Knights of Columbus pledge to fight for marriage, life, ‘under God’

Catholic News Agency ^ | August 4, 2006

[NYer]

ORLANDO - The Knights of Columbus have adopted, this week, significant resolutions on a number of critical social issues including marriage, the sacredness of life, the Pledge of Allegiance, school choice, and support for military men and women.

The resolutions, adopted yesterday at the 124th Supreme Council Meeting, held in Orlando, Florida, serve to formally state the Knights’ stance on the issues, most of which they have been involved with previously.

The first resolution states that Marriage, which is the foundation of society and provides the best environment for raising children, “is under siege in our culture” by the movement to legalize same-sex unions.

In this context, the Knights resolved to defend the principle that marriage is based on a love between one man and one woman and to oppose all attempts to legalize same-sex marriage. They resolved that they would join with the bishops throughout the world in their efforts to achieve legal and constitutional protection for the traditional definition of marriage.

Regarding life issues, they resolved to live up to their reputation as “defenders of life” and to encourage elected officials to pass legislation which prohibits the use of public funds to finance programs that degrade the value of life, whether that be abortion or embryonic stem-cell research. They also resolved to call for a law that protects the right of conscience for medical professionals and to make known their opposition to the death penalty.

They expressed their support for parental notification laws and resolved to demonstrate compassion for distressed pregnant women by supporting programs that offer alternatives to abortion.

The Knights resolved to defend the inclusion of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. They will be interveners in the lawsuit challenging the wording of the Pledge currently pending before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The Catholic men’s organization further resolved to encourage legislation that would establish educational choice programs, providing financial assistance to parents who wish to send their children to Catholic schools.

Finally, as they have done for decades, they reaffirmed their support for and expressed profound gratitude to, the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces. They pledged to continue praying for military personnel deployed around the world and for their safe return home.

[sitetest]

Dear God luvs America,

I'm a Knight, too, although an active one.

I have a question, if you don't mind.

What can Council leaderships do to get inactive Knights to be a little more active?

Those of us in Council leadership would be happy if a man came to a couple of meetings a year, and worked at a couple of events a year, and maybe came to one or two other social events where all the man had to do was enjoy with his family.

What can we do for the 75% of our men whom we don't see even a single time each year?

Thanks in advance,


DGK sitetest, PGK

[AlaninSA]

We've found that focusing the council on fewer tasks does much to grow the participation rate. Many councils get so eager to do so much that they end up "biting off more than they can chew."

Focus on smaller, more locally focused activity.

We're in a large city (eighth biggest in the nation). Our council spent far too much time on outreach in the poorest parts of the city -- to the cost of not focusing on the poor in our own neighborhood. Knights are good guys, but it's my belief that altruism is a myth. We want to see the effects of our work. Working locally enables this.

Therefore, getting a bunch of Knights together to re-roof the home of the poor shut-in widow down the street gets much more participation than gathering a group of Knights to paint a house 30 miles away from the parish.

In addition, think of what your council can do for the actual parish or parish school. We do groundskeeping, building maintenance and hold scholarship fundraisers for our parish kids.

We still have our obligations to support national and state charities - but we're focusing more on local needs than in years past.

[God luvs America]

I say this tongue and cheek....expand the day to 28 hours or make the week 8 days long..

If I was able to get a newsletter on what may be happening it would probably help- or maybe even a website for local chapters where I could logon and find out what was happening (who knows, there may be one)....I'd hate to have someone keep calling and me say, "sorry I'm to busy"....it would be a turn off for everyone..

[sitetest]

Dear God luvs America,

"If I was able to get a newsletter on what may be happening it would probably help- or maybe even a website for local chapters where I could logon and find out what was happening (who knows, there may be one)"

We actually have both. Our newsletter is pretty good, having won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place six years running at the state level for newsletters in our division. We have a Yahoo group, and folks can get e-mail updates.

"....I'd hate to have someone keep calling and me say, 'sorry I'm to busy'....it would be a turn off for everyone.."

Yeah, but what we find is that if we don't ask folks to come help out, directly ask 'em, they almost never come from the information in our newsletter or at our Yahoo group.

"I say this tongue and cheek....expand the day to 28 hours or make the week 8 days long.."

I understand.

Thanks,


sitetest

[sitetest]

Dear AlaninSA,

Thanks.

We try to keep our activities to just one per Surge for Service area per quarter. Sometimes, the same event will actually be conducted under the auspices of two or more Surge for Service committees, thus further reducing our activities.

"Focus on smaller, more locally focused activity."

Almost all our activities are local. Occasionally we've had activities that didn't pertain to our specific Council (one year, the Eucharistic Congress was in downtown DC, and we did something with that - we also sponsor a dinner after each year's March for Life for parishioners who go downtown to march to the Supreme Court).

"In addition, think of what your council can do for the actual parish or parish school. We do groundskeeping, building maintenance and hold scholarship fundraisers for our parish kids."

Check, check, and check. We sponsor an annual golf tournament and a couple of basket bingos each year to raise money for our scholarship fund, which gives out modest scholarships to parish families with kids in Catholic school. That's our biggest single focus.

We also have done the whole groundskeeping/parish picnic/building maintenance stuff, too.

Still, with 90 guys, it's the same 20 or so guys that are at least moderately active.

Oh well.


sitetest

[AlaninSA]

Still, with 90 guys, it's the same 20 or so guys that are at least moderately active.

We have about 400 brothers - and we have about 50 active ones. Same guys at the meetings, same guys at the activities...for the most part. Since our focus on the parish started, though, we've seen significant growth in "lapsed member" participation.