Reprinted with permission from the February 2006 edition of Columbia magazine, courtesy Knights of Columbus Supreme Council, New Haven, CT.

SOLIDARITY WITH SISTER

BY MARILYN KORPALSKI

Though the programs are not as well known as those for priests and seminarians, Knights can be counted on to help women religious, their postulants and their ministries.

The Order’s annual Survey of Fraternal Activity doesn’t document the amounts raised by Knights for religious sisters, or the hours of service volunteered for their apostolates. But last year’s totals of $43 million raised for Church programs and 28.2 million hours of service include dozens of programs like the ones reported here.

“The sisters know that area Knights are at their service anytime for anything,” said District Deputy Pat Simone in Jackson, Mich. Though he was referring to the Felician Sisters and their day care center in his city, the sentiment is shared by knights Orderwide.

“When the sisters knew they needed a new home, one of the first contacts was the Knights,” said Lyn Furrh, the woman spearheading efforts to raise $4.8 million to build a new monastery for the Poor Clare Sisters in Greeneville County, S.C.

Raising funds in a state where only 4 percent of the population is Catholic can seem daunting. Even so, State Deputy Raymond W. Hock was at the Monastery of St. Clare an hour after the first phone call. He said that one-third of the state’s councils have sponsored fund-raising projects or hosted the nuns to speak at their parishes. To date, more than $1.5 million has been raised, preliminary architectural plans drawn and a new property purchased adjacent to a nature preserve. Hock vows continued support as the nuns plan for a 2007 move-in date.

In Utah, another state where Catholics comprise a small portion of the population, councils in metropolitan Salt Lake City pitch in annually on behalf of the Discalced Carmelites. Knights support the cloistered order’s only fund-raiser, a Carmelite Fair held at Immaculate Heart of Mary Monastery in Salt Lake City on the third Sunday of September. The event’s proceeds — along with private donations and the sale of Communion breads — pay the majority of the monastery’s bills for an entire year.

Knights and their families staff the fair’s various booths selling fresh-picked produce from area farms, religious goods, ice cream, beverages and a variety of foods. They are up front, as the master of ceremonies for entertainment, and behind the scenes, providing breakfast for fair workers and setting up, tearing down and cleaning up the fairgrounds.

JOYFUL SERVICE
The Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of St. Cecilia in Nashville are beneficiaries of a Postulant Scholarship Fund established by Tennessee Knights. Councils from five mid-state districts host a dessert auction at their annual district deputy awards banquet to fund the education of future nuns at Aquinas College in Nashville.

“Knights do so much for priests, but postulants need us just as much as seminarians,” said Martin E. O’Haver, Tennessee state deputy. He said whip-cream pies provided by banquet attendees are auctioned for a playful pie toss. The young women are invited to attend and, with their charism being a spirit of joy, get into the act by circulating among guests to display the pies being auctioned.

Over the past five years, the function has generated $20,000 toward the education of the Dominicans, who this year anticipated welcoming 15 young women into the order.

HOPEFUL SIGNS
One Knight decided to do something to further vocational awareness in the Diocese of Gaylord, Mich. “I became aware of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist through a direct-mail piece,” explained Tim Heger, grand knight of Grand Traverse Council 1213 in Traverse City. “It said they were experiencing an explosion of vocations, and this ran counter to experience.”

His Internet contact with the nuns in Ann Arbor led to a visit by six of the order’s young women to speak to girls at three area Catholic schools. “Kids just gravitated to these sisters,” said Heger. “Girls said to me, ‘For the first time, I could see myself going into religious life.’”
 

An evening benefit dinner attended by 225 people capped off the speaking engagements. The Knights extended invitations through parish bulletins, schools and council newsletters, so the event attracted a diverse group and
generated $2,500 for the nuns.
 

“A good number of adults said to me: ‘This brings me hope. These women want to be beacons for Christ. This shows me there is light at the end of the tunnel,’” said Heger.

Plans are being made for a return visit. “We’ll try to send them home with more money this time,” he promised.

SHOWTIME FOR SISTERS
In another part of Michigan, District Deputy Frank Roche asked Knights in Detroit about the last time they had done something for women religious. Thanks to the inspiration of Council 12408 at National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in Royal Oak, a unique project took shape.

When the film Thérèse: The Story of St. Thérèse of Lisieux was released in the fall of 2004, 10 councils in District 48 hosted “Take Sisters to the Movies.” The councils rented a theater in Sterling Heights for an exclusive showing of the film. Using a mailing list of women religious in the Archdiocese of Detroit, personal invitations were sent.

“The response was overwhelming,” said Roche. The most distant drove over three hours to the event, and the Discalced Carmelites from the Monastery of St. Thérèse in Clinton Township, northeast of Detroit, ventured out of their cloister for the first time since Pope John Paul II visited the city in 1987.

ANSWERED CALLS
“Dad, as a Knight, please do something.” This request from an armed services son stationed in Iraq to his father triggered a statewide effort in Virginia to assist the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena staffing the 27-bed Catholic Al Hayat Maternity Hospital in Baghdad. So began a series of pancake breakfasts, dinner dances, golf outings, yard sales and spaghetti dinners around the state. The fundraisers generated $9,000 for the nuns and an increased awareness of their plight.

Holy Angels Council 12104 in Newark, Del., supports the apostolate of a religious woman closer to home. It was coincidental that a Sister of St. Joseph who had taught Grand Knight Michael Luck in first grade was assigned to his parish last year as coordinator of the Hispanic ministry. Luck said his brother Knights have been assisting Sister Constance Trainor in her work with families in and around St. John-Holy Angels Parish.

LIVES OF FAITH
Aberdeen (S.D.) Council 820 honors the Presentation Sisters by providing pallbearers for their funerals. “There is a community of retired sisters at the convent here,” said Grand Knight Barry Eske, “and when these sisters pass away they may have no family or few family members left. These women give their lives to their faith. We are honored to be of service to them.”

Marilyn Korpalski is a freelance writer from Glen Ellyn, Ill.

(From left) Grand Knight Al Meyer of St. Joseph Cathedral Council 12992 and Grand Knight Mike Berendzen of Helias Council 1054, both in Jefferson City, Mo., join General Agent Gary Struemph in presenting a check for $4,551 to the Discalced Carmelites in Jefferson City. … Knights from John C. Carroll Council 5390 in Marion, Iowa, tend the graves of Sisters of Mercy at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Cedar Rapids. … Vietnamese Dominican Sister Lucy shows Brenda LeSage how to prepare egg roll stuffing. The sisters gave the cooking class to the wives of Knights from Southwest Council 3910 in Houston to show their gratitude for the many hours of help the Knights have given the sisters.

NEW VOCATION DVD AVAILABLE

Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life, and Dominican Father William Garrott listen to Sister Antoniana Maria of the Trinity profess her vows in the Order’s newest DVD documentary, “The Vocation to Religious Life for Women.” The30-minute film is available at no charge from the Supreme Council office. To order, send your name and mailing address to Columbia, 1 Columbus Plaza, New Haven, CT 065103326. To cover shipping and handling, we do request $3 for up to two copies; for three or more copies, please send $5 (US/CAN). The Order also offers DVDs on the vocation to marriage and the vocation to the priesthood. All DVDs are free to keep

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