Columbia September 2021

Columbia KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

SEPTEMBER 2021

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CONTENTS

Columbia SEPTEMBER 2021

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VOLUME 101

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NUMBER 8

Departments 3 For the greater glory of God In the face of a culture of death, we are called to pray and speak out for the protection of the most vulnerable.

By Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly

4 Learning the faith,

living the faith Our time on earth is a gift of the Lord, and we should continually examine how well we are using it.

Nicholas Black Elk (left) stands together with Eagle Elk as he points to a statue of Mary and Jesus at Our Lady of the Sioux Church in Oglala, S.D., circa 1908.

A group of South Dakota Knights of Columbus recently organized a pilgrimage in honor of the Lakota catechist, whose cause for canonization opened in 2017.

TOP: Photo courtesy of Marquette University Archives, Michael F. Steltenkamp, S.J. Papers — ON THE COVER: k1n0be/iStock/Getty Images Plus

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Courage Under Fire

For Knight Ray Downey, a 9/11 hero, life was about faith, family and hard work in the service of others.

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

PLUS: Catholic Man of the Month

17 Fathers for Good

Fathers must safeguard their children from modern dangers with loving discipline and spiritual leadership.

By Gabriel Somarriba

24 Knights in Action

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

28 State Deputies 2021-2022 30 Scholarship Recipients

By Jorge I. Domínguez-López

PLUS: ‘A Little Bit of Light’ K of C insurance agents recall delivering

immediate aid to families of first responders after 9/11. By Cecilia Hadley

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Knights to the Heights

South Dakota Knights make a pilgrimage to pray for the canonization cause of Nicholas Black Elk.

By Peter Jesserer Smith

PLUS: Black Elk’s ‘Brothers’ The friendship between the Duhamel family and their Lakota neighbors is a model of fraternity.

ON THE COVER

The World Trade Center Cross, a section of beams discovered in the rubble after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, stands in New York City. The 17-foot cross, which became a site for prayer and the celebration of Mass during recovery efforts, is now located in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

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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‘An Amazing Gift of Love’

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Where are You Going?

kofc.org/join

By Anthony Esolen

Copyright © 2021 All rights reserved

An interview with Edward Sri about deepening our understanding of the Mass and devotion to the Eucharist.

Dante reminds us that our lives have a destination — and it is Love.

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EDITORIAL

Columbia

A Time for Love (302, cf. Rom 8:19-23). Moreover, the eternal, infinite God has himself entered into creation and time. St. John Paul II’s first encyclical begins, “The Redeemer of Man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and of history” (Redemptor Hominis, 1). Finally, we believe that Christ remains with us in the Blessed Sacrament, and his eternal sacrifice is made present at every Mass (see page 18).

In our fallen world, time is often experienced as a burden or as something empty, to be filled as we want. Nonetheless, time remains a gift from God (see page 4), providing us at every moment the opportunity to receive his mercy and participate in the redemption of the world. Cardinal Henry Edward Manning put it this way in The Eternal Priesthood, first published in 1883: “Time is full of eternity. As we use it so shall we be. Every day has its opportunities, every hour its offer of grace.” One year earlier, Blessed Michael McGivney had founded the Knights of Columbus, urging the men of his parish to practice charity above all and reminding them: Time flies, remember death.

Now, as we reflect on the “cloud of witnesses” who came before us — especially those who heroically sacrificed their lives for others — we pray that God will inflame our lukewarm hearts to greater charity, so that we might heed St. Paul’s words: “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Your every act should be done with love” (1 Cor 16:13-14). B Alton J. Pelowski, Editor

St. Joseph: Our Spiritual Father A new K of C-produced documentary explores the mission of St. Joseph as husband, father, protector of families and patron of the universal Church. Titled St. Joseph: Our Spiritual Father, this 1-hour film features interviews with Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, together with a wide array of theologians and experts, in addition to powerful first-person testimonials. For broadcast times, other Year of St. Joseph resources and more information, visit kofc.org/stjoseph.

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SUPREME OFFICERS Patrick E. Kelly Supreme Knight Most Rev. William E. Lori, S.T.D. Supreme Chaplain Paul G. O’Sullivan Deputy Supreme Knight Patrick T. Mason Supreme Secretary Ronald F. Schwarz Supreme Treasurer John A. Marrella Supreme Advocate EDITORIAL Alton J. Pelowski Editor Andrew J. Matt Managing Editor Cecilia Hadley Senior Editor Margaret B. Kelly Associate Editor

Blessed Michael McGivney (1852-90) – Apostle to the Young, Protector of Christian Family Life and Founder of the Knights of Columbus, Intercede for Us. HOW TO REACH US COLUMBIA 1 Columbus Plaza New Haven, CT 06510-3326 columbia@kofc.org kofc.org/columbia Address changes 203-752-4210, option #3 addresschange@kofc.org Columbia inquiries 203-752-4398 K of C Customer Service 1-800-380-9995

LOWER LEFT: Icon by the hand of Elizabeth Bergeron. Based on a drawing by Alexandre Sobolev. (Photograph by GrapheStudio)

“‘COME ON, come on, don’t let time slip away for lukewarm love!’ cried those who ran nearby. ‘Zeal in well-doing makes grace green again!’” (Purgatorio, Canto 18:103-105).

Thus, in Dante’s Divine Comedy, the souls of the slothful are urged to zealous love for God and neighbor, just as “Mary ran to the hill country in haste!” (100, cf. Lk 1:39).

This encounter takes place at the very center of the epic poem, soon after Dante’s guide, Virgil, explains that all sin is the result of imperfect love. But whereas some sins (pride, envy and anger) involve loving an evil object and others (avarice, gluttony and lust) involve loving a good object in an inordinate way, the sin of sloth, or acedia, is different. Acedia, which Dante sees as the “middle sin,” is characterized by insufficient and tepid love, a listlessness of spirit and heart, even a refusal of divine joy.

In other words, acedia is not mere laziness, to be countered by hard work or “business” and frenetic activity; the latter, in fact, is a symptom of the sin. “No, the contrary of acedia is not the spirit of work,” writes Josef Pieper in Leisure: The Basis of Culture. “It is man’s happy and cheerful affirmation of his own being, his acquiescence in the world and in God — which is to say love.”

We know by faith that at the heart of all being is divine love, which defines the very meaning of creation and of time — and our place in both. The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, “The universe was created ‘in a state of journeying’ (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it”

PUBLISHER Knights of Columbus

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F O R T H E G R E AT E R G LO R Y O F G O D

Stand With Courage In the face of a culture of death, we are called to pray and speak out for the protection of the most vulnerable

Photo by Laura Barisonzi

By Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly

“TAKE THE whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph 6:13).

With these words, St. Paul exhorts the Christians in Ephesus to stand firm in the faith, despite the opposition of the culture around them — a culture that was opposed to life at a fundamental level. For example, it was regular practice in the Roman Empire to expose unwanted or malformed babies and leave them to die. What to do in such a world?

Those early Christians had very limited tools for social change. So, St. Paul says “stand.”

What does “standing” look like? St. Paul elaborates: First, pray. Call out to God for his aid. And second, speak. St. Paul ends his letter asking the Ephesians to pray “that I may have the courage to speak as I must” (Eph 6:20).

This is good advice for us too, for we face increasing hostility to life in our own culture.

The urgency of the issue has been elevated of late, owing to the passage of legislation by the U.S. House of Representatives that wiped out the Hyde Amendment and other related protections to prevent taxpayer money from being used to fund abortion. I hope that the House-passed funding bill will be moot by the time you read this. But the fact that lawmakers took steps to force all American taxpayers to pay for abortion on demand — for the first time in 45 years — is a tragic shift and a startling break with bipartisan precedent.

The Hyde Amendment, sponsored in 1976

by U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (1924-2007), a brother Knight, was a bipartisan provision that had been adopted annually by Congress and signed into law by presidents of both parties. It prohibited the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in almost all programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.

While we ultimately desire prohibitions that go further to protect human life, the Hyde Amendment at least protected pro-life

Americans from funding an evil they opposed. It has been credited with saving an estimated 2.4 million children since it was enacted, and it has served as the foundation for a number of other similar federal and state provisions.

The actions of the House also fail to consider that a majority of Americans are against forcing taxpayers to pay for abortion.

Our annual Marist poll, released last January, confirmed that 58% of Americans oppose such funding. And yet our lawmakers have taken this step.

Brother Knights, it is time to stand. That is, it is time to pray and to speak. As Pope Francis told us in his message for our 139th Supreme Convention: “In an age of epochal change, our societies need the courageous witness of men of faith and integrity, who can serve as a leaven of Christ’s kingdom of justice and peace, holiness and truth.”

And so, let us pray and recommit ourselves to building a culture of life, to praying the rosary frequently, to fasting and doing penance. And let us speak: letting our members of Congress know — together with our family and neighbors — where we stand.

Standing comes with cost. And we can expect a fight as we work to defend innocent human life. This is why the Holy Father’s call to follow St. Joseph as a man of creative courage is so important. St. Paul had many enemies, and his life was constantly threatened. Yet he was fearless, stating: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).

Strong words, but also encouraging ones because they make our duty so clear.

So brother Knights, we too must have the courage to preach the Gospel. We too must stand, with St. Paul and all Christians throughout history, for the poor, the weak, the abandoned, the elderly, and the most vulnerable of all — the unborn.

Vivat Jesus!

‘Standing comes with cost. And we can expect a fight as we work to defend innocent human life. This is why the Holy Father’s call to follow St. Joseph as a man of creative courage is so important.’

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LEARNING THE FAITH, LIVING THE FAITH

The Sum of Our Years Our time on earth is a gift of the Lord, and we should continually examine how well we are using it

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

WHEN I REFLECT ON Blessed Michael

McGivney’s life, I am awestruck by what he accomplished in so short a time. Ordained in December 1877, he served but a dozen years as a priest before his death at age 38.

In that brief span, Father McGivney transformed St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven into a thriving community; founded the Knights of Columbus and set it on a firm foundation; and then served as the devoted pastor of St. Thomas Parish in Thomaston, Conn., and the mission church in nearby Terryville.

Father McGivney packed more than a lifetime of work into little more than a decade.

The lifespans of saints and blesseds vary greatly. St. Teresa of Calcutta lived to be 87, and her service to the poor and impact on the Church are incalculable. On the other hand, Blessed Carlo Acutis succumbed to leukemia at age 15, yet he possessed a holiness and wisdom beyond his years. “Our aim,” he wrote, “has to be the infinite and not the finite. The infinite is our homeland.

