By: Gary Merritt - Mon, Aug 3, 2020 1:11 PM

To continue Building a Culture of Life an interview took place with Brian Cusack, Director of Development, Michigan Right to Life. 

 To view this interview click on the photo below.

 Ed & Lynn Strach Pro-Life Couple  Michigan State Council Knights of Columbus 

By: Gary Merritt - Tue, Jul 28, 2020 1:14 PM

Parents: Baby miraculously cured in utero by

   Fr. McGivney, now 5, ‘has changed our life’

DICKSON, Tenn. (CNS) -- Mikey Schachle, 5 years old, climbs onto a stump in the yard of his family's home in Dickson.

He carefully takes stock of the short distance to the trampoline buried in the ground below him, then slowly steps off the stump into space and falls happily onto the trampoline as some of his 12 brothers and sisters surround him with smiles and hugs.

It's a scene that would have been impossible for his parents, Dan and Michelle Schachle, to imagine five years ago when they sat in a doctor's office to hear that their still unborn son had zero chance of living more than a few days or weeks.

It took a miracle to save Mikey. 

On May 27, Pope Francis approved the promulgation of a decree recognizing Mikey's cure from a deadly case of fetal hydrops while still in his mother's womb as a miracle attributed to the intercession of Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. With the approval of the miracle, Father McGivney, who now has the title of "Venerable," will be beatified and receive the title "Blessed."

I think God had a plan for Father McGivney. I think God had a plan for Michael," Dan Schachle said of his son's miraculous cure. "You have to be open to God's grace, you have to be open to God's plan, because if you're not open to God's plan, he can't use you."

You may read the entire Article from Detroit Catholic  

Steps to Sainthood

By: Gary Merritt - Sun, Jul 26, 2020 1:12 PM

Fr. Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus Catholic fraternal organization, will be beatified on October 31, 2020 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints announced this week.  The congregation made the announcement July 20.

A miracle credited to the intercession of McGivney was approved by the Vatican and announced by Pope Francis on May 27. A child who was diagnosed as terminally ill in the womb was miraculously healed following prayers for the intercession of Fr. McGivney. 

The priest’s beatification Mass is expected to be celebrated in his native Connecticut. 

McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut, 1882. Initially, the organization was intended to assist widows and their families upon the deaths of their husbands. It has grown into a worldwide Catholic fraternal order, with more than 2 million members carrying out works of charity and evangelization across the globe. The Knights also offer life insurance policies to their members. 

In 2018, the Knights’ 16,000 councils worldwide donated more than $185 million to charity and gave over 76 million hours of hands-on service in 2018, worth over $1.9 billion according to a valuation of volunteer work by the Independent Sector. Their volunteer work included support for the Special Olympics, coat drives, and food drives for needy families. 

Between 2017 and 2018, the Knights raised and delivered $2 million for the Iraqi town of Karamles; the Knights have helped Christian survivors of the ISIS genocide in the town resettle in their homes and rebuild for the future. 

In an audience granted to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson earlier this year, Pope Francis praised the organization’s “particular faithful witness to the sacredness and dignity of human life, evident at both the local and national levels.”

He also noted the Knights’ dedication to aiding, “both materially and spiritually, those Christian communities in the Middle East that are suffering the effects of violence, war and poverty.”

“In our world, marked by divisions and inequalities, the generous commitment of your Order to serve all in need offers, especially to young people, an important inspiration to overcome a globalization of indifference and build together a more just and inclusive society,” Francis said in February.

Beatification, being declared “blessed” by the Church, is the final step of recognition before a person can be declared a saint.

McGivney will become the fourth U.S.-born man to be beatified, joining Bl. Stanley Rother, Bl. James Miller, and Bl. Solanus Casey. 

While the Church has recognized three women born in the United States as saints--St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Katharine Drexel, and St. Kateri Tekawitha--there have been no  U.S.-born canonized men.

The Vatican also announced this week that the beatifications of two others, Benigna Cardoso and Fr. Giuseppe Ambrosoli, will be postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Their beatifications had previously been scheduled for October 21 and November 22, respectively. Cardoso was set to be beatified in Brazil, one of the hotspots of the virus, and Ambrosoli in Uganda, where he served as a missionary priest.

Catholic News

By: Gary Merritt - Tue, Jul 14, 2020 1:18 PM

To view the latest Michigan Columbian click on the above logo.

