Taking Pope John Paul II's various exhortations throughout his pontificate (and that of the teaching of Pope Benedict) the Knights of Columbus takes seriously the exercising the ministry of charity as part of an overall method in bringing the Kingdom of God. Making Christ known through works of charity, the Knights of Columbus anchor their mission in the words of the Second Vatican Council where the Council Fathers stated:
the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity. Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continually increase according to Christ to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer" (Lumen gentium, 31).
Some of the ways in 2009 in which the laity cared for the temporal affairs of society through the work of the KofC whose principles are charity, unity and fraternity:
- $151 million in charitable giving
- the promise of giving all Haitian children needing prosthetic limbs as a result of the earthquake, about a 700 to 800 children in need
- 69 million in volunteer hours
- $17 million for youth programs
- Support of Project Rachel initiatives
- $1.6 million coupled with local and state councils to purchase 53 ultrasound machines
- $1.6 million to Pope Benedict for his charitable work
- $4.3 million given through the McGiveny Scholarship support of vocations since 1992
- $887,000 given over 13 years through the Dailey Scholarship
- RSVP gave $2.8 million in 2009 and in 28 years it gave $47 million to seminarians
- various church loan programs
- Villa Maria Guadalupe, a retreat house owned by the Knights and administered by the Sisters of Life in Stamford, CT
- collaboration in purchasing a handicap bus for VA patients without legs in order to get out of the hospital
- various faith-based and evangelization programs in the US, Mexico, Canada and the Philippines
MOST notable are the four Knights who died in the past year in Iraq and Afghanistan, giving their life for the nation.
What unites the KofC is faith Christ and we are our brother's keeper.
Vivat Jesus!
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