knights to respond. Between 1922 and 1927, the Order built five recreation centers in the Eternal City. A sixth facility opened in 1952, and all but one of the “playgrounds,� which include soccer fields, gyms and chapels, continue to operate today. The Order donated the property of St. Peter’s Oratory, which was also used as a relief center during and after World War II, to the Holy See in 1965, for the site of a new papal audience hall adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Indeed, the Order’s practical and effective response to Pope Benedict XV’s request for assistance was the first of many initiatives in service to the Vatican. For more than 50 years, the Supreme Council has supported the Holy See’s communications efforts, from a shortwave transmitter for Vatican Radio in 1966 to livestreamed broadcasts today. Since the 1980s, the Order has likewise sponsored a series of restorations in collaboration with the Fabbrica di San Pietro, from the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica to the preservation of invaluable sacred art.

In recent decades, the Knight of Columbus has also sponsored many papal events and initiatives, such as pastoral visits of Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, and various World Youth Day activities since 1993. And since the Order established the Vicarius Christi Fund in 1981, it has generated more than $60 million for the pope’s personal charities.

This past February, in anticipation of the centenary of the Knights’ presence in Rome, the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors visited the Vatican and met and prayed with Pope Francis (see April 2020 issue of Columbia). “As an organization of Catholic men, we are proud to have been of service to Your Holiness, and to each successor of St. Peter since 1920,â€? Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in remarks to Pope Francis Feb. 10. “The Knights of Columbus, now 2 million strong, pledge our continued support of the Church — locally in our parishes, and universally through our assistance to the Holy See.â€?♌ SEPTEMBER 2020

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A MONUMENTAL DAY IN METZ

THE KNIGHTS’ 1920 5,000 French troops and pilgrimage to Rome was 3,000 children in traditional preceded by a pilgrimage to garb, thronged the streets.

France, where the Order Airplanes flew overhead as had served thousands of people cheered, “Vive troops during the First l’Amerique! Vive les ChevaWorld War through its liers de Colomb!�

Army huts program.

After a solemn Requiem The K of C delegation Mass for the war dead in the arrived in the city of Metz, Metz Cathedral, Marshal in the Lorraine region of Foch marched with the northeast France, on Aug. Knights to the square where 20. The next day, Supreme the new statue of Lafayette Knight James Flaherty prestood shrouded. In the pressented two symbolic gifts ence of bishops and other of unity in commemoradignitaries, Supreme Knight tion of the Allied victory in Flaherty unveiled the 18-footthe war — to the country, tall bronze sculpture depicting a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette on horseback, as Lafayette, and to Marshal schoolgirls scattered flowers at Ferdinand Foch, supreme its base. commander of the Allied “Lafayette is both of France forces, a ceremonial gold and America,� Supreme baton.

Knight Flaherty said in his Metz held special significeremonial address. “Let this cance for Lafayette, who statue be a symbol of 145 trained there as a soldier beyears of unbroken bonds of fore joining the American friendship.�

He then presented the Revolution in 1775. Foch gold baton to Foch, describalso had ties to Metz, having him as an ideal Christian ing gone to school there beMarshal Ferdinand Foch, supreme Allied commander during World War I, fore it was annexed by soldier. stands with Supreme Knight James Flaherty at the dedication of a statue Germany in 1871. Before Foch embraced the of the Marquis de Lafayette in Metz, France, Aug. 21, 1920. The statue supreme knight and said, the city was returned to was a gift from the Order to France; a gold baton (visible in Foch’s hand) “America and France have France at the end of the was given to the marshal, who a year later became an honorary member long fought for liberty and First World War, Foch of the Knights. they will continue to protect replied to a letter of support liberty throughout the world. Knights of Columbus: You have from Supreme Knight Flaherty. “I am deeply touched by the attention of the Knights of performed a service for both France and America of benefit to Columbus,� Foch wrote. “It was from Metz that Lafayette all future generations, and you have stirred the heart of the went to help your ancestors, and we shall one day see your vic- French people as they have never been stirred before.� torious banner floating over Metz.�

A year later, during Foch’s visit to United States, the Knights His words proved prophetic, as the victorious marshal pre- officially made the marshal, renowned for his deep faith as well sented the city to the French president on Dec. 8, 1918, with as his military leadership, an honorary member.

