I get that they help people - but it makes no sense to name the group after such a man - no sense.
Yes they help people - but the name and thinking that went in to choosing it I totally do not understand.
The 2 names - âColumbusâ and âKnightsâ - which could be considered controversial as well - reflect a certain moment in history. In the late 1800s every Christian group was trying to link themselves back in time. Catholics were getting labelled as newcomers to the US, with no roots here, like Real American Protestants. Naming something after Columbus shows Catholicism was in the Western Hemisphere early. But it also shows a unity with all North and South America, we are all, in a way, grand nephews and nieces of Columbus.
Columbus the man was a product of his times. In some ways very good, as in navigation or his overall assessment of the shape of the planet. In some ways very bad, not only against Native Americans but sometimes against Europeans who accompanied him. (He was about to execute some disobedient European sailors until he was stopped). He was a dreamer, someone who persisted and persisted and persisted. He died poor, apparently was trying to follow the ideals of Francis of Assisi in his later years.
I bet there were many American men in the late 1800s who would have trouble relating to an organization named after a European saint, and back then almost all the saints were European. There were very few well known American Catholics they could have named the organization after, and almost no laity. (Columbus wasnât American, but had American connotations).
The K of C includes deeply religious men, but also attracts average men, including myself. There are loads of movements that attract only those who are already religious, but the K of C tries to bring the **average **man closer to God.
Columbus had bad points, by 2017 standards. He also had virtues - he was a dreamer, he was incredibly persistent, he took incredible risks - that are almost unheard of today.
People who live today in comfort and security, who never needed to take any real risk, who have the globe already safely mapped out for them, and 100 advantages Columbus did not have, will condemn Columbus - and to some extent rightly so.
He would not be someone you should name a religious order after. He might, plausibly, be an appropriate namesake for a movement aimed at the **average **man, judging him by the standards of his time, now ours; though even in 2017 dreamers, persistent men, and risk takers, are also in very short supply.
