Top 50: New Haven-based Knights of Columbus act locally and globally
There, the team met a young woman who had not only had her legs amputated due to the injuries she suffered in the earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people, she also had lost her entire family.
She responded: " 'The first thing I am going to do is go to church and thank God,' "
"We gave the wheelchairs away ... and most of those people would not have had their legs amputated if this had happened in the
But even in considering the very dire prospects of a young woman in
The answer, so meaningful a bestowal to the Knights, highlights an example of one of the goals of the worldwide fraternal Catholic organization founded in
"What kind of a gift is that to us to hear that. So, we give a wheelchair, which basically costs the same as a good pair of shoes. What is the gift she gives us?"
"And so that lesson, that exchange of gifts is what this society needs more of," he said.
In partnership with the Global Wheelchair mission, the Knights have funded the cost of more than 64,000 wheelchairs for people around the world,
While the
For example, the Knights in 2017 set a record for the organization, continuing to increase its charitable giving, noting
Good works
The Rev.
The organization allows Catholic men to share their faith together, spread the message of the Gospel, as well as what he called "self-donation" through acts of giving to others. "Self-donation furthers the welfare of all humanity," Sullivan said. "There is a great giving feeling of love (of) another ... that is really at the center of what it is to be a human being."
The
It committed more than
Further, with the Apostles of Jesus, the Knights sponsored construction of schools and food distribution centers for AIDS orphans in
The Knights also gave financial support to families of fallen first responders after 9/11, donated
Mayor
For example, she said the Knights last year opened the building for the
"A lot of their people, executive staff were there and were very supportive of the symphony and culture here," Harp said. "It's, I think, indicative of what they do beyond what I know they do internationally to help some of the most devastated countries that are afflicted with so many of the problems we see around the world to know that they're there, but they are also here, too."
Among its programs designed to help people at a local level, the
"Now when you give that child a new coat, her face lights up or his face lights up. ... Sometimes the mom or the dad are there and their face lights up. It's an exchange,"
"What really is important and what we need more of, is people connecting with each other, and connecting in a way in which they can make what I would call an exchange of gifts," he said.
The mission of humanitarian work dates back more than a century.
From a
The Rev.
McGivney "knew that if Catholic men banded together, united by charity and unity, they could strengthen their faith, their families, and their communities," the Knights website recounts.
"And so, you have to have an understanding of his life. ... Here's somebody, one of 13 children, six of his brothers and sisters die in infancy,"
"And then when he goes back to seminary, his two brothers follow him. So he's obviously concerned, here's the mother raising the daughters without the breadwinner, or at least without the principle breadwinner at that time," he said.
"When you see Father McGivney starting the Knights, he's got in
McGivney also understood that this was an immigrant community, but also the prejudice against Catholics and conditions they lived in and they saw him as a great leader. He knew that, as his church is right across from Yale, that this is a very diverse community, "You have immigrants, you have working poor and at the same time you have one of the top intellectual centers of the country, one of the top intellectual centers in
"So there's a lot in
"I think the other thing that's important to us is devotion to the founder and certainly that varies throughout the membership, but many, many Knights have a real strong devotion to Father McGivney,"
"So you can't really feel strongly about Father McGivney without recognizing what laid heavily on his heart and his real dedication to try to find an organization, a mechanism, by which help could be provided to these kinds of families facing tragedy," he said. "You see time and again in his pastoral ministry as a priest here but also in the Knights; how do we reach out and help in these circumstances. If you're a dedicated Knight, if you are dedicated to Father McGivney you have to have this kind of sensitivity to families in trouble, families needing help and individuals in these kinds of circumstances."
While McGivney was buried in
"When we pray there (at St. Mary's), we are physically close to his person and to where he lived and worked, including his great pastoral initiative, the
Having the Knight's patron church in the city enriches the community and the Yale campus, Harp said.
"It's really a beautiful church and again open to everyone as part of
A commitment to the city
The draw of Father McGivney in
And it has been sustainable. According to the Knights: the organization's current insurance in force is more than
While there is a lot of economic pressure being between
"The diversity in New Haven I think was also part of the reason why the Knights were able to move so quickly throughout
"People may think it corny to talk about a brother Knight but I think the friendship can go deep...the idea you have got to be there for a brother knight and you have got to be there his family. you see that over and over again"
An iconic building
Harp, who grew up in
The building -- with it unique 4-pillar "Dinkeloo" architecture (architects were
COURTESY KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUSThe Knights of
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COURTESY KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUSThe Knights of
COURTESY KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUSThe Knights of
This was in part because Harp was no stranger to the Knights: as she was growing up, the local
"The journey that we have been on around race, it's changed a lot since then -- but the local K of C was always available to our communities, communities of color and for people who wanted to do things in the neighborhood that I grew up in," Harp said. "And so I knew that it was an important place there."
"I thought that without knowing much (yet about the organization) because of the relationship that I had as a young person to that organization, The fact that they were open and did things on our community out West," she said. "Almost every community has a KOC for their headquarters to be here is really quite special."
Part of the city identity
"I know they give a lot to
Harp said that that there was a point when the city was thinking about developing in the area of the Knights building and "the real question became how would it impact" the organization, "that building, the property that they have there."
"It was really clear to us that we had to work with them," she said. "We wanted everything that we can to make it comfortable for them to remain in
Worldwide reach
Through the
The Knights advocated for Mexican Catholics during persecution in the 1920s and for those "behind the Iron Curtain" during the Cold War, defended Jews in Nazi
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Part 3 of 50: Revisiting the Milgram Obedience Experiment conducted at Yale
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Part 4 of 50: Studies at Yale led to chemotherapy field
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Part 6 of 50: Yale -- Quinnipiac Frozen Four match-up a shining moment for
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Part 7 of 50: More than a century of
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Part 9 of 50: Generations of rock stars lit up the Elm City
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11 out of 50. Extreme weather has shaped the way we live in
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Part 2 of 50: From New Haven to
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Part 3 of 50: Revisiting the Milgram Obedience Experiment conducted at Yale
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Part 4 of 50: Studies at Yale led to chemotherapy field
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Part 6 of 50: Yale -- Quinnipiac Frozen Four match-up a shining moment for
Part 6 of 50: Yale -- Quinnipiac Frozen Four match-up a shining moment for
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Part 7 of 50: More than a century of
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11 out of 50. Extreme weather has shaped the way we live in
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12 out of 50:
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Part 13 of 50: Trials over 4 centuries in
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Part 14 of 50: An historic loss of life in
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A museum for everyone
"I think one of the things that we found in the last 17 years was the opening of our museum, that's been a way of sharing a bit of our history which of course is so connected to
"We tried to bring interesting exhibits to the city," he said, noting, for instance, one on the building of St Peter's Basilica. "We tried to make a contribution to the cultural life of the city which reaches out beyond the specific
"
Reach Executive Editor
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