We have always been expected in heaven.”

Several months ago, I reached 70 years of age. As that significant birthday approached, the famous lines from Psalm 90 came to mind: “Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty if we are strong” (Ps 90:10).

I meditated on the brevity of life and on how holy men and women wisely use whatever time God gives them. That led to an examination of conscience as to how I have used the time that God has given me.

As we grow older, our perception of time changes. Our bodies slow down but time seems to speed up. We lose that sense of invincibility we had when we were young, and we face the sobering fact that time is passing by quickly. Tempus fugit. We tend to ask ourselves what we have accomplished in life, or how our family and friends will remember us, or what sort of divine judgment we will face. These are sobering questions. For

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some, they are cause for discouragement.

For others, they are like a shot of adrenaline, a boost of energy propelling them to the finish line.

Most of us would like to think that, when all is said and done, we have lived a productive, well-planned life. Even so, we should not avoid assessing our lives as we head into our golden years. For as we grow older, we can see more readily how our life forms a pattern, and we can discern in that pattern what is good, true and beautiful — and what is not. Moving forward, we should turn to the saints and blesseds to see how we might best use whatever time God plans to give us.

Whether they lived a long or a short life, I think God’s holy ones all had a keen sense of the preciousness of time, and thus they used the time they were given well and wisely. Father McGivney, whose health was not robust, probably did not expect to live the 70 years allotted by the psalmist. So he directed every moment of every day to his parishioners, to his beloved Knights and to the Church. His well-ordered days included time for personal prayer, for the celebration of Holy Mass and the sacraments, for interaction with his parishioners and his fledgling Order. His secret? In the grace of the Holy Spirit, he infused every moment, even the most ordinary moments, with the love and truth of Christ.

We can do the same — whether we are at prayer, at home with our families, at work or involved with the Knights of Columbus. We should avoid wasting time. More important, we should pray for the wisdom to sense the infinite and eternal kernel in every moment of time. When we live the principle of charity, our short lives take on eternal significance. While still on earth, we can start living — and sharing — the infinite joy of God’s kingdom. B

‘Whether they lived a long or a short life, I think God’s holy ones all had a keen sense of the preciousness of time, and thus they used the time they were given well and wisely.’

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Supreme Chaplain’s Challenge

Catholic Man of the Month

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

IN AUGUST 1792, militias worked their

BOTTOM LEFT: CNS photo courtesy Libreria Editrice Vaticana — BOTTOM RIGHT: CNS photo/Vatican Media — TOP RIGHT: Courtesy of Collège André-Grasset

They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” (Gospel for Sept. 19, Mk 9:34-35)

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Naturally, in every good undertaking — whether doing one’s job, helping another or playing a sport — we ought to strive for excellence, for greatness. But here, Jesus gives that thinking a twist: If we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, we must embrace humility and become servants. We must not seek headlines, but rather give of ourselves for the sake of others, for the common good.

My brothers, let us forgo seeking earthly glory in favor of being selfless “team players” in building the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed André Grasset (1758-1792)

way through Paris, arresting priests and bishops. The clergymen had one thing in common: They had refused to take an oath pledging loyalty to the revolutionary government over the pope. Among them was a young priest named Father André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur.

André Grasset had been born April 3, 1758, in Montreal, where his father served as secretary to two governorsgeneral. When he was six years old, his family moved to France, and he and his brother attended school in Paris. André continued on to seminary; he was ordained in 1783 and became a canon of the cathedral in Sens.

The French Revolution erupted a few years later, in 1789. The new government sought to assume authority over the Church with a law requiring clergy to be elected and to swear allegiance to the state. Roughly half of the priests in France, including Father Grasset, refused.

By the summer of 1792, he had joined a group of dissenting clergy in Paris. Living quietly in prayerful community, they hoped to escape the

Liturgical Calendar

Challenge: This month, I challenge you to watch the “Leadership” episode of the Into the Breach video series and use the study guide to reflect on what true humility and service look like. Second, I challenge you to participate in the Faith in Action Soccer Challenge or Free Throw Championship program.

Sept. 3 St. Gregory the Great Sept. 8 The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sept. 9 St. Peter Claver (USA) Sept. 13 St. John Chrysostom Sept. 14 The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Sept. 15 Our Lady of Sorrows Sept. 16 Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian Sept. 20 Sts. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Paul Chŏng Ha-sang and Companions Sept. 21 St. Matthew Sept. 23 St. Pius of Pietrelcina Sept. 27 St. Vincent de Paul Sept. 29 Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels Sept. 30 St. Jerome

increasing violence of the revolution.

However, tensions rose; the capture of King Louis XVI in June sparked other arrests. Father Grasset was one of several thousand priests imprisoned Aug. 11, ostensibly to be deported.

On Sept. 2, armed men entered Carmes Prison, where more than 100 clergymen were held. After killing several outright, the revolutionaries began a sham trial, asking each man, “Have you signed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy?” Father Grasset, like the others, answered, “My conscience forbids me,” and was immediately executed with pikes and bayonets.

Father André Grasset was declared “Blessed” Oct. 17, 1926, one of 191 martyrs of the September Massacres. He is the first Canadian to be beatified. B

Holy Father’s Monthly Prayer Intention

We pray that we all will make courageous choices for a simple and environmentally sustainable lifestyle, rejoicing in our young people who are resolutely committed to this.

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New York City firefighters make their way to the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Courage

UNDER FIRE For Knight Ray Downey, a 9/11 hero, life was about faith, family and hard work in the service of others

By Jorge I. Domínguez-López

LEFT: Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images — RIGHT: Photo courtesy of Downey family

“S

omeone called me and said, ‘The building collapsed,’” said Rosalie Downey, recalling the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. “And I said, ‘My husband must be there.’”

Her husband was Deputy Chief Ray Downey, head of the Special Operations Command of the Fire Department of the City of New York. He was one of the country’s leading experts on rescue operations at collapsed buildings.

Of course he was there. Not only because it was his job, but because Ray Downey seemed always to be “there” when somebody needed his help.

In 1993, Downey had led the rescue FDNY Deputy Chief Ray Downey, pictured efforts when terrorists detonated a truck here at the scene of an explosion in bomb below the North Tower of the Queens in 1996, died rescuing people World Trade Center. In 1995, he served from the World Trade Center on 9/11. as operations chief for the Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces after the Oklahoma City bombing. The following year, he traveled to Puerto Rico to coordinate rescue efforts in the aftermath of the Humberto Vidal explosion. And the list goes on.

Few people in the world were better prepared to respond to the 9/11 attacks than Ray Downey, a member of Our Lady of the Rosary Council 4428 in Deer Park, N.Y. But on that tragic day 20 years ago, the man known by the members of his elite unit as the “Master of Disaster” was not going to make it back home.

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DOWNEY FAMILY VALUES Ray and Rosalie Downey raised their five children — Joe, Marie, Chuck, Ray Jr. and Kathy — in Deer Park, 40 miles east of Manhattan on Long Island. At home, Ray didn’t talk much about his accomplishments or Hollywood-worthy missions and rescues.

Two of his sons, Joe and Chuck — both members of Our Lady of the Rosary Council 4428 — would become FDNY firefighters. Joe is now battalion chief of rescue operations, a unit of Special Operations Command, which his father led at the time of his death. Chuck was recently promoted to deputy chief. But as kids, they didn’t really understand their father’s legendary stature in the fire department.

“As we grew up, and especially as my brother Chuck and I got into the FD, we realized that he was a very well-respected hero in the FD,” Joe said about his father. “But he was very humble, so we didn’t know that. We had to hear it from others.”

What Ray Downey did talk about at home was faith, hard work and responsibility. He had been a Marine for four years before joining the FDNY — and he never stopped being one.

“He was a strong man. He tried to give us good values: going to church and working hard,” Joe remembered. “He

was not an easy guy; he was pretty strict. He had high values and we all respected him for that.”

While Downey was working at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, he met Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating. “Ray, are you Catholic?” Keating asked. Downey replied, “Is the pope Catholic?” The governor gave Downey a rosary that he carried with him continually.

Being a Knight of Columbus was the focal point where Ray Downey’s Catholic faith, his love for his family, and his dedication to his community came together.

“He always wanted to be [a Knight],” Rosalie Downey said.

His father had been a grand knight of his council in Queens in the early 1940s; Ray followed in his steps and joined the Order in 1965, a few years after joining the fire department.

The Knights of Columbus soon became a family affair.

“I joined the Columbiettes,” said Mrs. Downey. “And the kids were involved because they started a football league. It was like family.”

The council hall in Deer Park became a second home for the Downeys. The property included several fields, and Our Lady of the Rosary Council 4428 organized numerous sports teams.

Joe, left, and Chuck Downey stand outside FDNY Special Operations Command in New York City, which Ray Downey led at the time of his death. Like their father, the brothers are members of Our Lady of the Rosary Council 4428 and firefighters: Joe is battalion chief of rescue operations at Special Operations Command and Chuck is deputy chief of Division 15 in Brooklyn.

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Above: Rosalie Downey looks through photos of her husband, Ray, in her home in Deer Park, N.Y. • Right: A photo in the Downey home shows Ray Downey responding to a fire in 1994.

Photos by Jeffrey Bruno

“[My father] coached the football program and hockey.

My mother coached cheerleading down there. So, basically, our weekends were spent at the Knights of Columbus,” Joe explained.

“We grew up on that field,” added Chuck.

Vinnie DiPasquale, past grand knight of the council, recalls meeting Downey for the first time at a football game.

As he approached the field, he saw a man hobbling to the huddle, dragging a leg that was in a cast up to the knee. It was Ray Downey.

“No broken leg was going to prevent him from coaching those kids,” said DiPasquale, who became one of Downey’s closest friends.

The kids were having fun, of course, but they were also getting to know the mission of the Knights.

“There was sports and all that stuff, but at the end of the day it was about charity and all the things they did for our community,” said Kathy Ugalde, Downey’s youngest child.

Following their father’s example, all three Downey boys became Knights in their 20s. Marie and Kathy, like their mother, joined the council’s women’s auxiliary, the Columbiettes.

A LEGACY OF SELFLESS SERVICE In 2002, when Father’s Day was approaching, the Downey family came together to discuss how they might honor their father, some nine months after his death. That was how they started the Raymond M. Downey “Forever Running” Memorial 5K Run. The annual event draws hundreds of runners and raises funds for numerous scholarships and charitable organizations, including the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation.

