Which Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Color Guard Uniform Do You Prefer?

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babochka:
Off topic, but since there seem to be a fair number of Knights in this discussion, I’ll ask.

What is a practical Catholic?
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Candidates go before an admission committee. They affirm that they are a practical Catholic as understood by the Church. This means Eastern or Western Catholic, in union with the pope. It also means they are living in agreement with the sacraments - go to Mass regularly, not violating the Church’s teaching on marriage, etc. The good faith of the candidate is presumed, unless there is reason otherwise.
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So, what the rest of us would call a practicing Catholic or a faithful Catholic? Did the term originate with the Knights? They seem to be the only organization that uses it.
 
babochka said:
Until fairly recently, I didn’t even know that the Knights of Columbus had their own halls. It has always been parish-based in this area.
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I am not sure how the trend began for knights to have their own halls - and independent from any parish. It has its plus and minus side.

My own council build 2 large halls at a time when the nearby parishes were crowded, and all their buildings were busy. Today, sadly, it is a different story.

I can see that it is a good idea to have all new councils based in parishes, but it is very complicated for existing ones. We draw men from maybe 15 or 20 parishes, no one parish has more than a small fraction of our members.

Which parish would we move into? Suppose we move into the parish where our chaplain is pastor. Maybe the next pastor would not be interested in the K of C, and maybe our chaplain gets assigned too far away to be our chaplain.

Right now the Grand Knight nominates a priest he knows well, who is very pro KofC, for the bishop to appoint as chaplain. Some pastors allow the K of C to do fundraising in the building, some don’t.

The drawback of owning your own building, besides the ridiculous costs and property taxes, is that you need to rent it out, and there could be trouble if you turn down some event or speaker in disagreement with Catholic values; (think gay weddings, and discrimination lawsuits). Right now, parishes - for the moment - have more control of their facilities. They don’t have to rent to the public. They have more legal protection. For the very near future.

I support moving the K of C into parishes. But it will be difficult for preexisting councils like ours. I can see why our elderly members will fight selling our building to the bitter end. They remember those buildings going up, it means a lot to them.

Parishes have their own priorities, which can vary from place to place, and from one pastor to the next. This means good or bad things for the old council selling their building and moving anew, into a parish; especially a council “set in our ways”. It should be an adventure.
 
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commenter said:
I can see that it is a good idea to have all new councils based in parishes, but it is very complicated for existing ones. We draw men from maybe 15 or 20 parishes
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15 or 20 parishes? You must live in a large city?
commenter said:
The drawback of owning your own building, besides the ridiculous costs and property taxes
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Your council should be a tax exempt 501(c)3 or similar organization. Why are you paying high property taxes?
 
I actually think they should use both.

The old uniform for Mass & Liturgical events, the new uniform for civic & non-liturgical events.
 
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uniforms for grown men who have never served in the military are disrepctful to those that did serve

KofC does wonderful things for charitable causes

quit the uniforms; they are corny & stupid
 
let me rephrase…

it would have been cool to me to see the new uniform used by ALL knights, not just the color guard. And then the old uniform used by the color guard during liturgical events.

So in my world, a brand new knight would purchase the new uniform and wear it to conventions, funerals, and other official events - perhaps without the gloves and sword.

Then the color guard would have both, because they had the new uniform previously and would buy the liturgical color guard uniform when joining the color guard.

I don’t like the new uniform for Mass because it looks too much like a police uniform, while the old uniform did a better job blending in with the Knights of Malta and Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Sometimes at special masses at the our Cathedral, it’s awesome to see the Knights of Columbus march in, followed by Knights of Malta and KHS. With the new uniform, it would look a little weird.

God Bless
 
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I would like to see official KofC suppliers sell a kit that includes:
  • A KofC beret patch.
  • A KofC blazer patch.
  • Two KofC brass or pewter blazer buttons.
  • A KofC lapel pin.
  • Official KofC four-in-hand tie.
  • KofC baldric.
For something like $50-75.00

I can find my own black beret, navy blue blazer and medium grey dress slacks. I think the KofC is really missing out on a chance to attract MANY more 4th degree Knights.

I think the uniform would also look A LOT better with maroon berets (ala US Army Airborne) and a matching maroon tie.
 
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brian_custer said:
uniforms for grown men who have never served in the military are disrepctful to those that did serve

KofC does wonderful things for charitable causes

quit the uniforms; they are corny & stupid
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My opinion is in a similar vein to this, minus the rudeness 😵

A “color guard” isn’t unique to the KofC. There are of course other groups that have special uniforms for public appearances. Most of them are going to be middle-aged men or up with families, and I highly doubt any of them see themselves as impersonating the military or police force.

