Knights of Columbus

[allisonP]

Do any of you know anything about the Knights of Columbus?
There is a Catholic Church here in my town and I went to their website and saw that they hold Knights of Columbus meetings there.
I am curious about this organization.
Thanks.

 

[Maranatha]

I am I Knight. It is a great organization. We perform charitable works and are faithful tot he teachings of the Catholic Church.

 

[scylla]

I am a Knight of Columbus, it is a pretty fun organization. I am the youngest person there, I am 31 and most are a lot older than that. I am trying to get some more younger guys to join, but I do live in an area that was a retirement community, up until recently.

It is a good way to stay involved and become a better Catholic, by keeping involved in the Church, but attendance not too strictly enforced, so for me it doesn’t interfere with my family.

It is pretty fun in that we just try and find ways to help the community and the Church, (the world also). We raise money for missions and charitable causes, we host breakfasts, small trips and donate time to help out the church.

It is kinda like the Water Buffalo organization from the Flinstones in feeling, except we don’t wear huge Buffalo hats.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[allisonP]

The reason I am so curious about this organization is because my father, many years ago, worked with a man who was catholic and used to be a Knight and he showed my father a paper that stated an oath that I find very unchristian.
It said that the Knight would (and this has been a while so I am paraphrasing) kill in defense of the Church or the pope.
So when I saw this on the web site I was taken aback.
Is this organization part of the Church?
Is this true?
Sorry if I offend.
Allie

 

[Orionthehunter]

allisonP:

The reason I am so curious about this organization is because my father, many years ago, worked with a man who was catholic and used to be a Knight and he showed my father a paper that stated an oath that I find very unchristian.
It said that the Knight would (and this has been a while so I am paraphrasing) kill in defense of the Church or the pope.
So when I saw this on the web site I was taken aback.
Is this organization part of the Church?
Is this true?
Sorry if I offend.
Allie

First of all Allison, can you keep a secret? Well I can and a part of the Knights obligation is to not discuss our oath and certain aspects of being a Knight with a person who is not a Knight. As a 3rd Degree Knight, I can tell you generally that the Knights are an organization dedicated to doing God’s work on earth in total conformance to the Teachings of Christ and the Church. The Order has been called “the strong right arm of the Church,” and has been praised by popes, presidents and other world leaders, for support of the Church, programs of evangelization and Catholic education, civic involvement and aid to those in need. For more information on the Knights, you can access this web site: www.kofc.org .

 

[ComradeAndrei]

There was a spurious “Knights of Columbus Oath” that was circulated around the time of the Kennedy election (and I’m sure since then) that was basically the same thing as the spurious “Jesuit Oath” circulated by anti-Catholics earlier this century.

The “Jesuit Oath” was a lie circulated by Seventh Day Adventists (or at least they reprinted it in a illustrated edition of Ellen G. White’s garbage book, “The Great Controversy”) and that is probably where the “Knight’s Oath” got its start.

 

[allisonP]

Ok.
It is good that you can keep a secret.
I suppose that I can assume that by your statement that you are not asked to kill anyone as that would be against the church.

 

[allisonP]

ComradeAndrei:

There was a spurious “Knights of Columbus Oath” that was circulated around the time of the Kennedy election (and I’m sure since then) that was basically the same thing as the spurious “Jesuit Oath” circulated by anti-Catholics earlier this century.

The “Jesuit Oath” was a lie circulated by Seventh Day Adventists (or at least they reprinted it in a illustrated edition of Ellen G. White’s garbage book, “The Great Controversy”) and that is probably where the “Knight’s Oath” got its start.

Thank you!
I have been studying and asking about the Catholic church for a little over a month now and what I “knew” about the Kof C didn’t jibe with what I was learning about.
Thank you for clearing this up.
What my father had been given was probably the propaganda you were speaking of.
Thanks again.

 

[Sir_Knight]

allisonP, I am a fourth degree knight (the highest you can go) and during NONE of my degrees was I required to take any oaths about killing anyone and even doing anything that did not conform to my civil and religious obligations.

Priests & Bishops are active members of the Knights and Pope John Paul II called the Knights of Columbus “the strong right arm of the Catholic Church” – that’s a pretty powerful statement coming from a Pope.