From the very beginning, Ray’s brother Knights have helped with the event, registering runners, handing out water

and grilling food for the crowd. The 5K ends at the council sports fields, now the Raymond Downey Sports Complex.

The race is a fitting tribute to Ray Downey. He ran every other day, and he lived his life like a race. On Sept. 11, his finish line was the World Trade Center.

The South Tower had already collapsed, leaving the adjacent Marriott hotel in ruins. Ray Downey was there along with FDNY Capt. Al Fuentes, acting battalion chief in the department’s Marine Division.

Fuentes, a member of George H. Hudson Council 3701 in Woodside, Queens, had worked with Ray Downey for six years. He was the last person to see him alive.

Downey and Fuentes spotted people trapped among the debris of the hotel.

“Ray said to me, ‘Stay here and let me know when we can come out. So he proceeded even further into what was left of the Marriott,” Fuentes said, his voice cracking as he recalled those final moments.

“I gave them the signal to get out and they were hesitating,” Fuentes continued. “I’m screaming at them, ‘Get out.

Get out.’ There was some open area with debris coming down and jumpers and everything, so they weren’t coming out. I started taking a couple of steps toward them to give them a hand. And then, suddenly, I heard that noise. I turned SEPTEMBER 2021 B C O L U M B I A

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up to my left, and the North Tower was coming down. It was that raging noise again. I remember looking and that was my last view at Ray. And his hand, his hand was up, assisting somebody to get down.”

‘Suddenly, I heard that noise … the North Tower was coming down. I remember looking and that was my last view at Ray. And his hand, his hand was up, assisting somebody to get down.’

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Minutes before, Ray Downey had ordered two young firefighters — in language that was clear and emphatic — to get out of there. He knew perfectly well what his options were: get out and save his life or try to save as many lives as possible until the second tower fell and buried him. He knew this, and he walked toward the ruins of the Marriott, with the rosary from Gov. Keating in his pocket.

Downey was one of 403 firefighters and law enforcement personnel killed that day in New York City, including at least 18 Knights. A total of 46 Knights died in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Our Lady of the Rosary Council lost three members: Ray Downey, his fellow firefighter Donald J. Burns and New York police detective Joseph Vigiano.

Vinnie DiPasquale, then grand knight of Council 4428, delivered one of the eulogies at Downey’s funeral.

“Once in a lifetime, someone comes along who affects everyone he comes into contact with in a positive way,” he said. “Ray was that person in our lifetime.” B JORGE I. DOMÍNGUEZ-LÓPEZ is a freelance editor and writer based on Long Island, N.Y.

Photo by John Roca/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

Firefighters salute as Deputy Chief Ray Downey’s fire helmet is carried in procession during a memorial service at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church in Deer Park, N.Y., Dec. 15, 2001.

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‘A Little Bit of Light’ K of C insurance agents recall delivering immediate aid to families of first responders after 9/11

Photo by Susan Watts/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

By Cecilia Hadley

SHOCK. ANGER. DISBELIEF. Twenty years later, New York and New Jersey Knights of Columbus can vividly recall their emotions as they watched the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Tom Connolly, the general agent for western Nassau County at the time, also remembers a sense of helplessness and frustration.

“I think a part of all of us was like, ‘We’ve got to do something, but we don’t know what to do,’” he said.

It didn’t take long, however, for local Knights to spring into action. Councils began making meals for emergency personnel. Members who had retired from the police or fire department donned uniforms again to volunteer. Chaplains celebrated Mass and offered counsel for the workers at ground zero.

Meanwhile, on the day after the attacks, then-Supreme Knight Carl Anderson and the K of C Board of Directors established the $1 million Knights of Columbus Heroes Fund to provide emergency assistance to the families of fallen first responders. It was the agents’ job to identify those families and bring them a check for $3,000 to help with immediate needs — the first financial help that many of the families received.

“The supreme knight realized that the widows and family members wouldn’t be receiving money right away,” explained Phil Fredericks, then general agent for Bergen and Hudson counties and now a past grand knight of Our Lady Queen of Peace Council 3426 in Maywood, N.J. Paperwork and red tape would delay insurance funds and other compensation from the city, and in the meantime, families would have bills to pay and groceries to buy.

“That money was very important, whatever they decided to do with it,” recalled John Scherer, the general agent for Brooklyn in 2001 and a member of Christ the King-Father Anthony J. Foley Council 11163 in Commack, N.Y. “City workers, they live check to check. You miss a check, you don’t pay your mortgage.”

Recipients of the Heroes Fund aid did not have to be families of Knights, or even Catholic. Agents visited and called fire houses and police stations throughout the area to track down the names and badge numbers of first responders who had died. Supreme Council employees worked into the night, cutting checks and overnighting them to agents to deliver.

“It was imperative to get them out as soon as possible,” noted Scherer. “Not a week from now, not five days from now, not three days from now.”

The visits to the families’ homes were not easy. Families were grateful for the help, but raw and reeling from grief.

Connolly remembers one visit he made to a young widow in Valley Stream on Long Island in which he noticed a coat hanging from a dining chair.

Recovery workers at ground zero kneel before the World Trade Center Cross during a prayer service March 29, 2002.

“She looked at me and said, ‘That’s where he put his coat the morning he walked out, and I can’t move it,’” Connolly recalled. “Needless to say, my heart was breaking for her. I can still see her face.”

Richard Malek, a general agent who delivered more than a dozen checks, particularly remembers the children.

“To be a fireman or a policeman in New York City, that’s a young man’s job — so they all had young families,” said Malek, a member of Monroe (N.Y.) Council 2079. “I cried in my car a couple of times coming home after seeing some of these families, and seeing the little kids running around.”

Scherer’s first delivery was to a widow, home alone with a baby. “She had a lot of questions that I couldn’t answer, questions about what happens now financially,” he said. “That check made a big difference; she got a lot of relief from it. She said, ‘This is just what we need right now.’”

Between September 2001 and July 2002, the Order’s field force delivered 419 checks to the families of firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel.

As wrenching as the work was, Tom Connolly is grateful for the experience, which prepared him in some ways for his ministry as a permanent deacon. Deacon Connolly is now a member and associate chaplain of Msgr. Walsh-St. Raymond’s Council 7220 in East Rockaway, N.Y. “We had the opportunity, in the midst of all this horror, to bring a little bit of light, a little bit of help to other people,” he said. “The Knights gave us that opportunity during this horrible time in our history to be present for those in need.” B CECILIA HADLEY is senior editor of Columbia.

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TO THE HEIGHTS

South Dakota Knights make a pilgrimage to pray for the canonization cause of Nicholas Black Elk

By Peter Jesserer Smith

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Knights G

od’s presence is written in the land and sky of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where the vast prairie and ancient hills testify to why the Lakota Sioux people called God the Creator Wakan Tanka — the “Great Spirit.”

This is where Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk served for decades as a catechist, witnessing to the harmony between Lakota belief in the Creator and the Creator’s own revelation about himself in the Catholic faith. And it is where nearly two dozen Knights of Columbus from across the state traveled July 23 to visit Black Elk’s grave and pray for his canonization and intercession. The following day, the pilgrims hiked to the highest point in the Black Hills — Black Elk Peak — named for the Lakota holy man in 2016. ˘ Sápa, died in 1950 and his Black Elk, in Lakota Heháka cause for sainthood opened in 2017. The pilgrimage was the first organized by Knights of Columbus to honor him, but the Order’s connection to the Lakota catechist is not new.

“Nicholas Black Elk and the Knights of Columbus go back

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Nicholas Black Elk teaches children with a pictorial catechism at the Pine Ridge Reservation circa 1928. • Left: Lyman Mahaffy, a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Council 1489 in Rapid City, takes a turn carrying a wooden cross as he leads fellow Knights and other pilgrims, including his wife and daughter (at right), up the trail to Black Elk Peak.

Photo courtesy of St. Francis Mission (www.sfmission.org ), Collection at Marquette University Archives

Knights want to bring light to that and do whatever we can to help expand the understanding of the whole Church. So we’re really excited about Black Elk’s cause for sainthood moving forward.”

almost 100 years,” said Supreme Director Paul Lambert, who helped to plan the trip and was among the pilgrims. Alex Duhamel, a Knight from Rapid City, S.D., was Black Elk’s friend and collaborator in efforts to preserve the Lakota way of life and affirm its goodness at a time when the U.S. government was intent on wiping out Native American culture and language (see sidebar). The current efforts to build on this legacy of solidarity and to promote Black Elk’s cause coincide with the Knights’ major initiative, launched in 2019, to support Catholic Native American and First Nation communities.

“Native Americans have a very strong Catholic faith and have endured a lot of hardships,” Lambert said. “And the

A HOLY RESTING PLACE On July 23, a caravan of vehicles followed a silver pickup with a large wooden cross strapped to the back into the Pine Ridge Reservation, a 3,500-square-mile area that is home to some 20,000 Native Americans. The K of C pilgrims first stopped at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Manderson, one of the churches where Nicholas Black Elk ministered for 40 years as a catechist.

After meeting with Lakota Catholics, the Knights took the well-worn road up to St. Agnes’ cemetery and Black Elk’s gravesite, located just 10 miles from the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. Jesuit Father Joseph Daoust, who ministers to parishes on the reservation, led the pilgrims in prayer by the black stone that reads “Chief Black Elk 1858-1950.”

“We ask Holy Mother Church to recognize his sanctity by acknowledging his presence among the company of saints, and as one to imitate in his zeal for the Gospel,” the pilgrims prayed, reading from prayer cards printed with support from the Supreme Council.

“Open our hearts to also recognize the Risen Christ in other cultures and peoples, to your glory and honor, through Christ our Lord.”

Afterward, the group listened to stories about Black Elk’s life recounted

by Lakota Catholics. Among them was Black Elk’s grandson George Looks Twice, 86, who initiated the cause for his grandfather’s canonization after attending the canonization of St. Kateri Tekakwitha in 2012.

Black Elk was renowned as a holy man, and people would “come after him [to pray] when somebody was sick, or was sick for a long time,” Looks Twice said.

“He’d work for the Church everywhere,” he added, speaking of his grandfather’s ministry as a catechist. “He was always filling in [for priests].”

Black Elk’s granddaughter, Penny Wolters, cited one occasion when he led a eucharistic procession of 1,000 Lakota Catholics at St. Agnes Church.

The K of C pilgrims followed Lakota tradition and left the ground at the gravesite undisturbed rather than taking some earth as a relic. South Dakota State Chaplain Father DeWayne Kayser noted that the “stories are the relic,” for by telling the stories, a person brings the spirit of that person with them.

