Leadership Retreats & Thanksgiving Mass

By: Greg Brunson - Wed, Oct 13, 2021 8:08 PM

To Register for retreats:  contact Greg Brunson (810) 824-9533  g.brunson@mikofc.org

For Information of the Mass contact either:  

Greg Brunson (810) 824-9533 g.brunson@mikofc.org

District Deputy Howard Weathington (313) 610-1348 dd130@mikofc.org

 

Beginning October 22nd all councils in Michigan are asked to conduct a Blessed Michael McGivney Novena with October 31st Mass as the tenth day thanking Blessed Michael McGivney for his intercession.    The Novena Prayers and Devotions prayer book (Blessed Michael McGivney Novena) can be found on the State Web Site: www.mikofc.org/resources/Faith-in-action    

Monroe Council 1266 Recognized for International Faith Program Award

By: Gary Merritt - Wed, Oct 13, 2021 8:06 AM

Knights of Columbus-sponsored gathering of men grows by leaps and bounds; breakfasts seeing ‘men’s faith grow right before our eyes’.

 

MONROE — The significance of the honor didn’t fully strike Elliot Alfredson until he began hearing the roll call of awardees at the 139th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in August.

A family from Poland. Councils from cities in the Philippines and Canada. And the winner of the International Faith Program Award? Knights of Columbus Council 1266 from Monroe, Mich., recognized for developing a breakfast program that has rejuvenated the faith of Catholic men in the community and injected new life into the council.

“It was incredible to experience that,” said Alfredson, a member of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Monroe who co-founded the Men’s Prayer Breakfast (MPB), which brings men together for prayer and fraternity at the Knights of Columbus Hall in downtown Monroe on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

The lay-led ministry affectionately calls itself the “Regular Joes,” a nod both to the coffee that fuels the early-morning gatherings and the group’s lack of pretense. “We’re just regular guys who are coming together to share our faith and to grow our faith together,” Alfredson said.

“Prior to MBP, I think most men kept their faith pretty private,” he added. “They didn’t even talk to other guys they saw in church about their faith.”

The program is modeled on a successful men’s prayer breakfast sponsored by Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, which Alfredson joined after going through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and attended weekly prior to moving to Monroe in 2016.

See the video of the Program and read the entire article on Detroit Catholic.

Knight In Right Place At Right Time

By: Gary Merritt - Tue, Oct 12, 2021 1:35 AM

Posen heroes in the right place, at the right time to alert people

One never knows when we will be placed in the right place at the right time to possibly save a life or two, or even more. For Jim Haske of Rogers City, it’s crystal clear. 

He was getting off of work Sept. 28 at about 10 p.m. when the building across the street became fully involved in flames. On each side of the building were homes in close proximity. Jim got them all up and out. 

Since the fire, customer after customer, has been hailing the longtime employee of the Blarney Castle, BP gas station and a member of the Knights of Columbus Rogers City Council 1705 as a hero, and deservedly so. 

John Rasmussen and his family were in the south house and know it was much too close.

“I’m glad everyone is safe,” said Rasmussen. The family of five was sound asleep as the building next door was going up in flames. 

“I’m usually in bed at nine or a little earlier,” said Rasmussen, who is the manager of the gas station where he and Jim Haske work. There were four people in the north house.

“Jim got us out at 9:55 p.m.,” said Rasmussen. Patron Wyatt Romel was the last customer of the day and saw the flames coming from the roof.

 

“They were still awake,” said Haske. “I pounded on their door and Dave Roznowski says, ‘what’s going on.’ I said ‘your garage is on fire, get everyone out now.’ He said, ‘it’s just my woodstove.’ ” After a firsthand glance, he saw it was something much more.

Read the entire article from The Presque Isle County Advance.

 

IMPORTANT SPECIAL OLYMPIC NEWS

By: John Hundiak - Mon, Oct 4, 2021 11:47 AM

Over the decades, the partnership between the Michigan Knights of Columbus and the Michigan Special Olympics has been phenomenal. As part of our ongoing support of Special Olympics, our State Deputy receives a check from Supreme each year specifically for Michigan Special Olympics.  Over the years, these checks totaled up to about $100,000.  These checks were based on the level of reported level of Special Olympic participation by the councils in the State as reported on the Special Olympics Partnership Form (#4584).

This calendar year (yes, January thru December) the amount of council participation will be collected through the Fraternal Programs Report Form (#10784).  The old and retired form (#4584) will not be accepted.  If your information is submitted on the old form, it will not be recorded and it will not be returned to you!  This information was covered at the Summer Leadership meeting as well as the Diocesan meetings.  It will be reviewed again at the Winter Leadership meeting.

To use the form 10784, you will find Special Olympics listed under the Life category.  Simply record your hours worked, activity name and donations and submit the form online.  This form is intended to be submitted multiple times throughout the year.  You do not have to wait until the end of the year to record your activities.  As a bets practice, as you finish a program (any program), you should file a form 10784 to record your activity information.

