IWKnights Corner (Bulletin Insert) for March 3, 2019

Did you know this about the IW Knights of Columbus?

Some 17,000 young people gathered for Mass Jan. 12 at the annual conference of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).  They stood in reverence as a reliquary holding the incorrupt heart of St. Jean-Marie Vianney was solemnly processed into the convention center in Indianapolis.  Throughout the conference, participants waited in long lines to approach the relic for personal veneration.

There have been similar scenes in churches and chapels across the United States since the “Heart of a Priest” pilgrimage, organized by the Knights of Columbus, began last November.  The relic has been entrusted to the Order by the Shrine of Ars, France, where St. Jean Vianney (1786-1859) served for more than 40 years.

The possibility of the pilgrimage was first presented last spring, before the clergy sexual abuse crisis erupted.  In September, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson suggested that the pilgrimage would serve as a “spiritual response” to the crisis, remarking,  “We welcome as providential this opportunity to invoke the intercession of the patron of parish priests, whose holiness and integrity are a singular model for clergy.”

Father Patrice Chocholski, St. Jean Vianney’s successor as curé, or pastor, of Ars and rector of the shrine there, brought the relic to the 136th Supreme Convention in Baltimore last August.  The pilgrimage officially began Nov. 10 at St. Mary’s Spiritual Center in Baltimore, in the chapel where Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, prayed during his seminary studies.  While in Baltimore, the relic was present at the U.S. bishops’ Fall General Assembly during a full day of spiritual discernment and prayer, as well as at two area seminaries.

Following stops in New Haven, Conn., where Father Chocholski offered a series of reflections at St. Mary’s Church and the Knights of Columbus Museum, the relic has visited dozens of cities from New Orleans to Atlanta to Washington, D.C.

The pilgrimage continues until early June and will stop in St. Louis, at the Cathedral Basilica, on Friday, March 15th.

Find the link to the entirety of this article feature on the KofC.org web site at www.IWKnights.com/bulletin or at facebook.com/IWknights9981 and NOW on Twitter at twitter.com/IwKnights.

Links Related to this week’s column:

• HEART OF A PRIEST
  THOUSANDS OF CATHOLICS VENERATE THE INCORRUPT HEART OF ST. JEAN VIANNEY AS IT MAKES A NATIONWIDE PILGRIMAGE
  by Columbia staff - Knights of Columbus (2/1/2019)
  • There have been similar scenes in churches and chapels across the United States since the “Heart of a Priest” pilgrimage, organized by the Knights of Columbus, began last November. The relic has been entrusted to the Order by the Shrine of Ars, France, where St. Jean Vianney (1786-1859) served for more than 40 years..
    • http://www.kofc.org/en/columbia/detail/heart-of-a-priest.html