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pilgrimage to the catechist’s grave and to Black Elk Peak for years, noted Deacon Bill White, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and the diocesan postulator of his cause. But the K of C pilgrimage was a strong affirmation of the reach of Black Elk’s holy witness.

“A person with faith like Nicholas is a magnet, even in his death,” White said.

Deacon White said that the Vatican has deemed the positio, the documented case for Nicholas Black Elk’s holiness, complete. If the historical and theological commis14

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sions affirm Black Elk’s heroic virtues, Pope Francis could declare him “Venerable.”

ASCENT TO BLACK ELK PEAK Knights and their families left Rapid City early the next morning to enter the Black Hills — a name translated from the Lakota Pahá Sápa, and a sacred region to the Lakota people. Traveling past the giant granite “Needles” or “Cathedral Spires” of the ancient mountain range, the group gathered near the glass-like Sylvan Lake before hiking to

LOWER LEFT: Photo courtesy of Marquette University Archives, Michael F. Steltenkamp, S. J. Papers — OTHER: Photos by Brad Burckel

Top: George Looks Twice (left), grandson of Nicholas Black Elk, prays with Knights and other pilgrims at Black Elk’s gravesite. • Left: Nicholas Black Elk stands with young George Looks Twice in traditional Lakota regalia during a Duhamel Sioux Indian Pageant in the late 1930s. • Above: K of C pilgrims stand with the cross they carried to the summit of Black Elk Peak to honor the Lakota holy man and pray for his canonization and intercession.

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Photo courtesy of Peter Heffron

the peak that bears Black Elk’s name. It was there, the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains, that Nicholas Black Elk is said to have received visions from the Creator, and where he would return throughout his life to pray.

The Knights began the 7.5-mile trail loop for Black Elk Peak carrying the 12-foot cross fashioned by Phil Carlson, a K of C field agent and member of St. Joseph Council 17728 in Rosholt, S.D. Inspired by the documentary Walking the Good Red Road: Nicholas Black Elk’s Journey to Sainthood, produced in 2020 by the Diocese of Rapid City, it was Carlson who initially proposed the pilgrimage to his fellow Knights.

“I want to help people understand that he’s up for sainthood,” Carlson said. “He really is a saint for our time.”

During the pilgrimage, the Knights ascended the woodland trail with its breathtaking vistas, each taking a turn with the cross. They made 14 stops — seven up to the peak and seven back to the base — to pray the Stations of the Cross.

The quartz and granite trail sparkled in the sun as the Knights reached the summit, greeted by the sight of colorful Lakota prayer flags. After prayer and a short respite, the Knights picked up the cross once again for the trip down the mountain.

Along the way, they shared the story of Black Elk with other hikers, handing out prayer cards and inviting them to pray for his canonization. Through prayer cards and resources that are now used all over the United States and Canada, the Order’s support has been key to helping the Diocese of Rapid City promote Black Elk’s cause.

“There’s a growing devotion for Black Elk, and I think the Knights can be very helpful in spreading it,” Father Daoust said. “The more the devotion spreads, the more people might pray for Black Elk’s intercession in their need.”

Lyman Mahaffy, a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Council 1489 in Rapid City, brought his wife, Amber, and their young daughter on the pilgrimage. They were one of several young families who participated.

“This was extremely fulfilling, physically and spiritually,” said Lyman, who alternately carried the cross and his daughter up and down the peak. “It takes a toll. But think about it: Jesus had to walk a harder road than we did.”

During the trek, Lyman prayed for the relationship between the Church and Native American peoples.

“What Black Elk did for his people and the Church is just phenomenal,” he said. “To walk in honor of that relationship and for his canonization is why I’m here.”

For more information, visit blackelkcanonization.com. B PETER JESSERER SMITH writes for EWTN’s National Catholic Register.

Black Elk’s ‘Brothers’

The friendship between the Duhamel family and their Lakota neighbors is a model of fraternity ON THEIR RECENT pilgrimage to Nicholas Black Elk’s gravesite and Black Elk Peak, South Dakota Knights were walking in the footsteps of Catholic pioneers — fellow Knights who stood with Black Elk and the Lakota people.

Alex Duhamel and his son Francis “Bud” Duhamel were both members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Council 1489 in Rapid City. Alex joined the council shortly after it was chartered in 1910, and Bud later served as grand knight, as well as a district deputy. The Duhamels were close friends with Nicholas Black Elk and his family; in addition to sharing his Catholic faith, they spoke the Lakota language, and they worked with him for many years to support Lakota culture and identity against policies of assimilation aimed at diminishing Native American life.

“My dad, speaking of Nicholas Black Elk, said he was a great man,” recalled Bud’s son, Bill, who is also a member of Council 1489. “I never heard my dad say that about anybody else.”

Beginning in 1927, Alex Duhamel and Black Elk together developed the Duhamel Sioux Indian Pageant, which took advantage of the surge of tourists drawn to the sculpting of

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Mount Rushmore and also created a way for Lakota to share their culture in the sacred Black Hills. The pageant had 12 parts, showcasing traditional dances, songs and prayer ceremonies of the Lakota. The Duhamels, who ran Rapid City’s largest department store, served as producers and emcees; Black Elk, who knew all the traditional ways and had prior experience from his days in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, acted as a creative consultant. He also demonstrated Lakota rituals in the pageants.

“They were just trying to preserve

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their stories and culture, because they didn’t write a lot down, other than the winter count on the buffalo hides,” Bill Duhamel said.

The pageants gave Lakota a legal outlet to exercise their language, customs and culture, which would otherwise have been illegal. At the same time, they provided many of Black Elk’s Oglala friends with gainful employment during the Great Depression.

This was also the time when many Church leaders had compromised their longstanding solidarity with Indigenous peoples, and were actively cooperating with the government’s policy of eradicating Native American and First Nation language, culture and identity through residential schools.

According to Damian Costello, an expert on the life and legacy of Nicholas Black Elk and the author of Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism, Alex and Bud Duhamel were part of a sizeable minority of Catholics who knew deep down this was something the Church could not be part of. They did their best to support the culture of their Native American neighbors, and they did it as “Knights, prominent members in the Church who were publicly going against the grain,” Costello said.

The Duhamels, Costello explained, had a deeply imbued Catholic vision

— Reported by Peter Jesserer Smith

ABOVE: Photo courtesy of Peter Heffron — BELOW: Photo by Norm Heffron courtesy of Cynthia-Lipe Heffron

Above: Nicholas Black Elk, kneeling in the foreground and wearing his buffalo horn headdress, reenacts a Lakota healing ceremony as part of the Duhamel Sioux Indian Pageant. • Below: Francis “Bud” Duhamel is pictured in Fourth Degree attire with this grandson, John Heffron, on Easter Sunday 1956 in Rapid City.

from their French Canadian heritage that saw Native and European peoples as equals, able to live in communion with each other and to form new families together. In many ways, they bore witness to the words St. John Paul II addressed to the First Nation peoples during his visit to Ontario in 1984: “Not only is Christianity relevant to the Indian people, but Christ, in the members of his Body, is himself Indian.

And the revival of Indian culture will be a revival of those true values which they have inherited and which are purified and ennobled by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

When Alex Duhamel died in 1941 and Bud began running the pageant, Nicholas Black Elk gave an important affirmation of their families’ relationship.

In a private Lakota ceremony, Black Elk inducted Bud Duhamel into the tribe and gave him the name “High Hawk.” Jesuit Father Michael Steltenkamp notes in the biography Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic: “Bud recalled Black Elk saying that as their wrists bled and the blood joined together, they became ‘blood brothers.’” Black Elk also bestowed Bud with an eagle feather, symbolizing his pattern of humility and obedience to the Creator.

Supreme Director Paul Lambert explained that South Dakota Knights are taking up the Duhamel legacy of Catholic witness and solidarity through the Order’s Native American Initiative.

For example, they have worked with the Lakota community at the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations to distribute wheelchairs and provide children with winter coats. The Order has also given support to a Native American school exchange program, so Native and non-Native children can come to know each other better, and to the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which offers the Church a model for re-immersing Native American youth in their language and culture.

Lambert hopes that a Lakota-speaking council will one day be established.

“We’re just going to continue to build with those relationships that we started,” he said. “With patience and the grace of God, amazing things happen.” B

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F AT H E R S F O R G O O D

Guide and Protect Fathers must safeguard their children from modern dangers with loving discipline and spiritual leadership

ljubaphoto/E+/Getty Images

By Gabriel Somarriba YEARS AGO, I saw a U.S. Marine Corps poster that showed a drill instructor glaring at a recruit under the words: “We don’t promise you a rose garden.” That poster could apply to fatherhood in the 21st century. As a clinical psychologist, I see many fathers struggling to balance marriage, children and a career. They are stretched thin and worn out, dazed and confused. Is there anyone out there who can serve as a guide?

Fortunately, Catholic dads have a model more effective than any drill instructor; we have St. Joseph, the prayerful warrior. The Litany of St. Joseph acclaims him as “Joseph most prudent,” “Zealous defender of Christ” and “Terror of demons” — titles that remind us, as modern fathers, of the need to lead wisely and protect our children.

It is easy to misunderstand the Old Testament admonition, “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent and disciplines him” (Prv 13:24). This is not an endorsement of corporal punishment. A good shepherd uses his rod not to punish his sheep but to protect them from wolves, and he uses the crook of his staff to retrieve them when they wander.

Today’s predators are even more dangerous than actual beasts. For example, harmful social media apps, pornography, excessive time spent on video games and dubious companions all can corrupt the soul. Yet some fathers today throw their kids to the wolves by not paying attention to what they are doing online or with their friends.

Children and teens are not prepared to handle the toxic aspects and constant peer-to-peer interaction of social media. They need parents to set limits like “no calling or texting after 8 p.m.” No one should have access to your children late at night. This is when the “I hate you” texts are often sent — stinging barbs that wound vulnerable psyches while parents sleep.

Video game marathons bring their own problems. I frequently hear from parents that online gaming is the only way

their sons “see” their friends — a common excuse before the pandemic that’s even more prevalent now. But online gaming is different from playing in person. Profanity-laced communication is the norm, and the virtual environment encourages binging, disrupting schoolwork and sleep.

Perhaps fathers themselves play too many video games or spend too much time on their smartphones. Or maybe they spend too much time at work: A 2013 study found a correlation between men working more than 55 hours a week and sons being more prone to disobedience, aggression and poor emotional regulation. Here, too, St. Joseph gives us an example — not only of the dignity of work, but also its proper role in our lives. Work hard, yes, but don’t neglect your family.

