‘Unity, Charity, Fraternity’

Princeton Knights of Columbus to mark century of service

By: Michael Redmond
   Most of the 36 signatures on the documents, which are dated Dec. 16, 1906, are bold and vivid, as was the style of handwriting in those days.
   Most of the names are Irish — McKay, McCarthy, Foley, Sullivan, O’Connell, Higgins, Flynn, Kelly, Lanahan, Byrne.
   Most of the occupations are working class or lower middle class – janitor, carpenter, printer, bank clerk, plumber, lumber dealer, laborer, tailor, railroad agent.
   Robert F. Murray of 139 Nassau St. put down his occupation as "Electrician," which one imagines to have been a high-tech job in 1906. George Anthony Hopkins simply put down his occupation as "Student, Princeton University."
   The documents in question are the charter applications that brought into existence the Princeton Council, No. 636, of the Order of Knights of Columbus, the Roman Catholic fraternal organization which today has more than 12,000 councils throughout the United States as well as Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and The Philippines. Just this year, six councils were chartered in Poland.
   Few active KOC councils anywhere can look back on a century of history. The Princeton council, which has been associated from the start with the parish of St. Paul’s Church, takes a certain quiet pride in that.
   The council’s 100th anniversary will be observed on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 5:30 p.m. with a Mass at St. Paul’s Church to be celebrated by the Most Reverend John M. Smith, Bishop of Trenton, with Monsignor Walter E. Nolan, St. Paul’s pastor, and Father Michael G. Dunn and Father Neil Saller as concelebrants. Following the Mass, the celebration will continue with a dinner-dance to be held at Charlie Brown’s in Kingston.
   Princeton’s Knights, active and retired, will be out in force for the occasion, some coming in from out-of-state, and they will be wearing the order’s impressive ceremonial garb, which has largely created the KOC’s public image. There’s no missing the Knights during papal visits or when high-ranking clergy officiate at especially noteworthy church functions.
   But KOC membership goes way beyond pomp and circumstance, as any Knight can tell you. The order began humbly, as a mutual benefit organization for working men, and has grown into one of the most active service organizations in the world.
   According to the national KOC, in 2005 alone, nearly $138 million was raised to support a broad range of charities, nonsectarian as well as Catholic. The Knights contributed 64 million hours of voluntary service in 2005. Nearly 400,000 of them donated blood. They made more than five million visits to the sick and the bereaved. The year’s figures reflect the KOC’s open-handed response to relief efforts on the Gulf Coast, which brought KOC volunteers to Louisiana and Mississippi from all over North America.
   The Princeton Council, under the leadership of Grand Knight Manolo Capili of West Windsor, continues to support its longstanding commitments, mostly behind the scenes. One of these — the Health Care Ministry of Princeton, founded in 1984 — provides support services enabling Princeton-area elderly to continue living at home. Council 636 helps to support St. Paul’s School and a number of annual events — the provision of Christmas gifts for inner-city children, an Easter egg hunt, and relief appeals, such as those in aftermath of Sept. 11. The council supports youth activities, scholarships and the Loaves and Fishes Project, which provides meals for the needy in Trenton.
   Council 636 has 92 members, which a member described as "a good mix, although it’s the retired fellows who turn out regularly for meetings. So many of the young men work in New York and other places far away from town. Many organizations are hurting for membership, but we’re holding steady."
   The KOC itself is for men only, but "the wives help — a lot."
   The KOC was founded in 1882 in New Haven, Conn., by a visionary curate, only 29 years old, by name of Father Michael J. McGivney. Its primary purpose was mutual aid — "to unite the men of our faith … that we may thereby gain strength to aid each other in time of sickness, to provide for decent burial, and to render pecuniary assistance to the families of deceased members."
   According to the University of Virginia’s Religious Movements Homepage Project:
   "The adoption of the name ‘Knights of Columbus’ allows one to appreciate the motivations of the initial members. By adopting Columbus as their patron, it is evident that these members wanted to demonstrate their pride in their American-Catholic heritage by affirming the discovery of America as a Catholic event. By calling themselves ‘Knights,’ they demonstrated their willingness to combat the strong anti-Catholic and anti-Irish sentiment of New Englanders. This was a group of men trying to accommodate themselves to an American way of life by pledging their loyalty to their Church, to each other, and to America."
   The rest is history.
   In 1997 the "cause" for the canonization of Father McGivney — the official process — was opened by the Diocese of Hartford, Conn. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican is currently reviewing the petition and investigating Father McGivney’s life and works.
   For more information about the centennial Mass and the anniversary dinner, call Peter Doviak at (609) 921-2718, Anthony Franze at (609) 683-9733, Norberto Perez at (609) 430-4912 or Robert Shaughnessy at (609) 924-0073. Council 636 accepts sponsorships and donations. The council meets monthly on the second Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of St. Paul’s School.