But I do agree it would make me uncomfortable also. The idea of wearing that feels ostentatious, or as though I’m not secure in my manhood, so I need an expensive uniform to compensate for an inner void. That’s why if I were to dress up for an event I would want something much less showy than that. That uniform feels vain.

In general, I haven’t (as of yet) had very positive experiences with all-men gatherings in the Church. I prefer mixed sex events/groups. Women regulate & moderate the social atmosphere and keep it from feeling like I’m on the set of a gladiator movie .
 
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The new one looks like some WWII era English army dress uniform. The old one was original. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
 
Duesenberg said:
15 or 20 parishes? You must live in a large city?
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In some areas of the country, even where you’re not in the city, 15 or 20 parishes are easily accessible within a 20 or 30 minute drive in each direction. I am 30 miles outside a large city right now and it’s a heavily Catholic area and there is a church every couple miles. I go to at least 6 of them regularly.
 
Duesenberg said:
Your council should be a tax exempt 501©3 or similar organization. Why are you paying high property taxes?
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Being classified as a non-profit would have no impact on property taxes which are calculated based on value of the building and land not ownership.

501 status exempts organizations from paying (most) income tax.
 
Duesenberg said:
Your council should be a tax exempt 501©3 or similar organization. Why are you paying high property taxes?
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I don’t know the details, and it may vary from state to state, but here fraternal groups have to pay property taxes. Since we rent out our buildings, I suppose banquet halls would complain we were unfair competition. It might be different in other jurisdictions. We also have our own bingo, as churches do.

When you have your own buildings, you schedule Mass right there several times a year; you can have your own youth program, which we used to have; you can have your own Women’s Auxiliary, Seniors group, 4th Degree meets here, you schedule your own fund raisers and social events whenever you want, in addition to regular Council meetings.

Needless to say we have our own bar. The bar formerly was considered “Members Only” but now is open to the public. We hold events there whenever we want, not checking with any parish calendar to see if it is available. A few times a year we offer our large hall (500 capacity) free, for some benefit towards someone’s medical expenses or to a group. We donate heavily to prolife, charitable causes, and local parishes.

So you can see advantages to your own buildings. But realistically we no longer have the young manpower to take care of the buildings, we no longer have 1200 members, we have fewer a lot fewer activities. If we get, maybe 200 at each of our 3 bingos, that competes with the parish bingos. Our meetings of our Seniors members, in the daytime, get more attendees than the Council itself.

So while it made sense to have our own buildings at one time, councils in our area are starting to sell their buildings and move into a parish. Sort of like a young adult who has to move back home; someone else’s schedule now.
 
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Yeah I’m a Knight and in my area only ever saw them in parishes.

I only found out they had huge halls from this thread lol
 
I’m both a US Military Veteran and a Knight of Columbus.

And I see nothing disrespectful - you’re being overly sensitive.

Imitation is a form of flattery.
 
You gotta problem with gladiators?

I challenge you to a duel. Meet me in the colliseu… err, Cathedral, at dusk.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
In some areas of the country, even where you’re not in the city, 15 or 20 parishes are easily accessible within a 20 or 30 minute drive in each direction. I am 30 miles outside a large city right now and it’s a heavily Catholic area and there is a church every couple miles. I go to at least 6 of them regularly.
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I am not in a very big city. In a half hour I could drive to 100 parishes, but a third are closed in the last 15 years.

This concentration is partly because of ethnic groups, partly because most people did not have cars when the parishes were planned. People fight like heck to keep open their own independent parishes, no matter how much they shrink.

I would guess it is a different environment in areas of the country where Catholics are moving in. I would guess you have fewer, but larger parishes, with rarely any historic landmarks. I hear the K of C is doing well in many places, usually based in the parish itself. I wonder how that works, it seems you would be competing with groups like the Holy Name Society.

Each year I hear about a parish up here starting their own K of C council. So the days of the dinosaurs is fading away.
 
Yeah the old one looked like an ad for Swiffer. The new one is great!(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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Melodeonist said:
The new one looks like some WWII era English army dress uniform. The old one was original. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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Hardly. It looked very similar to other fraternal club’s uniforms of the era. A tuxedo with a lot of gee-gaws added on. Originally the tuxedo with white tie/tails with a top hat in place of the chapeau.
 
brian_custer said:
uniforms for grown men who have never served in the military are disrepctful to those that did serve

KofC does wonderful things for charitable causes

quit the uniforms; they are corny & stupid
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Absolutely nonsense. Rude to boot.
 
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