Thursday 28th March 2024

Home » Featured Today » Currently Reading:

Libreria Editrice Vaticana . . . Presents Volume On Knights Of Columbus Founder

July 18, 2014 Featured Today No Comments

By ALBERTO CAROSA

VATICAN CITY — A book about the founder of the world’s largest Catholic fraternity, the Knights of Columbus, has been published in Italian by Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV), and was presented June 25 at the Augustinian Patristic Institute, just across St. Peter’s Square in Rome. It is entitled Il Parroco: Padre Michael McGivney e il Cattolicesimo Americano (The Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism).
The original English version is available at the Knights of Columbus online bookstore: See www.kofc.org.
The book is the result of research of two historians, Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster, and tells the story of Fr. Michael McGivney. A priest of Connecticut who lived in the 19th century (1852-1890), McGivney is perhaps the most beloved parish priest in the history of the United States. The book also details his ongoing process of canonization.
“Too often,” the authors write in the preface, “the story focuses on the American Catholic Church hierarchy. . . . Over the years there have been great biographies written about famous bishops and cardinals. That is commendable, but the heart of Catholicism in the United States is embodied by the parish priests, who therefore become a regular part of the life of their parishioners. . . .
“It is the pastor that many of the 65 million Catholics in America are turning to in times of personal crisis or when poverty strikes a family. Their service is that of a human being who helps another. By writing on Fr. McGivney, we are embracing that big dark area, thus honoring all the parish priests.”
Among the attendees at the presentation were Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Kevin Coyne, a professor at the School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York, and Don Giuseppe Costa, director of LEV.
This book, according to Anderson, also provides an excellent overview of the difficult 19th-century context with which Fr. McGivney — and Catholics in general — had to contend. It was against this backdrop of a culture sometimes generally — and sometimes specifically — hostile to the Catholic faith that this humble parish priest rose to do great things.
“That context meant real struggles for 19th-century immigrants trying to live out their faith, especially since giving up their faith could be the best way to get ahead financially,” the Supreme Knight said.
“This presented a serious temptation for Catholics at a time when they and their families lived on the slimmest of financial margins. So tenuous were their circumstances that the death of a breadwinner commonly had catastrophic repercussions.
“With the loss of income such a death entailed, families often found themselves forced by circumstances, or by the state, to split up. Mothers would often be separated from their children and siblings from each other, compounding the already tragic loss of the father.
“This book examines this historical context. A context not well known in the United States today, let alone beyond its borders. And in filling in that context, it makes clear that what Fr. McGivney did was truly remarkable.”
But all the more remarkable, said Anderson, is “that vision has not only remained relevant, but I would say that it has even increased in its relevance over time.”
Therefore, it was precisely in this context that “nearly a decade before Rerum Novarum formally launched the social doctrine of the Church, Fr. McGivney was founding a lay Catholic organization that would be dedicated to both the spiritual and temporal well-being of its members,” Anderson added.
“Fr. McGivney isn’t only a model for American priests, but for all priests as well.”
The association of the Knights of Columbus that McGivney had in mind, continued Anderson, “would provide charity to those on the margins of society. It would be united to the Church, and would have the goal not only of evangelizing its members, but of having its members evangelize society.
“It would be a Catholic fraternity, drawing men together to do good. And it would show clearly to those who doubted the proposition in 19th-century America, that Catholics could be excellent citizens.”
Fr. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882, an organization that has helped to save countless families from poverty. At the end of the 19th century, discrimination against American Catholics was in fact widespread.
After a difficult start, the foundation of the Knights of Columbus has grown to become an international association with nearly two million members in 15,000 councils scattered throughout the U.S., Canada, Latin America, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe.
“Fr. McGivney’s vision had prepared the Knights of Columbus to fully embrace the reinvigoration of the role of the laity in life of the Church in the Second Vatican Council and in the subsequent pontificates of St. John Paul II, and Popes Benedict XVI and Francis,” Anderson also said.
“In fact, as Supreme Knight, I have seen, over the last decade and a half, just how well Fr. McGivney’s vision prepared us as an organization to respond to the call of each of those great Popes” by bringing about “dedication to families, and those on the margins of society,” thus being “committed to witnessing to our faith in the spirit of our founder.”

The Strong Right Arm

From another perspective, in the words of Kevin Coyne, Fr. McGivney “was not the kind of priest who believed his ministry ended with Sunday Mass. He organized amateur theatricals and church picnics, featuring horse races and baseball games. He visited prisoners, and prayed alongside one repentant murder all the way to the gallows.
“When one father in his parish died too young, seemingly ending the college dreams of his talented sons, Fr. McGivney made sure their education continued — and both went on to Yale Law School. One of them later went on to the seminary, too, and became a priest himself.”
To affirm their claim to be devoted citizens of America, the Knights were named after Columbus, “the Italian Catholic explorer who was celebrated as the discoverer of this nation even by its Protestant majority,” noted Coyne.
The object of this association, as Fr. McGivney himself wrote, “is to promote the principles of unity and charity, so that the members may gain strength to bestow charity on each other.”
More specifically, Coyne continued, “they were a brotherhood formed as a mutual benefit society to aid members and their families in the event of illness or death, and to serve a larger mission, too — to act as a charitable force in their communities, and to support their Church, something they did so well that they were later described, as the ‘strong right arm’ of the Church in America.
“It started slowly. It was a new way for Catholic laymen to find a place for themselves in a new world, and it raised suspicions in some quarters — including among some priests and bishops. But it kept growing, spreading out from Connecticut into the rest of New England, and then through the Northeastern United States, and finally across the country and overseas, too.”
Alas, Fr. McGivney did not live enough to see this exponential growth, Coyne pointed out. “Fr. McGivney only saw the raw beginnings of the order he founded. He died young, like many overworked priests of his era — of pneumonia, just two days past his 38th birthday.”
Thus this confirms the saying of the ancient Greek dramatist Menander that “he whom the gods love dies young,” a concept which was taken up in more recent times by the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) in one of his works.
And as Anderson remarked, it was “clear that God was working in the life of Fr. McGivney, and that his love of God and neighbor led him to be a man very much ahead of his time.”
For his part, the director of LEV, Don Giuseppe Costa, thanked the Knights, as well as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and many U.S. Catholic publishers, for the “great partnership” with LEV, which enables a deepened “knowledge of American Catholicism in its many experiences — perhaps little known in the Old Continent — in the fields of evangelization, hospitality, charity.

+    +    +

(Alberto Carosa is a Rome-based Catholic journalist.)

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Abortion Advocates No Longer Consider It “A Necessary Evil,” They Celebrate Killing Babies

Last week, Kamala Harris became the first vice president in U.S. history to make a public visit to an abortion clinic. Though the Democratic party’s support for abortion is nothing new, Harris’ Planned Parenthood appearance does illustrate how that support has become a flagrant celebration of abortion as a public and personal good, essential to both “freedom” and to “healthcare.” At the appearance, Harris proclaimed,  It is only right and fair that people have access…Continue Reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)