The Knights have also helped to heal the pain of parents of aborted children. Working with Project Rachel, the Knights have sponsored two conferences on the effect of abortion on fathers.
In addition, with the John Paul II Institute in Rome, we sponsored a conference last year on the effect of abortion on parents, and the effect of divorce on children.
Whether locally or nationally, Knights have been defenders of those with no one else to defend them. And it has been this way since our founding.
People often speak of the Church’s preferential option for the poor. And we often hear reference to Christ’s words that tell us that what we do for the least we do for Him. This is a great part of the reason that the Knights of Columbus have had as a consistent mission an outreach to those on the margins, to those forgotten by society, to those society considers the least!
Best line in this piece (and there are many good ones): “But the problem wasn’t simply a general one to Father McGivney. It was something he had dealt with personally — and I think that in any discussion of charity, the personal component — the encounter between us and Christ in the distressing disguise of the marginalized — if I may paraphrase Mother Teresa — is often more compelling than the statistics.” This is a fascinating address about the mission and vision of this organization, and a reminder of the importance of physical, personal outreach to those who are truly on the margins.