Dads cannot expect their teens to mature without spiritual guidance and loving discipline. While drawing boundaries and enforcing rules will draw immediate backlash, young people benefit when such guidelines are applied with consistency. The child will pass through a withdrawal phase toward better behavior and a healthier emotional state.

Leaving your kids’ spiritual formation to your wife, the Catholic school or the parish is to pretend you can outsource a father’s most pivotal role. Children need to see their dad actively involved in their lives and praying regularly with his family.

Ultimately, a strong relationship with God will help us build strong relationships with our children. Developing this close relationship takes consistent time and effort, and there are many obstacles. We can begin by curbing heavy exposure to media and negative peer interactions. Guiding our children through such cultural and social minefields is a crucial step in fulfilling our ultimate mission as fathers: guiding them to heaven. B GABRIEL SOMARRIBA, PSY.D., is a clinical psychologist and a member of Potomac Council 433 in Washington, D.C. He lives in Cleveland with his wife, Mary Rose, and their four children.

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Father Fernando Zapata, the great grandnephew of St. Pedro Maldonado and a member of St. Patrick Cathedral Council 16778 in El Paso, Texas, leads a eucharistic procession at the cathedral in 2018. St. Pedro Maldonado is one of six K of C Mexican Martyrs who was canonized in 2000.

‘A N A M A Z I N G

Gift of Love’ An interview with Edward Sri about deepening our understanding of the Mass and devotion to the Eucharist

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he more we devote ourselves to the Eucharist, the more we will understand what it means to be a Knight,” Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly affirmed in his first annual report, Aug. 3, at the 139th Supreme Convention. “Christ in the Eucharist is the source of true charity, the author of true unity, the builder of perfect fraternity.”

The supreme knight called on members to become “Knights of the Eucharist” by deepening their devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and helping to restore an understanding of the Real Presence. (Editor’s Note: The complete text of the Annual Report of the Supreme Knight will be printed in the October issue of Columbia.)

Columbia staff recently spoke with Dr. Edward Sri, senior vice president of apostolic outreach for FOCUS and a theology professor at the Augustine Institute in Denver, about how Scripture can help us better understand the Mass and the gift of the Eucharist. A member of St. Thomas More Council 10205 in Centennial, Colo., Sri is the author of many popular books helping Catholics to grow in their faith, including the 10th anniversary edition of A Biblical Walk Through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy (Ascension, 2021).

COLUMBIA: It can be easy to fall into a mindset in which

Photo by Joe Najera

Mass is an obligation. If we could see “with the eyes of the angels,” as you put it in your book, how would we approach Mass?

EDWARD SRI: We would not be approaching Mass as something that we merely have to do: “Oh, it’s a holy day of obligation so I have to show up.” If we understood what is happening in the liturgy, our hearts would be longing to go to the most amazing event in the universe taking place right there my little parish church. We would realize this is where Jesus’ loving sacrifice on Calvary is made mystically present. It is the number one place of encounter with our God, where we receive the very body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus.

The God of the universe wants to dwell inside of us — what an amazing gift of love. As we say in response to the invitation to holy Communion: “Lord, I am not worthy.”

COLUMBIA: How can Scripture and an understanding of the biblical context of Mass help us to appreciate the liturgy?

EDWARD SRI: Some people see the Mass as a bunch of rituals and feel like they’re just going through the motions — making the sign of the cross, standing up, sitting down, saying “Thanks be to God.” Yet all of these words and rituals are rooted in Scripture. The more we understand the biblical background of the liturgy, the more we understand what God is saying to us and, in turn, how we’re responding to his love through these words and actions.

When my Italian cousin, Stefano, came to visit the United States for the first time, we wanted to give him a great American experience, so we took him to watch the Chicago Bears.

Stefano loves football, but his football is what we call soccer.

When we were all standing up and cheering at certain moments, he’d stand up and cheer and ask, “Did we score?” “No, it was just a good play.” We’d boo, and so would he. “Did we

‘The same Jesus who walked the streets of Galilee — giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, healing those that were paralyzed — that same Jesus is truly and uniquely present in the Eucharist.’ lose?” “No, the ref just made a bad call.” So, he went through the motions with everyone else, but he didn’t understand what’s going on.

I think that’s how some Catholics experience going to Mass. If we understood the beauty of the prayers and the rituals, we would get more out of Mass. And we’d also be able to give more to Jesus in the prayers and the rituals in the liturgy.

COLUMBIA: Can you give examples of moments or prayers in the Mass that are illuminated by this biblical perspective?

EDWARD SRI: Take the simple line at the beginning of Mass when the priest says, “The Lord be with you.” I think many Catholics think of that as a throwaway line, like, “Oh, good morning, congregation.” But those words are used over and over again in Scripture to address people whom God was calling on an important mission.

What does God say to Moses at the burning bush? “I will be with you” — to help you do what you can’t do on your own.

David heard those words at the beginning of his kingship. And of course, Mary heard those words at the Annunciation.

So, when the priest says to us, “The Lord be with you,” we should realize we are being sent on an important mission in the context of the liturgy. It’s as if the priest is announcing to us, “Get ready. Prepare your soul for this most holy encounter with Jesus in his Word and in the Eucharist.”

Another example: When we look at the Eucharist itself in light of Old Testament practices, it’s clear why the early Christians believed in the Real Presence. The sacrifices of old, like Passover, culminated in a communion meal, in which the people ate the animal being sacrificed. It wasn’t enough to sacrifice the Passover lamb. You had to eat the lamb. That’s what sealed the covenant. If Jesus is the true Lamb of God, who was sacrificed for our sins, then it makes sense there would be a communion meal in which we partake of the Lamb — not a symbol of the Lamb, but Jesus’ body — so that our covenant union with God is deepened.

COLUMBIA: A 2019 Pew Research study that found 69% of self-identified Catholics said they believed the consecrated bread and wine at Mass are “symbols of the body and blood” of Christ. To what do you attribute this lack of faith in the Real Presence?

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A young mother with her children receives holy Communion at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in New York City.

COLUMBIA: How can Knights foster a better understanding of, and reverence for, the Blessed Sacrament in their families and parishes?

EDWARD SRI: The same Jesus who walked the streets of Galilee — giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, healing those that were paralyzed — that same Jesus is truly and uniquely present in the Eucharist. And he wants to work miracles in our lives today. If I am really convinced of that truth, the way I live my life is going to be centered on the Eucharist.

So, I ask Catholic men: Do you make it a priority to visit Jesus? Not just on Sunday. Can you stop by your church on the way home? Or get up 10 minutes earlier and make a quick visit before the Blessed Sacrament? Can you go to Mass a couple times during the week even? Fathers, do you talk to your children about how much the Eucharist makes a difference for your life? Do you take them with you to the chapel, show them how to genuflect, pray with them? Do you watch the kids so your wife can go visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?

If we’re really convinced that the God of the universe is right there, these are the kind of things we would do.

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to build a vibrant community around the Eucharist. Since restrictions were lifted in May, there’s a parish near my home that has come out of the gates firing. Every Sunday they have something fun and social after Mass, trying to create an environment for people to want to come back.

COLUMBIA: Supreme Knight Kelly has pledged the Order’s support of the U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival, set to launch next year. What are your hopes for such an initiative, and how do you recommend the Church prepare for it?

EDWARD SRI: I’m thrilled that the U.S. bishops identified this as a top priority. We need a revival.

I’m going to address the priests and deacons out there: Preach passionately on the Eucharist. Share from your experience how much the Eucharist makes a difference in your life. Teach clearly the truth of Jesus’ real presence. Cultivate in people a eucharistic spirituality, giving them concrete examples about how to make a thanksgiving after receiving holy Communion or making a visit to the Blessed Sacrament during the week.

Most of all, people also need to have personal encounters with the Blessed Sacrament, whether it’s a eucharistic procession or time in adoration.

When I went to Catholic grade school, adoration left a deep impression on me. Many times, the pastor would say, “OK, I want everyone to stay after Mass. We’re going to have adoration and Benediction.” He’d be holding up “this big yellow sun thing”; I didn’t know that it was called a monstrance. He couldn’t touch it. There was smoke. The altar servers had to put a big golden robe around him. It was all so awe-inspiring, a profoundly sacred encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist. I couldn’t explain transubstantiation as an eighth grader, but I knew God was there. B

Photo by Jeffrey Bruno

spiritual realm. So when you say this bread and wine has been changed to the body and blood of Christ, people say to themselves, “I don’t see it.”

But the real crisis is within the Church. Whether it’s parents, teachers or Church leaders, we have not done a good job of passing on the faith of the Eucharist. And that’s on us. Are we passionately proclaiming the truth of the Real Presence? Are we really modeling eucharistic faith for our children and grandchildren? For our coworkers, our fellow parishioners? Do we center our lives on the Eucharist? Because if we did, I think those numbers would be much better.

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Where

ARE YOU GOING? Dante reminds us that our lives have a destination — and it is Love

By Anthony Esolen

Isadora/Bridgeman Images

D

Italian word I’ve translated as journey is cammino, and it sugante Alighieri’s Commedia is, in the view of many, gests a pilgrimage, as in the beloved Camino de Santiago, the the greatest poem in the history of literature. That pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in Compostela. No one alone should recommend it to people of our day, is merely alone on a medieval except that we are in the pilgrimage. Even if you set habit of overlooking what out by yourself, you will be is old. It has been 700 years with fellow pilgrims; you will since Dante’s death in Seppray together and hear Mass tember 1321. We now have along the way. And if you automobiles, televisions and make it home, you will bring computers. We have come back memories to share with a long way. What could that those you love. long-dead Florentine say for Now, Dante says that us today? he was midway upon the A thousand things — but I journey, and again he wants will choose one. We are going to be understood precisely. somewhere, and the jourThe typical lifespan for man, ney we are on is not in our after the flood, is “three score choice. Sure, we can choose years and ten” or 70 (cf. Ps wrong and fail to complete 90:10). This means Dante it. But the destination, and was 35 when the narrative the means for arrival, are not takes place, and since he was up to us. The destination is born in 1265, his imagined to behold God and to delight journey to the hereafter ocin his glory. And Christ curred in 1300. That year is alone is the way. important to him for personLet us look closely at the al and historical reasons, but first lines of the poem: there’s more. Dante did not Midway upon the journey of make up his first line from our life his own head. He is echoing I found myself in a dark Scripture in a powerful way wilderness, — especially powerful for us for I had wandered from the now, when we seem to have straight and true. lost any sense that we are This is not just Dante’s going anywhere at all. way of seizing our attention.

