PROSPECT HEIGHTS — About 100 members of the Knights of Columbus from across Long Island came to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on the evening of Aug. 13 to honor their founder, Blessed Father Michael McGivney.
Born in 1852 to Irish immigrants, Blessed Father McGivney became a champion for working-class families and immigrants, especially widows and orphans. He founded the Knights in 1882 in New Haven, Connecticut, as a fraternal benefit society rooted in charity and patriotism.
Father McGivney died in 1890 at age 38 from a deadly combination of tuberculosis and pneumonia, but his legacy endures. The Knights of Columbus began as a small gathering of men from St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven, but today there are some 2 million Knights worldwide.
Pope Francis officially beatified Father McGivney in 2020, granting him the title “Blessed” and declaring Aug. 13 as his feast day. One more miracle needs to be confirmed for Blessed Father McGivney to be canonized as a saint.
The Mass, celebrated by Bishop Robert Brennan, also honored clergy from the dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre for their ministries modeled in the tradition of Blessed Father McGivney.
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“They’re the spiritual guides for everything we do,” said Rick Kinney, the Knights’ master of the First New York District. “We do a lot of patriotic stuff, but you have to be motivated to do that.
“The chaplains — the deacons, the priests — they motivate us, and they tell us why and how the faith is also impacted by what we do.”
Kinney, who belongs to St. Anthony-St. Alphonsus Parish in Greenpoint, said there are about 5,000 Knights on Long Island, and about 2,000 of them are in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Lou Pepe, a longtime leader of the Knights, said the Mass served as a message from the Knights to all pastors, parish priests, deacons, and even religious sisters that they are loved and appreciated.
Pepe is a former Grand Knight of the Bishop Thomas V. Daily Council of the Knights of Columbus at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James in Downtown Brooklyn.
He currently serves as chairman of faith for the New York State Council. In recent years, he led an initiative for the New York State Council to raise funds for statues of Blessed Michael McGivney across the state.
“The message of the Knights to them,” Pepe said, “is that they continue in a strong vocation and that they strive to be the local parish priest that Blessed Father McGivney was.
“We hope that he blesses every one of them with his zeal to continue the calling, and to keep the faith in a steady boat, so we could all one day celebrate his canonization.”