 

[dumspirospero]

Allison…please let me reassure you that the erroneous oath your father’s friend showed him has nothing to do with The Knights of Columbus…as a Knight, I can not tell you about the oaths we take…however, I am more than willing to tell you that none of them involve promising to take someones lives…or doing anything that violates the teachings of Mother Church…or The Gospel. We are a group of very devout Catholic men who are very faithful to The Church, The Pope, and The Magisterium.

allisonP:

The reason I am so curious about this organization is because my father, many years ago, worked with a man who was catholic and used to be a Knight and he showed my father a paper that stated an oath that I find very unchristian.
It said that the Knight would (and this has been a while so I am paraphrasing) kill in defense of the Church or the pope.
So when I saw this on the web site I was taken aback.
Is this organization part of the Church?
Is this true?
Sorry if I offend.
Allie

 

[Gilbert_Keith]

The so-called “Blood Oath” was discredited by a congressional investigation in 1912.

At that time all kinds of local law suits all over the country had to be filed by the Knights against the people and organizations who were falsely reporting it. Every single lawsuit was won by the Knights and eventually the purveyors of this propaganda gave up, though memory of it lingers even into our time as something bigots are glad to suspect about the K of C.

 

[Church_Militant]

allisonP:

The reason I am so curious about this organization is because my father, many years ago, worked with a man who was catholic and used to be a Knight and he showed my father a paper that stated an oath that I find very unchristian.
It said that the Knight would (and this has been a while so I am paraphrasing) kill in defense of the Church or the pope.
So when I saw this on the web site I was taken aback.
Is this organization part of the Church?
Is this true?
Sorry if I offend.
Allie

Hi again Alison!
Have a look at this (Jesuit Oath Debunked ) and maybe print it and give it to your Dad. The guy he talked to was all messed up. The Knights of Columbus are a great bunch of Catholic guys who really do a tremendous amount of work for the Lord. (BTW We have a lot of Knights! I am a Knight of the Immaculata AKA Militia Immaculata and we all are people who are committed to our Lord and te spread of the gospel and doing good works).

Oh yeah! One thing that you really might like and benefit from that the Knights of Columbus finance is The Catholic Home Study Service which is a series of FREE courses on the Catholic faith that are open to anyone. There are 7 courses and I would recommend “We Believe…” to start with. I can vouch for how great they are because I have completed all of them and begged for more! They were very much used of God to bring me home to the faith after I had been gone for over 30 years. (My Testimony ).
Pax tecum,

 

[riverman]

Church Militant:

Oh yeah! One thing that you really might like and benefit from that the Knights of Columbus finance is The Catholic Home Study Service which is a series of FREE courses on the Catholic faith that are open to anyone. There are 7 courses and I would recommend “We Believe…” to start with. I can vouch for how great they are because I have completed all of them and begged for more! They were very much used of God to bring me home to the faith after I had been gone for over 30 years. (My Testimony ).
Pax tecum,

AMEN! I am a 3rd degree Knight and the “Community” chairperson for our council. I help coordinate pro-life walks and other issues involving the community and the Knights. I am currently using these 7 courses. My wife and I are stregnthining our faith using these. If you are looking at the Catholic Church take the time to do these books and see where the truth and the Holy Spirit leads you! God Bless! Who knows, maybe the Holy Spirit will lead you into the Catholic faith!

 

[allisonP]

Thank you all for careing enough to respond, and I will look at the link to those books.
It is good to know that the oath my father was given was false.
I doubt I could ever get him to believe it but it is good to know.
Allison

 

[riverman]

allisonP:

Thank you all for careing enough to respond, and I will look at the link to those books.
It is good to know that the oath my father was given was false.
I doubt I could ever get him to believe it but it is good to know.
Allison

I can attest that I have never had to take an oath as silly as that one. We are good Christian Catholics and stand for the Curch and it’s teachings! We do alot of community work and help support our parishes. If he would like some guidance, he is more than welcome to email me here or post his concerns. We don’t want any misconceptions of the KoC out there.

 

[Brendan]

I’m a Knight.

And I can tell you the only thing we’ve ever discussing killing off at our meetings was a pizza and several 2 liters of diet pepsi.

