Knights of Columbus

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
St. Charles Borromeo Council #13238
When: 6:30 Rosary 7 p.m. meeting every first Tuesday of the month (currently on Zoom)
Where: Convent Meeting Room
The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic, family, fraternal society 1.7 million strong founded on the principles of charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism. We are the oldest and largest Catholic lay organization with over 12,000 local councils. We support our pope, bishops, pastors, clergy and religious.
Our St. Charles Borromeo Council received its charter in November 2003 and has been asked by Fr. Mike to assist the parish in three specific areas: welcoming new members of the parish, organizing right to life activities and organizing legislative liaisons.
Pre-Covid-19, the Knights of our parish have supported the church, council, community, family and youth through family picnics, Habitat for Humanity, pro-life demonstrations at the Washington State Capitol, pro-life essay and poster contests, high school senior class graduation and appreciation breakfasts, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, greeting at Mass and serving coffee and doughnuts after Mass.
There are many good reasons to join the Knights of Columbus. Friendship, fraternity, opportunities to be of service to others and an excellent insurance program are just a few. A Knight can be anyone. He builds airplanes, grows apples and wheat, designs nuclear plants, or runs a bank. He may be a corporation president or a member of a union. He is a truck driver, a doctor, a laborer, or a dentist. We only ask that he be a "Practicing Catholic."
Activities and programs include:

• Donations: St. Charles Borromeo Council #13238 aids archdiocesan seminarians.
• Family life: through programs of family prayer, family participation in the liturgy, concern for Christian values in the home, "family of the month" and "family of the year" programs, days of family recreation and the like, the Knights of Columbus work to defend family life which is under fierce attack from modern secularism.
• Community service: last year, Knights of Columbus officers, program directors, committeemen and members volunteered over 42 million hours in community service to youth, hospitals, orphanages, and churches.
• Vocations: aware of the critical need for priests and religious lay persons in today's church, the Knights have vocations committees actively engaged in fostering church vocations through prayer and various promotional activities, which include Pennies for Heaven and Columbus Charities.
• Charitable distributions: donations to charities for the needy, victims of disaster, homes for the aged, community projects, educational purposes, gifts of clothing and food totaling over $94 million last year. Our council assisted with a special fund raiser for Katrina relief during 2006.
• Pro-life: participate in March for Life demonstration at Washington State Capitol during January and some members of the council participate in reciting the rosary at a local abortion clinic each week.
• Insurance protection: over $22 billion of insurance in force. Wide variety of low-cost, top quality life insurance and annuity programs are available to members and their families.
• Catholic Information Service: since 1948 when the program began, the Catholic Information Service has provided free religious pamphlets to millions of inquirers and has enrolled more than 850,000 persons in the Catholic correspondence course. And the mailbox is always open to those who need advice and cannot bring themselves to ring a rectory doorbell.
• Student loans: over 52,000 low interest student loans, representing over $75 million disbursed to Knights of Columbus members and their families since 1971. Without reference to the order, student loans are available to priests, brothers, sisters, seminarians and postulants at the college, seminary, and postgraduate levels.
• Scholarships: educational benefits available to members and their families.
• Educational trust: million-dollar educational trust provides a four-year college education at a Catholic college or university for children of members who are killed or permanently and totally disabled from a cause directly connected with a military conflict or because of criminal violence in the performance of their duties as full-time law-enforcement officers or firefighters.

Post COVID-19 is still to be determined, but when the Knights are needed, we will be there! God Bless! For more information or to ask questions, contact:
Vivat Jesus,
Tony Anderson - Grand Knight
atony@harbornet.com
253-677-9366