IWKnights Corner For February 28, 2021
(2nd Sunday in Lent)

Did you know this about the IW Knights of Columbus?

IN HIS 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, St. John Paul II urged the Church to build a new 'solidarity and communion' across the continent’s different cultures.  He observed, 'America, which historically has been, and still is, a melting-pot of peoples, has recognized in the mestiza face of … Blessed Mary of Guadalupe an impressive example of a perfectly inculturated evangelization'.

Supreme Knight Anderson (who is retiring on March 1st after a 20 year term) dedicated the Order to Our Lady of Guadalupe during his installation the following year, and later called Ecclesia in America 'the document that most comprehensively affects the mission of the Knights of Columbus.'  He noted that 'the ability of our Order to overcome divisions of language, heritage, ethnicity and geography already suggests the potential for ‘solidarity and communion’ within our hemisphere.'

In 2002, Pope John Paul II canonized St. Juan Diego, the native layman to whom she appeared in 1531.  To help spread devotion and Our Lady’s message, the Knights of Columbus has since sponsored a series of events, beginning with a 2003 U.S. tour of a relic of St. Juan Diego’s tilma — the cloak on which the image of Our Lady was miraculously imprinted.  In 2007, the Order organized a speaking tour with Msgr. Eduardo Chávez, the postulator for St. Juan Diego’s cause of canonization and later co-author with Supreme Knight Anderson of Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love.

Other major K of C-sponsored events have included an international Marian Congress and Guadalupe Festival in Phoenix in 2009 and the Guadalupe Celebration in Los Angeles in 2012, drawing tens of thousands of people.  The Knights also organized international gatherings, including a Vatican conference on Ecclesia in America in collaboration with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Meanwhile, the Knights of Columbus has promoted solidarity and communion among the continent’s Catholics by preserving and celebrating their history — supporting existing shrines and building new ones.  In honor of the canonization of St. Junípero Serra, the Apostle of California, and Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, the Order donated $600,000 to the historic Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in New York in 2015.  Construction is currently underway in New Mexico on a new Shrine of St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

Find more about the Knights of Columbus at  IWKnights9981.com/bulletin or in facebook.com/IWknights9981 and NOW on Twitter at twitter.com/IwKnights.

Links Related to this week’s column:

Evangelizing the American Continent
	IN HIS 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, St. John Paul II urged the Church to build a new “solidarity and communion” across the continent’s different cultures.. . .
		By Knights of Columbus (2/1/2021)
			Click here for Website

Prayer for Protection in Time of Pandemic
	A Novena which seeks Our Lady’s Intercession for Protection in Time of Pandemic
		By His Holiness, Pope Francis (3/2020)
		A PRAYER FOR PROTECTION IN TIME OF PANDEMIC (PDF Version)
				Click here for the Prayer