I come originally from New Haven, CT, and for many years I attended Mass at St. Mary's Church on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven. That is the church where the Knights of Columbus was founded in the early 1880s when Venerable Fr. Michael McGivney was an assistant pastor there. My wedding was there and I transferred to another parish only because the Tridentine Mass was available weekly at the later parish.
Shortly after the 1882 founding of the Knights of Columbus by Fr. McGivney (a diocesan priest of the then Hartford Diocese), St. Mary's was given by the bishop over to the Dominican Order (roughly 1885) which has been in charge there ever since.
Years ago, I belonged to another group that exists only in New Haven but was founded almost at the same time exclusively by about 8 of the 11 incorporators of the Knights of Columbus. Neither Fr. McGivney nor any other Catholic priest was a founder of this second organization: The Knights of St. Patrick.
The Knights of St. Patrick, in spite of the name are NOT a Catholic organization but are simply an Irish organization. There are no initiation ceremonies, no passwords, no other symbols of any sort other than maybe the shamrock. I attended a meeting shortly after I was voted in as a member at which one younger member suggested that we arrange for members an annual Catholic religious retreat. He was immediately opposed by a member in his early eighties who was known to me as a genuinely devout Catholic and that distinguished elderly man strongly admonished the younger man that religion was to play no role whatsoever in the Knights of St. Patrick. After the meeting, I went to the elderly man to inquire as to this policy and he explained to me that the Knights of St. Patrick was founded by those devoutly Catholic Knights of Columbus founders as a club where ALL Irish men regardless of their religious affiliation or even atheists and agnostics could join in brotherhood generally for charitable purposes and to prove that Irish of differing persuasions did not have to break chairs over one another's heads over their religious disagreements.
Now, the Knights of St. Patrick does not require a member to believe in God much less in a specific religion. Most members are Catholic and many others are Protestants and some are without religious faith. Just a charitable and social group of men (and I hear women nowadays as well: O tempora, o mores!). The Knights of St. Patrick is now more than 125 years old and will be running New Haven's St. Patrick's Day parade on Sunday afternoon, March 11, 2012, as is traditional. They also hold an annual dinner/fundraiser and politicians grovel to be invited to be main speaker. These dinners have been held at prestigious locales like Yale Commons and feature the best of everything in food and libations and (at least in the old days) cigars and commanded a very substantial ticket price for those of modest means.
The fact that the Knights of St. Patrick is simply one club in New Haven and never spread elsewhere is at least partially attributable to the fact that clergy had little to do with organizing it. The Knights of Columbus spread rapidly with the approval of the Bishop of Hartford, and the fact that priests other than Fr. McGivney noted the rapid success of the order.
Also, the Knights of Columbus was originally organized as a burial society to share the burden of the families of working people who had lost an insured breadwinner. There were many such societies in those days but the Knights of Columbus evolved into a life and annuity insurance company which is at or near the top of that trade according to Best which rates those companies.
Teofilo:
If you know: What is the status of Eastern Orthodox Churches vis-a-vis the Roman Catholic Church now? Are we one Church at this point or not? I know that the Catholic Church recognizes the validity of the Masses and sacraments of Orthodoxy, but I do not know. Also, is ROCA the Russian Orthodox Church in America?
Yes, I know very well. No, we are not "one Church" formally, no. Invisibly, yes, but don't tell anyone, for it is a secret. ;-)
I know that the Catholic Church recognizes the validity of the Masses and sacraments of Orthodoxy, but I do not know.
Sacraments in the Orthodox Church are indeed valid and grace-giving in the eyes of the Catholic Church, yes.
Also, is ROCA the Russian Orthodox Church in America?
They are the "Russian Orthodox Church Abroad" also known as the "Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia" (ROCOR). Among the American Canonical Orthodox jurisdictions, it's the closest to the Russian Orthodox Church and perhaps, the most conservative.
For almost three years now, my most popular blog post has been Twelve Differences Between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches. You may start your research there, if you wish.
+JMJ,
-Theo