By: Gary Merritt - Wed, Jul 1, 2020 1:23 AM

 To promote the activities of our local councils around the State, various council programs will be posted here.

 Send your stories of worthy council programs along with pics to

g.merritt@mikofc.org

Iron River Council 2300 Iron River

Knights cleaned and painted the Iron County Ice Arena in Caspian in preparation for the opening hockey game of the season.

St. Michael Council 13799 Sterling Heights 

The council donated $1,000 to Wreaths Across America to sponsor the placement of wreaths on the graves of veterans at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton Township. Council members also assisted in laying the wreaths.

Pope John XXIII Assembly 1536 Plymouth

The council sponsored a coat collection for veterans. Over a period of three weeks, Knights and family members collected, sorted and delivered more than 600 coats to several veterans’ service organizations in southeastern Michigan.

St. Francis Council 13958 Traverse City

The council sponsored a “piggy raffle” to raise funds for Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids®. A local high school student donated the hog, which he raised as part of a 4-H project. Members drew two winning tickets; the pig was butchered and the winners split the pork. The council used the proceeds to donate more than 60 coats and 30 snow pants to The Father Fred Foundation, a Traverse City nonprofit offering food, clothing and financial assistance to local people in need.

   St. Sebastian Council 14642 Byron Center &

Pope John Paul II Council 13760 Wyoming

Knights from both councils worked together to hold a Christmas breakfast at Holy Name of Jesus Parish. Members bought and prepared breakfast for a record 400 people and distributed gifts to the children, raising $500 for Council 13760’s projects.

St. Stephen Council 15691 Grand Rapids

Members of the Council at St. Stephens Parish spent a warmest morning of the year spreading mulch, trimming trees and bushes and cleaning up around the church and school grounds. Father Scott Nolan and transitional Deacon Noah Thelen pitched in also. In the pictures you will notice the Priest working and the Deacon trying to figure which end of the pitchfork to use lol.

 Bishop Allen J. Babcock Council 7341 Caledonia

Holy Family Church provides a great viewing area for the community fireworks display allowing everyone to use their parking lot which is next to the launch site. Admission to the lot was a non-perishable food item which the members of the parish Knights collected and donated to the food pantry. Over 500 pounds of food along with monetary donations of over $400.00 were collected in this unique & fun program to feed the hungry in the local area.

Msgr. Victor Gallagher Council 12668 Reed City

One of the projects this Council has been working on is 2 Pro Life benches to be placed at St. Ann and Mt. Olivet Cemetery's locally. The Knights belong to St Philip Neri parish in Reed City. The dedication and Blessing will take place on Sunday July 5, 2020.

 Michigan Technological University Council 17237 Houghton

College Knights and their council chaplain, Father Dustin Larson, distribute information and recruit members at SLS20: You Were Made for Mission, a youth conference presented by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Nearly 9,000 people, including more than 4,500 college students, attended the five-day event in Phoenix,AZ.

By: Gary Merritt - Wed, May 20, 2020 7:30 PM

Because of it’s popularity the Supreme Council continues to host online exemplification ceremonies while social distancing rules are in effect. We ask that you promote them heavily.

Supreme has streamlined the procedures to make it as easy as possible for candidates to participate and for councils to process them. We are offering six online ceremonies over the next two weeks to accommodate a variety of schedules and time zones.

A candidate or observer can choose a ceremony that best fits his schedule. If a first choice is closed out due to capacity limitations, he should pick another time slot that still has openings.

Remember this is a great way for your first-degree members to advance.

The procedure to follow is very simple.

  ·     Grand knights or financial secretaries invite eligible candidates for admission and advancement to participate by forwarding this downloadable PDF invitation to them.

Provide each candidate with your council number and instruct them to register for the exemplification of their choice by clicking on the associated link within the PDF. Tell them that their families are welcome, and encouraged, to observe. For your benefit, the ceremony schedule is as follows: 

ENGLISH   May 21 - 7:00 PM EDT   May 21 - 10:00 PM EDT

  ·     Follow up with the candidates to guide them through the registration as needed.

   ·     Candidates should log in no earlier than 15 minutes prior to the exemplification. 

   ·     After the ceremony, process the candidates by submitting form 100s the old way, or electronically in Officers Online. 