U.S. Gen. John Pershing at his side and the American and The Order formally expanded to France in 2015 and, having French flags flying overhead. grown to 23 councils, the jurisdiction was recently declared a When the Knights presented their gifts in Metz on Aug. 21, territory by the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors.

1920, the two flags waved again. Immense crowds, including — reported by Andrew J. Matt, managing editor 20 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

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After World War I, the Knights memorialized the bonds of fraternity forged between the United States and France

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An honor guard of more than 1,000 Fourth Degree Knights surrounds the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception before its dedication Nov. 20, 1959. Construction on the Knights Tower, at left, began two years earlier.

Built on the Rock of Faith The Knights of Columbus celebrates the centennial of the foundation of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

by Geraldine M. Rohling and Columbia staff

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ames Joseph Sexton, a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus, set out on pilgrimage in 1920 to a Marian shrine that didn’t yet exist. His destination was Washington, D.C., where construction would soon begin on the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Like many pilgrims, he brought with him an offering of faith and devotion, albeit one heavier than most: a 3.3-ton piece of granite, the first building block of what would become the largest Roman Catholic church in North America.

A member of St. James Council 2370 in Stratford, Conn., Sexton donated the foundation stone and personally delivered it for the dedication ceremony Sept. 23, 1920. It was one of the earliest of many K of C pilgrimages and contributions

over the past century to what is now the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

A HISTORIC JOURNEY Bishop Thomas J. Shahan, rector of The Catholic University of America, received papal approval for the National Shrine in 1913. The university donated the land, and the first pilgrimage took place in May 1920. More than 6,000 people, including 1,500 Knights of Columbus from New York City, were present for an outdoor Mass and a blessing of the site.

John Sexton’s role began a month earlier, when the 54-yearold monument maker wrote to Bishop Shahan offering to donate the foundation stone — not a cornerstone, but the actual SEPTEMBER 2020

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Left: A crowd gathers Sept. 23, 1920, to witness the laying of the shrine’s foundation stone (bottom right). Cardinal James Gibbons, the archbishop of Baltimore (seated at top of stairs, lined with a Fourth Degree honor guard), blessed the 3.3-ton block of granite. • Above: James J. Sexton (far left) delivers the foundation stone for the new national shrine to Bishop Thomas J. Shahan (second from right) and other dignitaries Sept. 19, 1920.

first stone — of the church. The offer was accepted.

The first leg of his historic pilgrimage began where the granite block was quarried: the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Once in Sexton’s shop in Stratford, the stone was honed, incised and readied for delivery to Washington.

Sexton had a keen sense of history, and his letters to Bishop Shahan point out the journey’s many intersections with America’s past. The route from New Hampshire followed “part of ‌ the road Paul Revere rode,â€? and in Cambridge, Mass., the truck “circled the very spot where General Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775.â€?

Thus, Sexton saw the second leg of the pilgrimage as the delivery of a piece of Americana as well as a symbol of Catholic devotion. He wanted as many people as possible to view the stone, especially schoolchildren, and to that end arranged stops along the route to the capital for the “many thousands who may never again have a chance to see it.�

The reception in New York City on Sept. 18 was the most enthusiastic. The truck with its precious cargo made its way down Fifth Avenue toward St. Patrick’s Cathedral, escorted by police on bicycles. The people lining the avenue blessed themselves as the stone passed, and some tried to touch or even kiss it. The next day, it reached the shrine site in Washington.

On the day of the ceremony, Sept. 23, 1920, Cardinal 22 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

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James Gibbons, the archbishop of Baltimore who had ordained Father Michael McGivney more than 40 years earlier, made his way down red-carpeted stairs to the foundation stone. A K of C honor guard in silk top hats and frock coats, their swords drawn in a salute, lined his way and then encircled the stone for the rite of blessing and dedication. James Sexton, standing by his donation with his two sons and nephew, assisted in positioning the stone on its base.

PILGRIMS AND PATRONS Though it remained a construction site for years to come, the future shrine soon became a destination for the faithful. The Knights of Columbus was especially instrumental in promoting it as a place of pilgrimage, organizing an annual trip with the Catholic Tourists of America starting in 1923, a year before the first public Mass was celebrated in the Crypt Church. U.S. Rep. David J. O’Connell, president of the Catholic Tourists and a Knight, escorted the pilgrimage for the next five years. In January 1926, thousands of Knights and family members had the honor of celebrating solemn vespers at the shrine, joined by many high-ranking prelates and government leaders.