The scene is this. The Every word counts. He does good king Hezekiah fell ill, not say my life. It is our life.

Dante stands for each person Dante wanders lost and alone in “a dark wilderness” at the begin- and the prophet Isaiah came to him to tell him to settle and for all of us together. The ning of the Inferno in a colorized engraving by Gustave Doré.

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his house affairs, because he would surely die. But Hezekiah wept and prayed to God, saying, “Lord, remember, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and a perfect heart, and did what was good in your eyes” (Is 38:3).

The Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer and sent Isaiah to him again to say that he would live another 15 years. As a sign, God made the shadow of the sundial go backwards 10 degrees. Then Hezekiah burst out in a song of thanksgiving, beginning, “In the middle of my days I went down to the gates of hell” (Is 38:10). And that is precisely what Dante the pilgrim is about to do. We will soon see those very gates, and the terrible final line of their inscription: “Abandon all hope, you who enter here.”

But there is even more. The poetry is Christian, and that gives the poet the means to concentrate worlds of meaning into a single line because everything in Scripture shines light on everything else; when we go to Mass or pray the Divine Office, we dwell in the light of many centuries of meditation upon the word of God. The song of Hezekiah was important for the liturgy, as Dante expected his readers to know. We hear it in the Office

of the Dead, but more important than that, we hear it in the Tenebrae service for Holy Saturday. The words of Hezekiah are sung then as if they were spoken by Jesus: “In the middle of my days I went down to the gates of hell.” But Jesus took that realm by storm. He “led captivity captive” (Eph 4:8).

Dante has set his journey — from the wilds of sin and captivity of hell to freedom, through the gift of grace — in the context of the Easter Triduum. He is about to hear, says his guide Virgil, “the groans of hopeless men,” those who have lost the good for which man was made. But on the morning of the third day, he is going to leave that cramped hole of futility, “to see, once more, the stars.”

Christ makes it possible for the lost to come home — to be with God. I have focused on the dark onset, but the poem is a Comedy, not a Tragedy. The Christian vision is comic: It begins with the fall of Adam, but it ends in glory. Thus is Dante’s poem a work of love. It is inspired by love, its energy is love, and its destination is love. Were it not for the love of the beautiful Beatrice, Dante’s beloved — and of the blessed Mother who moved her — Dante would have remained lost in sin and confusion. As we move from the dark Inferno to

THE VATICAN does not typically make poetry recommendations, but Dante is not a typical poet. A century after Pope Benedict XV’s encyclical about the author of the Divine Comedy, Pope Francis again urged Catholics to read, study and teach Dante’s work in a recent apostolic letter.

In Candor Lucis Aeternae (Splendor of Light Eternal), issued to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death, Pope Francis describes Dante as “a prophet of hope and a witness to the innate yearning for the infinite present in the human heart.”

Significantly, the letter is dated March 25 — the feast of the Annunciation and the day the pilgrim-narrator of the Divine Comedy begins his journey. Pope Francis notes, “The mystery of the Incarnation, which we celebrate today, is the true heart and inspiration of the entire poem.”

The Holy Father then goes on to observe how Dante remains an extraordinary guide for the modern pilgrim: “Dante today — if we can presume to speak for him — does not wish merely to be read, commented on, studied and analyzed. Rather, he asks to be heard and 22

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Dante and his guide, Beatrice, encounter St. Peter in a 15th-century illuminated manuscript folio of the Paradiso.

even imitated; he invites us to become his companions on the journey. Today, too, he wants to show us the route to happiness, the right path to live a fully human life, emerging from the dark forest in which we lose our bearings and the sense of our true worth. Dante’s journey and his vision of life beyond death are not just a story to be told; they

are more than the account of a personal experience, however exceptional.

“If Dante tells his tale admirably, using the language of the people yet elevating it to a universal language, it is because he has an important message to convey, one meant to touch our hearts and minds, to transform and change us even now, in this present life.”

Giovanni di Paolo (c. 1403-1482)/Yates Thompson MS 36, British Library

A Guide for Our Journey

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Columbia marked the 600th anniversary of Dante’s death with the cover story of its second issue, in September 1921. The following is excerpted from “Dante’s Message to Our Time,” an essay published that month by the noted Catholic author and editor Condé B. Pallen.

Giancarlo Costa/Bridgeman Images

A colorized engraving by Gustave Doré depicts Dante and Beatrice as they behold the celestial rose — formed by the angels and saints adoring the Trinity in the highest sphere of heaven.

the sunlit slopes of Purgatory mountain to the light-filled realms of Paradise, we learn what love is, and we beg its power to enter our souls. So will Dante describe his own poetry: I’m one who takes the pen when Love breathes wisdom into me, and go finding the signs for what He speaks within.

Then let us take him as our guide, who wants us to join him in the light of “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.” B ANTHONY ESOLEN is a professor of English and writer-in-residence at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in Warner, N.H. His many publications include a translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House, Modern Library).

“Dante limns the medieval world with a breadth and depth, splendor and intensity unequaled in literature, with a sureness of touch and a vividness of delineation that make his world of six hundred years ago as alive to us as our own. The modern world turns to Dante and his age because it is in quest of reality; it is tired of mere phenomena, of which it has had its fill, and now finds that it has been feeding upon husks. It craves the substance of life and not its shadow.

“In the second place, the modern world turns to Dante because it finds him exceedingly human. Though depicting the other world, he never loses sight of this. Indeed, his other world is only the consummation of this. So closely is the natural interwoven with the supernatural that, whether in Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven, we always feel the pulse of the human heart and the throb of human passion. The literal is never lost in the abstract and reality never evaporates in the symbol. Virgil may be the symbol of Human Reason, but he is always the poet of flesh and blood, Dante’s beloved teacher and guide. Beatrice may be the symbol of Divine Wisdom, but she is always the adored and blessed lady of his affections. …

Notwithstanding the exaltation and sublimity of his theme, Dante is as human as Shakespeare and as profound in his humanity.”

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Faith TRIAL BY FIRE

Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore gathers with Maryland state officers and Fourth Degree Knights after Mass to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary — the first Catholic cathedral in the United States.

Members of Bishop Hubert James Cartwright Assembly 149 in Dover, Del., presented two chalices to Father Mano Salla, parochial vicar at Church of the Holy Cross, to bring to Catholic missionary priests in India. The chalices are engraved with the inscription “In Memory of Sir Knights Living and Deceased.”

ACTIVITY FOR PARISH MINISTRY

Members of St. John of the Cross/Our Lady of the Rosary Council 13153 in Vero Beach, Fla., held six takeout dinners to raise money for St. John of the Cross Parish ministries. The council donated its proceeds of approximately $7,000 to the food pantry, youth ministry and other programs.

MEMORIAL MASS

Father Michael Erpelding, pastor of St. John Catholic Church in Onawa, Iowa, and chaplain of Onawa-Blencoe

Council 6249, celebrated a Memorial Day Mass at Onawa Cemetery to honor the military veterans interred there.

Members of Council 6249 attended the Mass and supplied refreshments for a reception afterward.

ST. JOSEPH HOLY HOURS

St. Charles Borromeo Council 3960 in Randallstown, Md., has organized several Holy Hours at Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in observance of the Year of St. Joseph. The services include eucharistic adoration, evening prayer and the Litany of St. Joseph.

COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE

Sta. Rosa de Lima Council 11200 in Teresa Rizal, Luzon South, commissioned a brass plaque commemorating 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The brass marker was installed at the parish and blessed by Father Johndick R. Guillermo, the faithful friar of Sta. Rosa de Lima Assembly 3886.

Deputy Grand Knight Tyler Wist of Denis Mahoney Council 8215 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, lights a candle during the Rooted (in Faith) Catholic Men’s Conference at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Saskatoon. The Saskatchewan State Council sponsored the two-day conference, which featured talks, Mass, eucharistic adoration and confession, and concluded with an exemplification ceremony.

BELOW: Photo by Dave Stobbe

CHALICES FOR CATHOLIC MISSIONS

St. Charles Council 8137 in Spokane, Wash., organized an outdoor rosary at St. Charles Catholic Parish after the church, rectory, school and offices were seriously damaged by arson. Grand Knight Craig Philips and Deacon Roy Buck led Knights and other parishioners in praying for their parish.

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FOOD DRIVES FOR FAMILIES

Family

Holy Redeemer Council 11729 in Pickering, Ontario, organized a series of parish food drives during the pandemic, collecting and delivering more than 60 boxes of groceries from parish families to a local food bank. The council also made donations to a women’s shelter and poverty relief organizations.

IN MEMORIAM

St. Anna’s Council 14425 in Monroe, Ga., prepares and presents a framed remembrance to the family of each deceased member. The personalized memorials describe each Knight’s involvement with the Order and include the text of his eulogy.

FLOWERS FOR SCHOLARS

Members of Sacred Heart Council 13476 in Marengo, Ill., sold more than 500 hanging flower baskets to parishioners at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Mother’s Day weekend. The council

donated the proceeds to Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock to defray families’ tuition costs.

FREE LUNCH FOR FAMILIES

Through its Kids’ Café program, Father John M. Grady Council 503 in Port Chester, N.Y., offers free lunches to children and families in need. The Knights prepare and serve the meals once a month and also make deliveries to homebound veterans in the area.

THE PATRIOTISM PAPERS

Father Howard J. Lesch Assembly 1564 in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and Niceville Bluewater Bay Assembly 3236 in Niceville co-hosted their 21st annual essay contest. Local middle school students were invited to write a defense of any person whom they consider a great American patriot. The assemblies presented the winners with savings bonds and plaques in a ceremony at St. Mary Catholic Church in Fort Walton Beach.

Members of Msgr. George P. Aberle Assembly 790 in Dickinson, N.D., provide an honor guard for a young princess, Jocelyn, who has a rare genetic disorder. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted Jocelyn’s request to be a princess for a day, and the Fourth Degree Knights helped bring her wish to life by participating in a horse-drawn carriage parade and reception.

BELOW: Photo by Andrzej Kacak

BELOW: Photo by Dave Stobbe

FOR A BROTHER’S DAUGHTER

Members of Our Lady of the Woods Shrine Council 7329 in Mio, Mich., built a wheelchair ramp at the home of a young woman who has physical disabilities. The woman’s father, now deceased, was a member of the council.

