In the midst of the global pandemic, the Knights of Columbus is financially supporting two timely Vatican initiatives: the Vatican medical efforts in Rome related to COVID-19, and the global broadcasts of Pope Francis’ Good Friday prayer service and Easter Mass.
The Knights announced this in an April 8, 2020, press release.
The Knights of Columbus, one of the nation’s premiere Catholic volunteer and charitable organizations, donated last year 76 million service hours, and more than $185 million to charitable causes in communities throughout the Americas, as well in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
From helping children in need, to providing wheelchairs for the disabled, to helping stock food banks, to offering top-rated and affordable life insurance to its members, the Knights of Columbus has been at the service of the community for more than 130 years.
This very particular year, the Knights are donating $100,000 to the Vatican’s Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome, for the care of children infected by the coronavirus.
The hospital will use the funds to transform a space in its neonatology department into a high-intensity treatment room for infants and newborns with COVID-19 infections.
The unit will be named for the Knights’ founder, the Venerable Servant of God Father Michael J. McGivney. It will feature ventilators and other specialized equipment essential for the care of the respiratory symptoms associated with the virus.
“These projects,» Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said, «are particularly timely given the global pandemic.”
“For 100 years,» he noted, «the Knights of Columbus have worked in Rome for the spiritual and physical benefit of the city’s children and young people at the request of the Holy Father.
«Our support of Bambino Gesù hospital continues that tradition of service. At the same time, with so many in Italy and around the world currently homebound, our support of Vatican broadcasts will allow our Holy Father to join in prayer with Catholics from every corner of the globe during this critical time.”
The Knights are also underwriting costs related to the broadcasts for the Good Friday Stations of the Cross on April 10 led by Pope Francis, and for the Pope’s Easter Sunday Mass and Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) blessing on April 12.
Their funding covers costs related to the satellite transmission of the events.
Last month, the organization also funded these costs for the Holy Father’s March 27 extraordinary Moment of Prayer and Urbi et Orbi blessing movingly delivered – and broadcast live – from an empty St. Peter’s Square.
The Knights of Columbus has a long history of supporting the Vatican’s telecommunications efforts. The organization provided funding for a shortwave transmitter for Vatican Radio in 1965 and has funded Vatican satellite broadcasts since 1977. It has also sponsored mobile production units for Vatican television.
The Knights established a permanent presence in Rome a century ago in 1920 at the invitation of Pope Benedict XV to assist the young people of the city. The Knights have been hard at work in the Eternal City ever since.
This February, Pope Francis met with the Knights of Columbus leadership, praising the organization for its charity and “unswerving devotion to the successor of Peter.”