Further construction stalled in the 1930s and ’40s, but the centenary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1953-1954 provided the impetus for a nationwide appeal to

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complete the structure. In November, John McShain, a building contractor and member of Philadelphia (Pa.) Council 196 whose work included the Pentagon, FDR Library and Jefferson Memorial, agreed to build the massive Upper Church.

At the Order’s 75th anniversary gathering in Waterbury, Conn., in 1957, Supreme Knight Luke E. Hart announced that the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors had unanimously accepted the invitation of the Building Committee of the National Shrine to erect the campanile, or bell tower. Contributions from councils poured in to fund the $1 million project.

When the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was finally dedicated Nov. 20, 1959, the Knights once again formed the honor guard — this time as benefactors as well as pilgrims.

Realizing that the Knights Tower would not be complete without bells, a second donation was made for the 56-bell carillon, which was dedicated Sept. 8, 1963.

Over the decades, the Knights of Columbus has continued to act as a patron of the shrine while promoting pilgrimages of Marian devotion. Major projects that have received K of C funding include the construction of the Our Mother of Africa Chapel and the mosaics adorning the Incarnation and Trinity Domes. Ongoing support has also included donations toward the upkeep of the carillon and a Knights-staffed usher ministry, which was established in the 1980s.

The largest pilgrimage hosted by the shrine took place in 2000, when 12,000 Knights and family members came to the basilica to reconsecrate the Order to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Indeed, from the foundation stone to the top of the 329-foot Knights Tower, the Order’s longstanding spiritual and financial support for National Shrine has stood on this solid ground of Marian devotion.♌ GERALDINE M. ROHLING, Ph.D., M.A.Ed., is archivist-curator at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Mosaics adorn the shrine’s Trinity Dome, Redemption Dome and Incarnation Dome (top to bottom). The Trinity Dome, completed in 2017, and the Knights of Columbus Incarnation Dome, completed in 2007, received significant financial support from the Order.

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Overruling Roe On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in June Medical Services v. Russo, striking down a Louisiana law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The law in question was very similar to one in Texas that the Court declared unconstitutional in a 2016 case.

In June Medical Services v. Russo, four of the same justices again argued that the law created an “undue burden� on a woman’s right to have an abortion. Chief Justice John Roberts disagreed with this reasoning in 2016 (and still does).

However, he voted to overturn the law, arguing that the Court’s 2016 ruling established a legal precedent (stare decisis).

Four justices, including Justice Clarence Thomas, disagreed. In his dissent, Thomas argued more broadly that the court’s abortion precedents are “grievously wrong,� and that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case which made abortion legal in 1973, should be overturned.

The following excerpt is drawn from his judicial opinion.

T

oday a majority of the Court perpetuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing so without jurisdiction. ‌ The plurality and the Chief Justice ultimately cast aside this jurisdictional barrier to conclude that Louisiana’s law is unconstitutional under our precedents. But those decisions created the right to abortion out of whole cloth, without a shred of support from the Constitution’s text. Our abortion precedents are grievously wrong and should be overruled. Because we have neither jurisdiction nor constitutional authority to declare Louisiana’s duly enacted law unconstitutional, I respectfully dissent. ‌ The Constitution does not constrain the States’ ability to regulate or even prohibit abortion. This Court created the right to abortion based on an amorphous, unwritten right to privacy, which it grounded in the “legal fictionâ€? of substantive 24 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

SEPTEMBER 2020

due process. As the origins of this jurisprudence readily demonstrate, the putative right to abortion is a creation that should be undone.

The Court first conceived a free-floating constitutional right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). In that case, the Court declared unconstitutional a state law prohibiting the use of contraceptives, finding that it violated a married couple’s “right of privacy.� The Court explained that this right could be found in the “penumbras� of five different Amendments to the Constitution — the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth.