Father Wiesław Lenartowicz, associate state chaplain of Poland, blesses a member of Our Lady of Częstochowa Council 14004 and his wife after Mass at Our Lady of Częstochowa Catholic Church in Radom. The Mass was part of Husband and Wife Day, an annual program organized by the Poland State Council. Knights and other parishioners also prayed the litany of Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux and the first husband and wife to be canonized together.

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Community FROM A FEW SMALL COINS

Fishermen prepare to set out into the deep for the 20th annual Knights of Columbus Walleye Classic hosted by Bemidji (Minn.) Council 1544. More than 100 teams competed in the fishing tournament on Lake Bemidji, which has raised more than $850,000 for K of C charities and local nonprofits since it began.

BROTHER’S KEEPERS

RUAH RENEWAL

MINDANAO BLOOD DRIVE

KEEPING TABS

Gingoog Council 6941 in Cabuyoan Ging, Mindanao, co-sponsored a blood drive with St. Ignatius de Loyola parish. The drive drew more than 20 donors, including Grand Knight Gregory M. Tuble Jr. and other members.

FORES FOR GOOD

Cranford (N.J.) Council 6226 hosted a golf tournament for more than 100 people, resuming a tradition put on hold during the pandemic. The council raised more than $30,000 for scholarships, the St. Michael Parish bus trip to the National March for Life and other causes and charities. Since 2004, the council’s annual golf outing has raised more than $260,000 for the parish and community.

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Members of St. Theresa’s Council 7702 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, repainted the walls of Ruah Counselling Centre, a nonprofit ministry operated under the Archdiocese of St. John’s. In addition to providing volunteers, the council covered more than $400 in project costs.

Johnie Schiemer, a member of St. John Neumann Council 8305 in Yuma, Ariz., was recognized by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern Arizona for donating more than 2.8 million aluminum can tabs, which the organization collects and recycles to raise funds. Schiemer collected the tabs with the help of Knights and other St. John Neumann parishioners.

FAITH, FELLOWSHIP, FRATERNITY

Members of Fort Hays State University Council 10211 in Hays, Kan., collected trash at a local park as part of a day of prayer, service and fellowship. The Knights began the morning with praying the rosary, cleaned up the park and enjoyed a barbecue dinner.

Members of Mary, Cause of Our Joy Council 8447 in Soldiers Hill, Muntinlupa, Luzon South, present informational materials about preparing for natural disasters to their pastor, to be distributed throughout the Diocese of Parañaque. The Knights of Council 8447 and Kalayaan Assembly 2749, also in Muntinlupa, have an ongoing initiative to educate the community about disaster contingency planning.

TOP LEFT: Photo by Amelia Jo Photo

Members of Father Damen L. McCaddon Council 13021 in Denver installed new railings and made other safety improvements at the home of a Knight who recently transferred to the council. Members also brought him to the hospital several times to address his medical needs.

The donation by a local woman of a jar of dimes to Marlette (Mich.) Council 7337 led to a pop-up food pantry, distributing more than 11 tons of produce, milk and other goods to people in need. The project was organized in cooperation with a local church and food bank.

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Life GETTING HER WINGS

St. Martha’s Council 12320 in Kingwood, Texas, honored Paula Amsler, the school nurse at St. Martha’s Catholic School, with the Texas State Council’s “ACE Wings.” ACE Wings, represented by a special pin, are given to Knights and other community members who have demonstrated an exceptional pro-life commitment “without Apology, Compromise or Exception.”

Amsler serves on the board of directors for Birthright of Humble, a pregnancy resource center.

District Deputy Fausto Cabrero (center) and other members of Valladolid Council 70 in Lynn, Mass., participate in a eucharistic prayer vigil dedicated to pro-life intentions at St. Adelaide Catholic Church in Peabody. Participants venerated the Blessed Sacrament through the night, with Knights leading the rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours at regular intervals.

SCOOTER BACK IN SERVICE

St. Therese Council 7406 in Mooresville, N.C., worked with Welcome Home Veterans, a local support group, to donate a used electric mobility scooter to a veteran in need. The scooter had belonged to a Knight whose family gave it to the council after his death.

SERVICE FOR ALL

TOP RIGHT: Photo by Bryce Vickmark

TOP LEFT: Photo by Amelia Jo Photo

Members of St. Theresa the Little Flower Council 16005 in Ottawa, Ontario, assisted with a Mass for People with Special Needs at St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church. The Knights promoted the event online in advance, greeted parishioners and presented the offertory gifts.

Tess Fuller shows off her prizewinning catch at the annual Special Needs Fishing Tournament hosted by St. Clement’s Council 10257 in Boonville, Ind. More than 160 anglers participated in the event at Lake Last Cast.

MOBILITY PROJECT

Members of Immaculate Conception Council 6326 in Denham Springs, La., constructed a ramp at the home of former district deputy Robert Nolan, who requires a wheelchair. The council also donated $1,000 in materials for the project.

SILVER ROSE RELAY

Members of St. John the Baptist Council 10232 and Merciful Jesus Council 17519, both in Madison, Ala., conducted a 6.1-mile relay bringing the Knights of Columbus Silver Rose from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church to Most Merciful Jesus Catholic Church. Father Joy Chalissery, pastor of Most Merciful Jesus, blessed the team of Knights and offered a prayer for greater respect for life.

LIFECARE

Knights in Iowa presented more than $19,000 to LifeCare Clinic, a pregnancy resource center in Atlantic.

Members of six councils collaborated to make the donation, which will go toward a new ultrasound machine and technician training.

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Knights of Columbus State Deputies 2021-2022 The office of state deputy was established and defined at the 1893 Supreme Council meeting. As the chief executive officer of the Order in his jurisdiction, the state deputy provides leadership and inspiration to the Knights and their families, and promotes the mission and growth of the Order.

State deputies are elected during the annual convention of each state council. Pictured here are the state and territorial deputies for the 2021-2022 fraternal year.

ALABAMA

ALASKA

ALBERTA

ARIZONA

JOSEPH E. FLAHERTY III

BILLY A. CHRISMAN JR.

FERDINAND Y. MENDITA

LUIGI J. BARATTA

ARKANSAS

BRITISH COLUMBIA

CALIFORNIA

COLORADO

NOEL M. PANLILIO

JONATHAN D. HERSKOVITS

ALAN L. HALMAN

EDGARDO R. PANES

CONNECTICUT

DELAWARE

MATTHEW C. MCGRATH

RICHARD S. JOHNSON

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

CHRISTOPHER PIERNO

LÁZARO BERQUEL RODRIQUEZ CABRERA

FLORIDA

FRANCE

GEORGIA

ROBERT S. URRUITIA

ARNAUD BOUTHEON

JAMES H. CLIFFORD

GUAM

HAWAII

IDAHO

ILLINOIS

INDIANA

IOWA

KANSAS

MICHAEL G. MARTINEZ

RYAN K. BROWN

ROY C. BARTHOLOMAY

STEPHEN G. MANN

CRAIG M. HANUSIN

STEVEN J. VONNAHME

JAMEY C. ROTH

KENTUCKY

LOUISIANA

LUZON NORTH

LUZON SOUTH

MAINE

MANITOBA

MARYLAND

STEPHEN R. ZANONE

GEORGE S. MARTIN

RENE V. SARMIENTO

BONIFACIO B. MARTINEZ

JOHN H. DEETJEN JR.

MICHAEL S. MACDOUGALL

VINCENT GRAUSO

MASSACHUSETTS

MEXICO CENTRAL

MEXICO NORTHEAST

MEXICO NORTHWEST

MEXICO SOUTH

MEXICO WEST

MICHIGAN

JESÚS R. LÓPEZ GARCÍA

ROBERTO CARLOS MARTÍNEZ RAMOS

JESÚS MANUEL ELÍAS NUÑEZ

JORGE C. ESTRADA AVILES

GABRIEL RAZO PEDRAZA

WALTER K. WINKLE JR.

MICHAEL LESPERANCE

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MINDANAO

MINNESOTA

MISSISSIPPI

MISSOURI

MONTANA

NEBRASKA

NEVADA

GERRY EUTEMIO T. MISSION

DAVID WHATMUFF

RAUL R. GAMEZ

MICHAEL A. GRUDZINSKI

DANIEL L. HALLSTEN

MATTHEW R. RICHARDSON

JOE A. HAUN

NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

NEW BRUNSWICK

NEW HAMPSHIRE

NEW JERSEY

NEW MEXICO

NEW YORK

GILLES P. PELLETIER

RAYMOND A. LEMAY SR.

JAMES E. STOEVER

DANIEL S. VIGIL

CHARLES D. ESPOSITO

NORTH CAROLINA

PATRICK E. GAMBIN

CLAUDE L. REIHER

NORTH DAKOTA

NOVA SCOTIA

OHIO

OKLAHOMA

ONTARIO

OREGON

PENNSYLVANIA

MIKE L. STEINER

RONALD F. DOWLING

MARK A. SIRACUSA

DENNIS R. KUNNANZ

MARCEL J. LEMMEN

RAY A. PROM

KENNETH E. GRUGEL

POLAND

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

PUERTO RICO

QUÉBEC

RHODE ISLAND

SASKATCHEWAN

JOSÉ LUIS VAZQUEZ PADILLA

RICHARD PARATTE

DAVID T. QUINN

JOSEPH W. RIFFEL

SOUTH CAROLINA

KRZYSZTOF ZUBA

MICHAEL S. WHITE

PAUL V. BURCHELL

SOUTH DAKOTA

SOUTH KOREA

TENNESSEE

TEXAS

UKRAINE

UTAH

VERMONT

SCOTT C. CUNNINGHAM

SHIN KYOUNG-SOO

FREDERICK M. LAUFENBERG

ALFREDO A. VELA

YOURIY MALETSKIY

JOHN N. NIELSON

STEVE L. SHOVER

VIRGINIA

VISAYAS

WASHINGTON

WEST VIRGINIA

WISCONSIN

WYOMING

MARK S. JANDA

TEOFRIDO B. LAGRIA

KIM L. WASHBURN

FRANCIS G. KOENIG

COREY C. COONEN

RONALD M. MORRIS

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SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

Supreme Council Awards College Scholarships For the 2021-2022 academic year, the Knights of Columbus awarded scholarships totaling more than $1,400,000 to 518 students. Most recipients are the children of Knights, or Knights themselves, attending Catholic universities or Catholic colleges in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico or the Philippines. These figures include $216,250 in awards given to 115 seminarians in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about the Order’s scholarship programs, visit kofc.org/scholarships.

