What is the Norwood Council #1162 - What are the Knights of Columbus?
We of Norwood Council 1162 are just Catholic Men 18 yo and older. Some of us much older. But we are brothers in a community of faith in Norwood, Ohio.
The Knights of Columbus is a male organization dedicated to Charity, Unity, and Fraternity. We are Catholics by the grace of God and wish to support our faith, our churches (Holy Trinity is one of 5 churches in our Crescent Parish Family) and our community. Our wives and children are important to us too, our first obligation is to our families. In reality, families are the reason why the Knights of Columbus began! Let me tell you a story:
Father Michael McGivney was born in 1852 and grew up to be a passionate Catholic. The first born of many, he attended the seminary when his father allowed it. While in the seminary before being ordained a deacon, his father died. Michael left the seminary to support his mother and younger siblings, and after some time the bishop of Hartford Ct. arranged for Michael to complete his seminary training in Baltimore as his younger brothers had reached working age. Ordained on Dec. 22nd, 1877, Fr. McGivney threw himself into his new parish role at St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Ct, where immigrant Catholics and older settled Catholics attended. As he saw hard times affecting his parish families, he realized the older families could support the newly widowed if the men unified to provide charity for each other like the Masons and other organizations did. The Knights of Columbus officially began on March 29, 1882 and has developed into an insurance provider and fraternal order for married and single men. The Daughters of Isabella, a women's Auxiliary that took a hit during the pandemic was very active for many years and may return as an equal partner soon if there is interest.
What do Knights of Columbus do? We support our communities, we recognize the cogs in the gears of our community. We hold an award ceremony we term a "blue coat" ceremony for our firefighters and police to recognize their hard work keeping all of us safe. We purchase cold weather clothing for our school students who are on hard times - we work with Sharpsburg School administration to determine who would benefit and go on a shopping spree. Coats, hats, mittens, and a smile are given freely to those youngsters. Last year we had a few kindergartners ask where the knights were, they must have been expecting men in armor on horseback! We will answer the call to any community in need, from Ukrainian Councils strained by the war to hurricane victims to our own homeless in need of meals. We staff a Soup Kitchen on a bimonthly basis, and have donated wheelchairs to those who cannot afford ambulatory aids. There is more that the National and International Knights of Columbus do, but we can only do it with the help of good Catholic men who want to be a part of something bigger. Our 4th degree Knights form a color guard or color corps and lead special religious ceremonies - you may have seen them leading the stations of the cross. At Holy Trinity, our Spanish speaking parishioners have allowed us to help celebrate our American Catholic Faith with the celebration of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8th, and Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12th. On Good Friday, the community even held a live Stations of the Cross in Spanish and English. Our faith community in the Crescent Parishes is growing, and our Knights of Columbus Council 1162 is open to bilingual membership if they wish. We meet on the 4th Thursday of each month with a Rosary beginning at 7:45 in Trinity Hall below the Church (Drex Avenue Entrance) and will welcome all interested people. We are compassionate in sharing our goals of Charity, Unity, and Fraternity with our brothers - and by extension, with our families and community.