 

[bengal_fan]

Orionthehunter:

First of all Allison, can you keep a secret? Well I can and a part of the Knights obligation is to not discuss our oath and certain aspects of being a Knight with a person who is not a Knight…

not to start more controversy, but why must you take an oath at all?? Jesus, in the gospel of Matthew:
*Mat 5:34 But I say to you, Take no oaths at all: not by the heaven, because it is the seat of God;
Mat 5:35 Or by the earth, because it is the resting-place for his foot; or by Jerusalem, because it is the town of the great King.
Mat 5:36 You may not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black.
Mat 5:37 But let your words be simply, Yes or No: and whatever is more than these is of the Evil One. *

so again i ask…why must you take a secret oath? why not just say, “i will defend the truths of the church” and leave it at that?
just a question here so please don’t get too defensive.

 

[bengal_fan]

and i do try to live by this…i won’t even take an oath in a court of law…i was involved in a case once and i told the judge i could not “swear” but that i would tell the truth…he accepted that.

 

[Orionthehunter]

bengal_fan:

not to start more controversy, but why must you take an oath at all?? Jesus, in the gospel of Matthew:
*Mat 5:34 But I say to you, Take no oaths at all: not by the heaven, because it is the seat of God;
Mat 5:35 Or by the earth, because it is the resting-place for his foot; or by Jerusalem, because it is the town of the great King.
Mat 5:36 You may not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black.
Mat 5:37 But let your words be simply, Yes or No: and whatever is more than these is of the Evil One. *

so again i ask…why must you take a secret oath? why not just say, “i will defend the truths of the church” and leave it at that?
just a question here so please don’t get too defensive.

That is essentially what we did. We were asked if we would conform to the requirements of membership and we said yes. Regarding the secrecy, it is to stress that this organization is special and to be treated as such.

 

[vern_humphrey]

The oldest Catholic lay order in America, the Ancient Order of Hybernians, while basically like the KofC, has different origins:

Then in the 19th century, the rise of the Native American or Know Nothing Party ushered in an era of unparalleled bigotry in America. Anti- Catholic, anti-Irish sentiment had originally come to the British colonies with the representatives of the Crown and that prejudice was manifested up to the time of the American Revolution. The service of the Irish in Washington.s army mitigated the intensity of that intolerance to a degree, but the basic bigotry had already taken root. The great number of Irish Catholics who arrived diseased and destitute at the time of Ireland.s Great Hunger gave new fuel to those fires of bigotry which were still smouldering. The massive influx of Irish, fleeing starvation in their native land, focused Know Nothing hatred on that unfortunate group, and on the Catholic Church which they supported. Employers closed their doors to Irish workers, and legislation, reminiscent of the penal laws, was sought against the immigrant population who, it was stated, diluted American principles.

After threats and attacks on Irish and Church property in several cities, the Irish immigrant resorted to a familiar tactic. Those societies which had formed as fraternal organizations added a militant dimension to their charters, and stood in defense of Church and community. As they had done in Ireland, some of these organizations banded together. As the Know Nothings expanded nationwide, the need for a national protective society for the Irish increased. On St Patrick.s Day, 1836, a group from the Hibernian Benevolent Society of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, traveled to New York.s annual parade and a meeting with leaders of the St. Patrick.s Fraternal Society to discuss a national merger. Many in both organizations had been member of Ribbon Societies in Ireland, and they agreed that the time had come for an American version of that organization. The members of the Hibernian Benevolent Society returned to Pennsylvania and three month later the Ancient Order of Hibernians was founded simultaneously in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania and at St. James Church in lower Manhattan near the infamous Five Points tenements. True to their purpose, they stood guard to defend Irish and Church property. After their formation, actual attacks were few and far between, but the long, cold, and lonely nights of vigil were many. At about this time, the Ribbon Societies in Ireland also adopted the name Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Order now had connections with the mother country. The early AOH in America remained a secret society, and little is known of its activities except that it provided a monetary stipend to immigrants who arrived as members of the Irish societies, assisted Irish immigrants in obtaining jobs and social services, and, quite naturally, became nurseries for the preservation of their Irish heritage in America.