Rather than explain what free speech or the quartering of troops had to do with contraception, the Court simply declared that these rights had created “zones of privacy� with their “penumbras,� which were “formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.�

This reasoning is as mystifying as it is baseless. ‌ Just eight years later, the Court utilized its newfound power in Roe v. Wade. There, the Court struck down a Texas law restricting abortion as a violation of a woman’s constitutional “right of privacy,â€? which it grounded in the “concept of personal libertyâ€? purportedly protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court began its legal analysis by openly acknowledging that the Constitution’s text does not “mention any right of privacy.â€? The Court nevertheless concluded that it need not bother with our founding document’s text, because the Court’s prior decisions — chief among them Griswold — had already divined such a right from constitutional penumbras. Without any legal explanation, the Court simply concluded that this unwritten right to privacy was “broad enough to encompass a woman’s [abortion] decision.â€?

Roe is grievously wrong for many reasons, but the most fundamental is that its core holding — that the Constitution

In a recent dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas explains how the so-called right to abortion was invented ‘out of whole cloth’

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Tens of thousands of people make their way down Constitution Avenue during the 2019 March for Life in Washington, D.C. Each January, participants gather on the National Mall and march to the U.S. Supreme Court Building in peaceful protest of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. • Opposite page: Justice Clarence Thomas, currently the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court, is pictured in 2007. protects a woman’s right to abort her unborn child — finds no support in the text of the Fourteenth Amendment. ‌ More specifically, the idea that the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment understood the Due Process Clause to protect a right to abortion is farcical. In 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, a majority of the States and numerous Territories had laws on the books that limited (and in many cases nearly prohibited) abortion. It would no doubt shock the public at that time to learn that one of the new constitutional Amendments contained hidden within the interstices of its text a right to abortion. The fact that it took this Court over a century to find that right all but proves that it was more than hidden — it simply was not (and is not) there. ‌ Moreover, the fact that no five Justices can agree on the proper interpretation of our precedents today evinces that our abortion jurisprudence remains in a state of utter entropy.

Since the Court decided Roe, Members of this Court have decried the unworkability of our abortion case law and repeatedly called for course corrections of varying degrees. They serve as further evidence that this Court’s abortion jurisprudence has failed to deliver the “‘principled and intelligible’â€? development of the law that stare decisis purports to secure. ‌ More importantly, we exceed our constitutional authority whenever we “appl[y] demonstrably erroneous precedent instead of the relevant law’s text.â€? Because we can reconcile neither Roe nor its progeny with the text of our Constitution, those decisions should be overruled.♌ JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS is the longest-serving justice among the current members of the Supreme Court. He was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1990.

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THE LEGAL BATTLE FOR LIBERTY Recent Supreme Court victories hold off challenges to the free exercise of religion

T

he U.S. Supreme Court heard more than 60 cases in its 2019-2020 term, including several that dealt directly with the Catholic Church’s ability to teach, live and evangelize the faith.

Some of the fundamental issues under debate would have been familiar to Father Michael McGivney, who founded the Knights of Columbus, in part, to counteract the anti-Catholic nativist movements of the late 19th century. In fact, one of the recent Supreme Court cases revolved around legislation passed during Father McGivney’s lifetime.

For more than a century, the Order has stood against attempts 26 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

SEPTEMBER 2020

to relegate Catholic education and culture to second-class status.

In the 1920s, the Knights were instrumental in the legal fight against an Oregon statute that required all children to attend public school. More recently, the Order has partnered with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty to defend the words “under God� in the Pledge of Allegiance, protect public displays of faith, and fight other challenges to the First Amendment right to exercise one’s religion freely.

The following three cases serve as a reminder of this history and ongoing work.

by Tim Saccoccia

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Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue In 1875, U.S. House Speaker James Blaine proposed legislation that would ban public funding at religious — primarily Catholic — schools, which were viewed by many nativist Americans as “prisons of the youthful intellect of the country.�

The federal amendment was narrowly defeated, but in the years following, 37 states, including Montana, adopted “Blaine amendments� in their own constitutions.

In 2015, Montana began granting a small tax credit to taxpayers who donated to a state-approved, privately funded scholarship program for students attending private schools.

However, the state Department of Revenue determined that under Montana law, the program could not award scholarships to anyone attending a religious school.

The Montana Supreme Court agreed, but the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision June 30. The Court ruled 5-4 that Montana was in error, stating that it is a violation of the First Amendment to bar someone from receiving a public good on the basis of religion. The Court did not strike down Blaine amendments, but it did set the tone that these provisions unfairly target people for their faith.

Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania Since 2013, the Little Sisters of the Poor have been fighting the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that they fund contraceptives, sterilization and abortifacients for employees at their homes for the elderly poor. After the Court ruled unanimously in their favor in 2016, the government created an exemption to the health plan requirement for religious ministries. This case was a challenge to that exemption, and the Knights of Columbus again assisted the Little Sisters’ defense and filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in support.

On July 8, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision in favor of the Little Sisters. The Court did not address the mandate itself but confirmed that the government has the authority to issue broad religious and moral exemptions to it.

Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru On the same day the Court ruled in favor of the Little Sisters, it also ruled 7-2 in favor of two Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

These schools were sued by former teachers after the schools declined to renew their contracts, citing failure to meet performance standards. Both teachers taught religion and had responsibility for preparing students for the sacraments. In its decision, the Court cited the “ministerial exception,� which allows a faith community to determine who is responsible for conveying its message and carrying out its mission.

Importantly, the decision clarified when the ministerial exception applies. “What matters, at bottom, is what an employee does,� Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “[E]ducating young people in their faith, inculcating its teachings, and training them to live their faith are responsibilities that lie at the very core of the mission of a private religious school.�

Opposite page: Little Sisters of the Poor stand in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on March 23, 2016, following oral arguments in Little Sisters v. Burwell. After several states challenged the religious liberty exemption that resulted from the unanimous ruling, the Court again ruled in the congregation’s favor July 8, 2020, in Little Sisters of the Poor v.

Pennsylvania. • Above: A man participates in a religious freedom rally organized by Knights of Columbus in Austin, Texas, in 2015.

Each of these decisions represents a positive step toward protecting religious liberty. Nonetheless, legal challenges will persist wherever policies favor an overly broad application of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment — “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.�

Justice Clarence Thomas addressed this balance in his concurring opinion in Espinoza: “Returning the Establishment Clause to its proper scope will not completely rectify the Court’s disparate treatment of constitutional rights, but it will go a long way toward allowing free exercise of religion to flourish as the Framers intended.â€?♌ TIM SACCOCCIA, past state deputy of the District of Columbia, is senior policy director for the Knights of Columbus.

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KNIGHTS IN ACTION

REPORTS FROM COUNCILS & ASSEMBLIES

FAITH REOPEN WIDE THE DOORS

Arden-Carmichael (Calif.)

Council 4970 donated a combined $4,500 to three local parishes — Our Lady of the Assumption and St. John the Evangelist in Carmichael and St. Ignatius Loyola in Sacramento — to purchase personal protective and sanitizing equipment before their reopenings.

ONLINE FOR OUR LADY

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FATHER’S GARDEN

Members of Father John Patrick Slowey Council 2963 in Phillips, Wis., prepared a garden at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church 28 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

so that their pastor, Father Madanu Lourdu Raju, could cultivate vegetables native to his home country of India.

NEW MONSTRANCE

San Juan de los Caballeros Council 13684 in Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, N.M., raised funds to purchase a new monstrance for San Juan Bautista Parish and presented the gift to the parish priests.

PRAYERS OFFERED ONLINE

After the annual Memorial Day Mass at a local cemetery had to be canceled, Msgr. James T. Weber Assembly 2152 and St. Pius X Council 10762 in Tucson,

SEPTEMBER 2020

Ariz., organized an online rosary to pray for deceased veterans. Knights throughout the state joined the videoconference, observing the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. and then praying the Glorious Mysteries together.

SECURING PRAYER AND PENANCE

Members of Father Michael J. McGivney Council 7025 in Glen Burnie, Md., served as ushers and supervised social distancing at Christ the King Church, which was open for personal prayer during the pandemic. Other Knights assisted with coordinating drive-thru confessions outside the church.

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A WIDOW’S GIFT

Bishop Quarter Assembly 197 in Waukegan, Ill., gave Bishop-elect Michael McGovern, chaplain of The Archangels Council 15422 in Old Mill Creek, a new chalice in honor of his appointment as bishop of Belleville and in memory of deceased member Ronald Kotal.

Ron’s widow, Mariana, presented the gift in anticipation of Bishop McGovern’s July 22 ordination.

In response to parish closures, members of St. Joseph Council 4810 in Greenlawn, N.Y., organized and led a weekly group rosary via videoconference for Knights and other parishioners of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church.