Additionally, as a “Featured Program” councils that provide at least $2,000 in donations or 200 service hours earn 2 credits toward the Columbian Award.

Thank you for your continued support for Special Olympics and remember every Special Olympic event you attend is a potential recruiting opportunity and an opportunity to showcase our ‘Leave No Neighbor Behind’ programs.

Vivat Jesus!

John Hundiak                                               Willy Winkle

State Special Olympics Director                  Assistant State Special Olympics Director

The True Story of Columbus

By: Gary Merritt - Fri, Oct 1, 2021 5:47 PM

Courage and Conviction is a 30 min. documentary that offers insight into Christopher Columbus' remarkable journey, facts on the encounter of civilizations, details on the origins of Columbus Day and context behind the affinity many immigrants have for Columbus. This film shows why Christopher Columbus remains not only a man worthy of admiration, but a noble icon of what it means to be a Catholic and an America.

Click on The Icon above to view the video

 

 

Five Myths About Columbus

By: Gary Merritt - Fri, Oct 1, 2021 5:37 PM

Outrageous claims about Columbus need to be tempered by a sober look at the historical record;

At a moment when even George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are under attack, it was inevitable that the current unrest would also engulf Christopher Columbus. His case is unique, though, because unlike the others, few people — least of all those who took turns stomping on his statues — know much about him.

They assume that he brought slavery and genocide to the New World. Europeans did, of course, commit many sins. But they did not introduce new evils; all of them — including slavery and genocide — already existed among Indigenous peoples, as they did throughout the world.

One person who knew Columbus personally was the Dominican missionary Bartolomé de las Casas. He earned the name defensor de los indios (“defender of the Indians”) because of his passionate diatribes against exploiters of native peoples in the Americas. Las Casas did not spare Columbus from criticism, but he also defended him against those who blamed him for all the disorders and violence that followed the first contacts with Indigenous peoples.

The great explorer’s missteps, he said, were the result of ignorance and misjudgments about how to proceed: “Truly, I would not dare blame the admiral’s intentions for I knew him well and I knew his intentions were good.”

It’s good, then, to examine some of the contemporary charges against Columbus in order to assess him fairly.

Myth 1: He was a violent man.

Las Casas spoke of Columbus’ “sweetness and benignity.” Far from being a violent man, he often got into difficulties because he would be indulgent — toward natives and Spaniards — and would then take extreme measures against both when things got out of hand. He was a great navigator but a poor governor.

By his third voyage, he was cautioning Ferdinand and Isabella about who they were allowing to sail to the New World. He needed, he said, 60 missionaries to preach Christianity to arrogant and abusive Spaniards, and another 60 upstanding men to help him run the colony.

Myth 2: He committed genocide.

There was no “genocide” during these early voyages, though many natives died from unfamiliar diseases and clashes between two very different cultures. The Americas had been isolated from the rest of the world for millennia, which is why people here, though they had had their own plagues, were especially vulnerable to diseases from outside. Nonetheless, the Spaniards never intended to commit “genocide.” In even a cynical reading, a ready supply of native workers served Spanish interests.

Myth 3: He instituted the slave trade.

Columbus was not interested in the slave trade; his goal was to set up a trading post or, later, an agricultural colony on the island of Hispaniola, today’s Dominican Republic and Haiti. He did, however, take slaves as prisoners of war, or where he found violations of natural law, such as human sacrifice or cannibalism — the only reasons Spain permitted. Slavery was never the admiral’s intention, except as a — not very effective — way to maintain order in unprecedented circumstances.

Myth 4: He had only worldly interests.

People often claim that Columbus was motivated by “God, gold and glory,” but assume God was just a cover for worldly interests. In fact, his religious devotion was sincere. Among other things, we know from his writings that he felt that he had been given a role in spreading the Gospel to all nations, which had to happen before Christ could return. In later years, he often dressed as a Third Order Franciscan.

Myth 5: He did not accomplish anything extraordinary.

Many also claim that Columbus did not “discover” the New World. Those living here already knew where they were, the argument goes, and didn’t need to be discovered. This is a half-truth. Indigenous peoples, of course, knew their own lands. They did not know that they were part of a larger world.

One reason we especially honor Columbus is that he began the process toward the one interconnected world that we now inhabit. Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and reached “the Indies” five years after Columbus arrived in the New World. But great as that feat was, he only found a new route to longknown lands. Columbus, by skill, imagination and sheer grit gave us the world.

Columbus is often dismissed today on other grounds — usually by people who have come to hate “Western civilization” and, frankly, traditional Christianity. They want to blame him for everything wrong on these shores since 1492. Following that logic, though, he deserves some credit — and gratitude — as well, for the many good things that also followed his discoveries.

 

ROBERT ROYAL  director of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., and a member of St. John Bosco Council 12846 in Springfield, Va. His latest book, Columbus and the Crisis of the West, will be published by Sophia Institute Press this fall.