Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Knights of Columbus presented a check to Catholic University of America on the steps of the university's McMahon Hall in 1904 to establish a Chair of American History. Since its earliest days, the Knights of Columbus has been a "Catholic anti-defamation society." [130] In 1914, it established a Commission on Religious Prejudices. [130]
The Knights of Columbus were politically active from an early date. In the years following the Second Vatican Council, however, according to Christopher Kauffman, the Catholic anti-defamation character of the order began to diminish as Catholics became more accepted, and the leadership of the order attempted to stimulate the order's membership to become more aware of the religious and moral ...
Christopher Columbus is the patron and namesake of the Knights.. Taking the name of Columbus was partially intended as a mild rebuke to Anglo-Saxon Protestant leaders, who upheld the explorer (a Genovese Italian Catholic who had worked for Catholic Spain) as an American hero, yet simultaneously sought to marginalize recent Catholic immigrants.
The Knights of Columbus was among the first groups to recruit blood donors, with formal efforts dating to 1937 during the Great Depression. As of 2013, the order had more than 1.8 million member families and 15,000 councils. During the 2012 fraternal year, the order donated $167 million and 70 million man-hours to charity. [7]
The Knights of Columbus was the first organization to provide college scholarships to veterans returning home from World War I. [51] The War Activities Committee first announced in August 1919 that 50 scholarships would be awarded, including tuition, fees, books, equipment, and room and board. [51]
The Columbian Squires is an international youth fraternity run by the Knights of Columbus for Catholic boys between the ages of 10 and 18. Its stated mission is "to develop young men as leaders who understand their Catholic religion, who have a strong commitment to the Church and who are ready, willing and capable of patterning their lives after the Youth Christ."
Freemasonry was an important catalyst in the founding of the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of Peter Claver in the United States [131] and the Knights of the Southern Cross in Australia, because one of the attractions of Freemasonry was that it provided a number of social services unavailable to non-members (e.g., devout Catholics). [132]
Eisenhower was instrumental in the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 (an act highly promoted by the Knights of Columbus), and the 1956 adoption of "In God We Trust" as the motto of the US, and its 1957 introduction on paper currency. He composed a prayer for his first inauguration, began his Cabinet meetings ...