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K N I G H T S I N AC T I O N

FAMILY MAN’S DESTINY

St. Matthew Council 9534 in Surrey, British Columbia, sponsored its fourth annual| K of C “Man’s Destiny�

Men’s Conference, held online this year. Members, their sons, and other men from the Archdiocese of Vancouver tuned in for the free two-day conference on “becoming the man God created you to be.�

HOLY FAMILY, PRAY FOR US

Christ the King parishioners participated in a consecration to the Holy Family sponsored by Christ the King Council 12342 in San Pedro, Laguna, Luzon South.

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DRIVE-THRU FOR FAMILIES

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Msgr. Malcolm Rafferty Council 10731 in Prattville, Ala., sponsored a drive-thru food collection to benefit Autauga Interfaith Care Center, a nonprofit that provides resources to families experiencing poverty.

Knights and their wives collected 650 pounds of nonperishable food items and more than $400 for the center.

RESTOCKING IN SIMPSONVILLE

Rev. Paul Donald O’Toole Council 10819 in Simpsonville, S.C., partnered with a local Boy Scout troop to replenish the St. Vincent de Paul Society food pantry.

The Knights and Scouts sorted and shelved more

than 4,500 nonperishable food items collected from St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church parishioners.

DONATION STATION

St. Mark the Evangelist Council 15678 in Gatineau, QuĂŠbec, organized a drivethru food and donation collection at St. Mark the Evangelist Church. The Knights collected nearly CA$700 and more than 1,000 pounds of nonperishables for the Aylmer Food Centre, a nonprofit that provides families with food and social services.

DUAL POVERTY RELIEF

Bishop George Avis Fulcher Council 12387 in Carmel, Ind., donated nearly $2,500,

two freezers and a half ton of food and household items to two poverty relief nonprofits: the Merciful H.E.L.P. Center in Carmel and The Lord’s Pantry at Anna’s House in Indianapolis. The donations will assist families struggling due to the pandemic.

CARLOADS OF CHARITY

Mother of Perpetual Help Council 16546 in Garland, Texas, organized a food distribution event for families in need. The Knights purchased and packaged nonperishable food items and loaded them into families’ cars in the parking lot of Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. Members also delivered food to families who could not drive in.

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♌ C O L U M B I A ♌ 29

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K N I G H T S I N AC T I O N

COMMUNITY SISTERS GIVING COATS

Sacred Heart of Jesus Council 15922 in Hamilton, Ontario, delivered more than 20 coats to the Sisters Poor of Jesus Christ in Hamilton for distribution to local children in need.

CATHOLIC WORKERS

MIGRANT WORKER RELIEF

Rev. Michael C. Hogan Council 15917 in Fairport, N.Y., partnered with the Diocese of Rochester to organize a food and supply drive for migrant workers and their families affected by the pandemic. Volunteers collected more than 10,000 pounds of food and more than $8,000 in donations.

KITCHEN IN DISTRESS

Members of Prince of Peace Council 13457 in Flowery Branch, Ga., renovated the kitchen floor of a widowed parishioner with disabilities at the request of their chaplain and pastor, Father Eric Hill. With about $1,800 donated by council members 30 ♌ C O L U M B I A ♌

and other parishioners, a team of Knights also installed a new sink, cabinets and countertops.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND COLLECTION

St. Mary’s/Holy Family Council 12465 in Kensington, Prince Edward Island, sponsored a drive-thru collection at the Kensington Lions Club Food Bank.

Members of the Knights and the Lions collected approximately 600 pounds of food, as well as monetary donations.

SENIOR KNIGHT WISH DAY

Santa Cruz (Calif.) Council 971 sponsored a “Senior Knight Wish Day,� offering older members help with

SEPTEMBER 2020

home projects while observing social distancing guidelines. Council members cleared brush, put up a new fence and repaired roof gutters for Past Grand Knight Doug Gallagher and removed a deck at the home of Past Grand Knight Ken Lazier.

GRESHAM GROCERY GIVEAWAY

Members of East Multnomah Council 3179 and Msgr. Edward J. Flanagan Assembly 2481, both in Gresham, Ore., distributed boxes of food to people in need every Friday for six weeks at a drive-thru station outside St. Henry Catholic Church. The Knights handed out more than 2,000 boxes containing produce, dairy products and deli meat.