 Note that candidates for admission must be approved by your council. You may coordinate electronic voting for them using the temporary rules for electronic voting found HERE. 

By: Gary Merritt - Tue, May 19, 2020 7:30 PM

More than 100 years ago, Knights served on the front lines against the deadliest pandemic in modern history

News stories about the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 sound strikingly familiar today: reports on schools closing, church services being suspended and temporary hospital wards being set up.

Equally familiar are news headlines about how the Knights of Columbus responded. One headline in the Oakland Tribune on Oct. 26, 1918, read, “K.C. Order May Donate Hospital; Knights are Busy Caring for Sick.” The next day, a San Antonio newspaper reported, “K.C. Secretaries Fight Influenza.”

These K of C secretaries, or “Caseys,” were the men who staffed the Order’s network of military recreation huts during World War I — and they were in a prime position to help. Military bases, where thousands lived in close quarters, were hit hard by the virus.

Although many huts were ordered to close to slow the spread of flu, secretaries found ways to continue their work. At Camp Dix, N.J., where outdoor events were still permitted, Caseys showed outdoor “moving pictures” to huge audiences each night; others delivered reading material and stationery to soldiers quarantined at Camp Dodge, Iowa. In San Antonio, secretaries donned masks to visit with soldiers hospitalized at Kelly Field.

As the number of flu patients mounted at Camp Zachary Taylor in Kentucky, one of the Army’s largest training camps, the Knights’ hut became a temporary hospital ward and scores of Catholic religious sisters volunteered to serve as nurses.

By the time the pandemic had ended, an estimated 500 million people had been infected with the Spanish flu — about a quarter of the world’s population. The death toll worldwide was 50 million. More than 3,000 members of the Order — nearly a million strong at the time — succumbed to the deadly disease.

A Sister of Charity of Nazareth working at Camp Taylor recalled how much the K of C secretaries helped through the difficult months as approximately 800 soldiers in the camp died.

“The Knights of Columbus were engaged for the greater part of the day and night,” she wrote in 1920 in a report for the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs. “It was they who found the Catholic sick and piloted the priests to them. Without such aid, the priests could never have found their way to so many.”

The sister concluded, “The Sisters could go to the Knights of Columbus for anything they wanted in the way of extras for their boys, and whatever was wanted would be gotten.”

By CECILIA HADLEY senior editor of Supreme Columbia magazine.

By: Gary Merritt - Tue, May 19, 2020 7:30 PM

You won’t miss walking up that last hill to the Grand Hotel for the convention, but you will miss several communications normally distributed in the registration packets. Some of the missing reports may be found on mikofc.org/Resources/2020 Convention/Reports linked HERE. 

Worthy Brother Knights, I hope you and your families are well.

Our State Convention will be next Saturday May 23, 2020 at 2:00 pm.

If you would like to listen to the Virtual Convention, please see the number below to give you access. This number is for non-Delegates only.

All Delegates will receive a phone call from FLS Thursday or Friday with instructions on how to attend the convention meeting.

Again, the numbers below are for non-Delegates only.

Dial in number: 978-990-5160   Access Code: 6507716

God Bless, Bill Chasse SD

To view the Convention Service Program Awards Ceremony, use these live links on Saturday 5/23/20 at NOON. - Facebook - You Tube  

By: Gary Merritt - Sat, May 16, 2020 7:30 PM

To view the latest Michigan Columbian click on the above logo.

By: Gary Merritt - Sat, May 16, 2020 7:30 PM

You won’t miss walking up that last hill to the Grand Hotel for the convention, but you will miss several communications normally distributed in the registration packets. Some of the missing reports may be found on mikofc.org/Resources/2020 Convention/Reports linked HERE. 

Worthy Brother Knights, I hope you and your families are well.

Our State Convention will be next Saturday May 23, 2020 at 2:00 pm.

If you would like to listen to the Virtual Convention, please see the number below to give you access. This number is for non-Delegates only.

All Delegates will receive a phone call from FLS Thursday or Friday with instructions on how to attend the convention meeting.

Again, the numbers below are for non-Delegates only.

Dial in number: 978-990-5160   Access Code: 6507716

God Bless, Bill Chasse SD

To view the Convention Service Program Awards Ceremony, use these live links on Saturday 5/23/20 at NOON. - Facebook - You Tube