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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
MARCH 16, 1957.
EIGHT
K. OF C. BEGINS JUBILEE OBSERVANCE MARCH 29
Founded In 1882,
Million Members
More than a million members of
the Knights of Columbus, world’s
largest fraternal benefit society
of Catholic men will open, on
March 29, an extensive program
celebrating the Diamond Jubilee
of the organization chartered on
'that date, in 1882, by the General
Assembly of the State of Connec
ticut.
The society founded 75 years
ag in New Haven, Conn., by Rev.
Michael J. McGivney with a small
group of members of St. Mary’s
parish, where he was a curate, has
since spread throughout the Unit
ed States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba,
Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
The Knights’ anniversary trib-
It Now Boasts
In Five Countries
ute to their founder will be ex
pressed Sunday, March 31, when,
in the presence of dignitaries of
Church and State, his bronze sta
tue, in heroic size, will be un
veiled and dedicated in Water-
bury, Conn., where he was born
August 12, 1852.
Grinding poverty, plus the de
termination to do something about
relieving its effects on family life,
was the beginning from which has
come an organization with assets
of $120 million, $650 million in
surance in force on its members
and which has paid $1.20 million
to them and their beneficiaries.
Fairly recent reports of the ac
quisition by the Knights of Col-
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umbus of the Yankee Stadiuminstitution for graduate scholar
ships. In the famous “Oregon
school case,” and in similar situa
tion, the society led the fight
which resulted in Supreme Court
decisions upholding the right of
parents to educate their children
in parochial schools.
The Knights have just complet
ed the work, begun in 1951, of
micro-filming almost 10 million
pages of manuscripts preserved in
the Vatican Library. These repro
ductions are now available to
American scholars at the K. of C.
Vatican Film Library at St. Louis
University and master films of
the collection have been stored in
a place safe from wait or disaster
damage.
site, and other sizable financial
deals, reflect only one of the
many phases of the society’s
growth from its humble begin
ning.
Although the original and still
strongly maintained purpose of
the K. of C., was to provide finan
cial aid for the widows and chil
dren of its members, there was
built into its charter the blueprint
of more general service to church,
state and community.
Soon after its founding, its
primary purpose was expanded to
include activities by local, state
and Supreme or international,
Councils in the fields of social
welfare, aid to religion, patriotic
endeavor, civic betterment, aid to
education and similar projects.
Early in their existence, the
Knights established a chair of
American History at the Catholic
University of America and later
contributed $500,000 to the same
Immediately after World War
II, the Knights established a mil-
lion-dollar scholarship fund which
is providing a complete college
education for sons and daughters
of members who were killed or
totally disabled in military* serv
ice. Recently, the provisions were
extended to cover Korean war
service.
Since 1948, the society has spent
almost $5 million advertising
Catholic doctrine and practices
in paid space in newspapers and
magazines. As a result, more than
two-and-a-half million inquiries
have been received at the K. of CL
Religious Information Bureau, in
St. Louis, Mo., and the program
has been praised by non-Catholid
as well as Catholic leaders. .
Activities of the Knights', in the
field of patriotic endeavor range
from the operation of tine still-
remembered “K. of C. Huts,” dur
ing World War I, at training
camps in the United Stated hnd
Canada and at the front hues in
France under the slogan. “Every
body Welcome, Everything Free,”
to the campaign, inaugurated in
1951, which led to the inclusion,
in 1954, of the words “under God”
(Continued on Page 9)
The present headquarters building of the Knights of Columbus at New Haven, Conn., from which all the
operations of the million-member fraternal benefit society are directed.
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