Volunteering with Mobile Meals, Mike Lukridge of Mary Queen of Peace Council 9575 in Spartanburg, S.C., loads food for delivery to people during the pandemic. The council donated $500 to the local nonprofit, which receives volunteer support from Knights several times a week.

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The Nevada State Council donated more than $900 to Las Vegas Catholic Worker to help fund the organization’s meals for the poor and homeless. Nevada Knights also volunteer at the Catholic Worker soup kitchen once every month.

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K N I G H T S I N AC T I O N

LIFE ULTRASOUND UPGRADE

Our Lady of the Snows Council 4859 in Anchorage, Alaska, purchased a new ultrasound machine for the Community Pregnancy Center, replacing a 10-year-old model. Council 4859 raised $15,000 for the machine through a parish breakfast at Holy Family Cathedral, second collections at Mass and other initiatives. The funds were matched by a grant from the Knights of Columbus Culture of Life Fund.

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LIVESTREAMED NOVENA

St. James Council 3509 in Molalla, Ore., invited parishioners to participate in a livestreamed Novena for Life, praying together for the protection of unborn children.

CHANGE ADDS UP

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Iberville Council 4415 in St. Malo, Manitoba, collected nearly $1,900 from parishioners of Paroisse SaintMalo during the council’s annual baby bottle drive for the Crisis Pregnancy Centre of Winnipeg.

MAKING ROOM FOR NEW LIFE

As part of their ongoing support of Hannah’s Home of South Florida in Tequesta, members of St. Peter Parish Council 13139 in Jupiter, Fla., spent two days clearing land for a construction project to expand the maternity home and resource center.

The building extension will include a chapel and accomodations for eight more women and their children.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church between March and June, collecting more than 200 units.

LUNCH RELIEF

AID FOR WOMEN AND BABIES

Members of Light of Christ Council 8726 in Sinking Spring, Pa., dropped off lunches for health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic at St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading.

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM RESPITE

Kalayaan Assembly 2749 in Muntinlupa, Luzon South, sponsored a free pneumonia and flu vaccine clinic for nearly 100 older adults in coordination with the Putatan Health Center.

HOSTING HOUSTON DONORS

Bishop John L. Morkovsky Council 10390 in Houston hosted four blood drives at

St. Francis of Assisi of Orland Park Council 16369 and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen Council 10858, both in Orland Park, Ill., conducted a raffle that raised $52,000 for Aid for Women in Flossmoor, a pregnancy resource center, and other pro-life groups.

See more “Knights in Action� reports and photos at

www.kofc.org/ knightsinaction Please submit your council activites to knightsinaction@kofc.org

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♌ COLUMBIA ♌ 31

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P RO M OT I O NA L & G I F T I T E M S

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Please enroll me in the Father McGivney Guild: NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE/PROVINCE ZIP/POSTAL CODE Complete this coupon and mail to: The Father McGivney Guild, 1 Columbus Plaza, New Haven, CT 06510-3326 or enroll online at: www.fathermcgivney.org

Knit Hat & Reversible Scarf Set Bundle up with this 60" knit scarf and matching knit cuff hat. Both are decorated with the emblem of the Order and “Knights of Columbus” in gold, red and white on a royal blue base. $27

OFFICIAL SEPTEMBER 1, 2020: To owners of Knights of Columbus insurance policies and persons responsible for payment of premiums on such policies: Notice is hereby given that in accordance with the provisions of Section 84 of the Laws of the Order, payment of insurance premiums due on a monthly basis to the Knights of Columbus by check made payable to Knights of Columbus and mailed to same at PO Box 1492, NEW HAVEN, CT 06506-1492, before the expiration of the grace period set forth in the policy. In Canada: Knights of Columbus, Place d’Armes Station, P.O. Box 220, Montreal, QC H2Y 3G7 ALL MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOS, ARTWORK, EDITORIAL MATTER, AND ADVERTISING INQUIRIES SHOULD BE MAILED TO: COLUMBIA, PO BOX 1670, NEW HAVEN, CT 06507-9982. REJECTED MATERIAL WILL BE RETURNED IF ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED ENVELOPE AND RETURN POSTAGE. PURCHASED MATERIAL WILL NOT BE RETURNED. OPINIONS BY WRITERS ARE THEIR OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. SUBSCRIPTION RATES — IN THE U.S.: 1 YEAR, $6; 2 YEARS, $11; 3 YEARS, $15. FOR OTHER COUNTRIES ADD $2 PER YEAR. EXCEPT FOR CANADIAN SUBSCRIPTIONS, PAYMENT IN U.S. CURRENCY ONLY. SEND ORDERS AND CHECKS TO: ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT, PO BOX 1670, NEW HAVEN, CT 06507-9982.