FOURTH DEGREE PRO DEO AND PRO PATRIA SCHOLARSHIPS

A total of 45 U.S. students received Fourth Degree Pro Deo and Pro Patria scholarships of $1,500 each. These scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence to incoming freshmen in bachelor’s degree programs at Catholic colleges or Catholic universities. The recipients are Knights of Columbus or Columbian Squires, the son or daughter of a Knight in good standing, or the son or daughter of a Knight who was in good standing at the time of his death. Contingent on satisfactory academic performance, these scholarships are renewed for a total of four years.

This academic year, 15 new scholarships were awarded and 30 renewed.

The following are first-time recipients: Felicity Beyer, 30

Dominic Brown, David Eusebio, Caitlin Fanella, Aron Forthofer, Jonathan Gonzalez, Augustine Mercugliano, Joshua Moeller, Liam Murphy, Taylor Nowak, Luke Ostberg, Alexander Roberts, Lauren Stiefvater, Mark Taylor and Matthew Wilkinson.

FOURTH DEGREE PRO DEO AND PRO PATRIA SCHOLARSHIPS (CANADA)

These scholarships are for students entering colleges or universities in Canada, with requirements regarding K of C membership that are essentially the same as for their U.S. counterparts.

Ten new scholarships were awarded and 41 renewed for the current academic year. New recipients are: Meghan E. Barrett, Camilo Cortes, Holly Derks, Daniella Diogo, Jenna Fraser,

Marc-Andre Gaudet, Miguel San Pedro, Andrew Mathew Snow, Kateri Tremblay and Jackson VanDyke.

JOHN W. MCDEVITT (FOURTH DEGREE) SCHOLARSHIPS

This scholarship was established in 1998 in honor of the Order’s 11th supreme knight. Recipients must be enrolled at a Catholic college or Catholic university in the United States and be a Knight, the wife of a Knight, or the son or daughter of a Knight. Columbian Squires and widows and children of members who died in good standing are also eligible.

In addition to the 12 new recipients listed here, 88 scholarships were renewed for the current academic year. New recipients are: Matthew Barnes, Samuel Bronk, Joseph Carlson, Megan Chinavare, Carson Elbin, Christopher Hopstetter, Alexandra Kiedrowski, Anthony Olson, Andrew Ortiz, Grace Pugh, Faith Quinn and John Scheller.

ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS

Percy J. Johnson Scholarships are awarded to young men attending U.S. Catholic colleges or Catholic universities and are funded by a 1990 bequest of Percy J. Johnson, a member of Seville Council 93 in Brockton, Mass. One scholarship was awarded and 15 renewed for the current academic year. The new recipient is Mark Greene.

In 2000, Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. received a $100,000 donation from Frank L. Goularte.

A scholarship fund in his

name was established to provide $1,500 in needbased grants that are administered, in general, according to the rules of the Pro Deo and Pro Patria Scholarships. Three new scholarships were awarded for the current academic year and five were renewed. The new recipients are Joseph Forthofer, Dominic Murphy and Hayden Raines.

From 1995 to 1997, Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. received bequests totaling nearly $200,000 from the estate of Anthony J. LaBella. In his will, LaBella remembered the kindness shown to him by Knights when he was an orphan in Farmingdale, N.Y. The bequests have since been used to establish a scholarship fund in LaBella’s name.

Earnings from the fund provide scholarships for undergraduate study in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Pro Deo and Pro Patria Scholarships.

Two new scholarships were awarded to Isabel Riojas and Lydia Wanner, and eight were renewed.

In 1997, Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. received a bequest from Dr. Arthur F. Battista to establish scholarships for graduates of the Cornwall (Ontario) Collegiate and Vocational School. These $1,500 and $2,000 annual scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit, financial need, community service and extracurricular activities.

Preference is given to Knights; to the children or grandchildren of members; to students recommended by the Ontario State

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Council; and to students bound for Catholic colleges or Catholic universities.

For the current academic year, 15 new scholarships were awarded and 14 grants renewed. New recipients are: Katie Beckstead, Paul Duan, Peter Duan, Gator Guo, Amber Harrop, Niruuja Jeyachandra, Maya Kupina, Jabishan Manmathan, Ashely Mullin, Hapish Murugesu, Tharunya Nallaiah, Fathima Mohamed Navaz, Rimaza Saleek, Liaba Tahir and Nilany Thanabalasinham.

SISTER THEA BOWMAN FOUNDATION – K OF C SCHOLARSHIPS

This scholarship is named for Sister Thea Bowman (1937-1990), an African American religious who inspired many people with her urgent and uplifting call for better education for children of the African American community.

In December 1996, the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors, in partnership with the Sister Thea Bowman Foundation, authorized a four-year grant in the amount of $25,000 per year to support deserving African American students pursuing a Catholic college education.

Periodically, the board has approved continuation of the grant program. For the 2021-2022 academic year, the directors authorized a grant for $50,000, which provided tuition funding for two students, Lionel Deans and Dashun Dunmeyer. No scholarships were renewed for the 20212022 academic year.

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS

The Order has an endowment at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., that provides Knights of Columbus graduate fellowships. For the 2021-2022 academic year, one fellowship has been awarded to Michael Hensley. Twelve scholarships were renewed.

Three new fellowships for the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America were awarded for the 2020-2021 academic year. The receipients were Sister Mary Gabriel Devlin, Mari Ana Narbon and Izabel Paraga. No scholarships were renewed.

PUERTO RICO SCHOLARSHIPS

For the current academic year, two new scholarships were awarded and six renewed. The new recipients are Alex Luis Santiago Ortiz and Adriana M. Torres Concepción.

PHILIPPINES SCHOLARSHIPS

For the current academic year, five new scholarships of $500 were awarded and 31 renewed. The new recipients are: Maria Annika M. Jimenez, Arlyne Regina L. Guinto, Kyla Isabelle B. Morales, Julliana Klara B. Nepomuceno and Francis Jay F. Vivo.

MEXICO SCHOLARSHIPS

For the current academic year, seven new scholarships were awarded in the amount of $500 each,

Educational Trust Fund The Francis P. Matthews and John E. Swift Educational Trust offers scholarships to the children of members who are killed or permanently and totally disabled by hostile action Matthews while serving with the armed forces during a covered period of conflict. In 2004, the Order declared that military conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan would be covered under the trust fund. Also eligible are the children of members who Swift are killed as a result of criminal violence directed against them while performing their duties as full-time law enforcement officers or full-time firefighters. An application must be filed within two years of the date of the member’s death.

As of June 30, a total of 823 children have been recorded as eligible for benefits from the Francis P. Matthews and John E. Swift Educational Trust Fund scholarship program since its establishment in 1944.

Thus far, 353 eligible children have chosen not to use the scholarships, three have died, and 128 who began college either discontinued their studies or fully used their scholarship eligibility before graduation. There are 25 future candidates. To date, 299 students have completed their education through the fund. Lucas D. Miller graduated in 2021, and the following students are working toward their degrees: J.J. Kelly, Natalie Pelletier, Owen Pelletier and Kevin Wallen. One additional student, Dominic Miller, began undergraduate studies with the 2021-2022 academic year, making a total of five scholarships overall.

renewable for up to four years. In addition, 13 were renewed. The new recipients are: José Ángel Bracamonte Villanueva, Luis Cordova García, Emy Valeria Delgado Pérez, Paola Maricruz González Garibay, Ana Victoria Navarrete Moreno, Daniela Concepción Sansores Medran and Diana Vianney Soto Chávez.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Scholarship applications for the upcoming academic year will be available after Oct. 1.

To download an application or request more information, visit kofc.org/scholarships. Call us at (203) 752-4332 or write to: Dept. of Scholarships, Knights of Columbus, 1 Columbus Plaza, P.O. Box 1670, New Haven, CT 06507.

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Join the Father McGivney Guild Please enroll me in the Father Michael J. 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: fathermcgivney.org

K OF C OFFICIAL SUPPLIERS www.KnightsGear.com www.KnightsGear.ca 1-833-695-4872

COMMEMORATE YOUR COUNCIL WITH CUSTOMIZED KNIGHTS GEAR!

Knights Gear has expanded its offerings to now include items that can be personalized exclusively for your local council!

IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

THE ENGLISH COMPANY INC. www.kofcsupplies.com 1-800-444-5632 FOR UNIFORMS

THE SUPPLY ROOM, INC. www.kofcuniform.com 1-833-562-4327

OFFICIAL SEPTEMBER 1, 2021:

Bulk ord offer sav ers ing uniformit s & y your cou for ncil!

Include your council’s name, number, city & state on items like: T-Shirts Polos Hats Tablecloths Retractable Banners Feather Flags Event Banners

Scan the QR Code or visit

KnightsGear.com

today to start shopping for all your council and personal needs!

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 11 TIMES A YEAR BY THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, 1 COLUMBUS PLAZA, NEW HAVEN, CT 06510-3326. PHONE: 203-752-4000, kofc.org. PRODUCED IN USA. COPYRIGHT © 2021 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.

Please contact custom@knightsgearusa.com for additional inquiries.

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KNIGHTS OF CHARITY

Photo by Stacey Palm

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.

Members of Our Lady of the Valley Council 11575 in Windsor, Colo., stand with students at Sacred Heart Academy in Eaton in front of the “play church” they built on the grounds of the school. The Knights held a series of woodworking classes at Sacred Heart, and their collaborative efforts culminated in the construction of the small-scale church.

To be featured here, send your council’s “Knights in Action” photo as well as its description to: Columbia, 1 Columbus Plaza, New Haven, CT 06510-3326 or e-mail: knightsinaction@kofc.org COLUMBIA SEPT 21 ENG COVERS 8_16 FINAL.indd 3

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

‘Mary brought me back to Jesus.’

Sister Maria Alguacil Sisters of the Company of the Savior Stamford, Conn.

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Photo by Christopher Beauchamp

My parents gave me and my siblings a joyful and loving childhood, where the beauty of the Catholic faith shone brightly. They sent us to a school in Madrid operated by the Sisters of the Company of the Savior, whose charism is to cooperate with parents by providing a strong education in a faithful Catholic environment.

The joy, devotion and dedication of the sisters immediately attracted me. I wanted to be for Jesus, just like them. So I joined the school’s Marian group and received the treasure of being consecrated to our Blessed Mother.

During my last years of high school and my first year of college, I was tempted by new experiences and friendships based on different ideals than those of my youth. It was Mary who opened my eyes to see deeper. She brought me back to the heart of Jesus.

Eventually, I embraced his loving call to be only his and joined the Sisters of the Company of the Savior. Through our religious and teaching vocation, we are called to be instruments in God’s hands, so that others may know his unconditional love.

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