COLUMBIA (ISSN 0010-1869/USPS #123-740) IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, 1 COLUMBUS PLAZA, NEW HAVEN, CT 06510-3326. PHONE: 203-752-4000, www.kofc.org. PRODUCED IN USA. COPYRIGHT © 2020 BY KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT NEW HAVEN, CT AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO COLUMBIA, MEMBERSHIP DEPARTMENT, P.O. BOX 554, ELMSFORD, NY 10523.

CANADIAN POSTMASTER — PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 1473549. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, 50 MACINTOSH BOULEVARD, CONCORD, ONTARIO L4K 4P3.

PHILIPPINES — FOR PHILIPPINES SECOND-CLASS MAIL AT THE MANILA CENTRAL POST OFFICE. SEND RETURN COPIES TO KCFAPI, FRATERNAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT, PO BOX 1511, MANILA.

32 ♦ C O L U M B I A ♦

SEPTEMBER 2020

Three-Season Jacket With fleece lining and a water-resistant Taslan shell, this jacket will help keep you dry and warm. Available in regular or tall, in royal, battleship gray, black or navy, it is made of 100% polyester, with two zippered exterior pockets, an interior pocket, elastic cuffs and a rib-knit waistband. The left chest is embroidered with either the emblem of the Order or the Fourth Degree emblem and can be personalized with your council or assembly name and number.

S, M, L, XL: $63, 2XL: $65, 3XL: $66, 4XL: $67, 5XL: $68, 6XL: $69; LT, XLT: $65, 2XLT: $67, 3XLT: $68, 4XLT: $69.

Optional name personalization is available for an additional $6.

knightsgear.com Questions? Call: 1-855-GEAR-KOC (855-432-7562) Additional shipping costs apply to all orders. Please call before mailing in an order.

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K N I G H T S O F C O LU M BU S

Knights of Charity

Every day, Knights all over the world are given opportunities to make a difference — 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 better world.

TO

BE FEATURED HERE , SEND YOUR COUNCIL’ S

C OLUMBIA , 1 C OLUMBUS P LAZA , N EW

Members of Holy Ghost Council 4648 in Brookfield, Wis., including Father Aaron Laskiewicz, associate pastor of St. Dominic Catholic Church and council chaplain, gather before a food drive in the church parking lot.

The council displayed its replica of Christopher Columbus’ ship, the Santa Maria — built as a parade float — at several collections to boost visibility, interest and participation.

“K NIGHTS IN A CTION �

H AVEN , CT 06510-3326

PHOTO AS WELL AS ITS DESCRIPTION TO : OR E - MAIL : COLUMBIA @ KOFC . ORG .

SEPTEMBER 2020

♌ COLUMBIA ♌ 33

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PLEASE, DO ALL YOU CAN TO ENCOURAGE PRIESTLY AND RELIGIOUS VOCATIONS. YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

K E E P T H E FA I T H A L I V E

‘THE CALL OF JESUS IS A PROMISE OF LOVE.’

SISTER MARIA GONZALO, OCSO Our Lady of the Angels Monastery Crozet, Va.

The Rule of St. Benedict asks, “Is there anyone who yearns for life?” It was this desire for life that led me to truly encounter Christ as a teenager.

At first, I thought Jesus was calling me to be a missionary, and I followed that path while I finished studies in social work and theology in Madrid. Gradually, he helped me understand that he simply wanted me — more than anything I could do for him.

In discerning my vocation, I discovered my true self in Christ. He showed me that my greatest longing was to bring each person into the heart of God. By going deep into prayer, in union with my sisters, I would join Christ in his work of salvation!

The call of Jesus is a promise of love, but I needed our monastic tradition to learn what love means. For Trappist-Cistercians, the monastery is a school where we learn how love becomes concrete in joyful service. Preferring nothing to the love of Christ has become my straight path to life. I’m all his and he is all mine. What else could I want?