Our Knight of the Month for April is Kevin Simpson. He was our Membership Director and an active member of our council. He attended most of our meetings and helped out at most of our functions. Kevin passed away on April 5th as the result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident while he was on the way to the exemplification of the 4th Degree. Per our worthy master and current faithful navigator of the Fourth Degree, Kevin Simpson will be treated as a Sir Knight in the Fourth Degree.
Last month’s annual Garage Sale for Charity was another great success. Special thanks goes out to Steve Mills for co-chairing the sale, to Dave Carboni for providing the hot dogs, soda, and chips for the sale, and to everyone who helped set up, work the sale, clean up, and take the leftovers to St. Vincent de Paul. Proceeds from the sale will allow the Council to donate $500 to Clara’s House Free Clinic and $300 to the St. Mary’s Bereavement Society.
Terry Corcoran
While recruiting, I am confronted with the question “Is the KofC a Secret Society?” The answer is a firm “NO”. Secret Societies of the past did not allow their members to be actively visible to the general public. Their membership roles, charters, and rules were privileged to members only. Almost all activities were limited to members and held in secret.
Does that sound like the Knights of Columbus? NO!
We are a “Benefit Society”! The primary mission of the Knights of Columbus is to “protect widows and orphans”, openly support the Catholic Church and her values, enthusiastically assist our parish priest, and actively evangelize within our families and communities. As members, we are asked to wear our name badges or Colombian Lapel Pin at public events, volunteer as Knights around our parishes and within the community, invest our time and talent to recruit new members from the ranks of Catholic men (ages 18 or older), defend our principles of faith, respect our priest and the religious brothers and sisters, go to meetings, and whenever possible utilize the Insurance Program. No secrets here, though some people treat the Life Insurance Program as a secret to the extent that they avoid a FREE service.
Do you know exactly what kind of Life Insurance you have and how it works? Do you know if it can be “converted”? Will the premiums go up in the future? If the stock market plunges again or inflation “takes off” will your policy keep up with the times? Can your family afford not to have life insurance? Are you taking advantage of the “Riders” you paid for? Do you know the advantages and disadvantages between a Group Policy, a Term Policy, a Whole Life Policy, a Universal Life Policy, a Key Person Policy, a Survivorship Policy; the list goes on and on. When you bought your last policy, did you fully understand the difference between Guaranteed Values and Non-guaranteed Values with respect to the independent rankings by Standard and Poor’s or AM Best?
Let me provide a free pair of eyes to give you a second opinion and explain what you have. That is better than “no eye’dia” or I think…
Fraternally, Your Brother and Field Agent,
Marco Manrique
CA LIC 0I39878, FA16570
(707) 301-1783
marco.manrique@kofc.org
The Right to Life and the Dignity of the Human Person must remain our focus as Catholics.
Let us not forget that human life is sacred. The dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. Direct attacks on innocent persons are never morally acceptable. As we have seen, human life is especially under direct attack from abortion.
I urge each Brother Knight to reflect on the cost to each of us and to society if we remain silent.
A critical Bill will be heard in Committee on May 6!
Bishop Soto urges each of us to place calls to Assembly members to support measure to prohibit sex-selection abortions.
Please urge your state Assembly member to support AB 2336, a measure to prohibit sex-selection abortions, to be heard by the Assembly Health Committee on May 6.
Call Assembly member, Dr. Richard Pan, the chair of the Assembly Health Committee, at (916) 319-2009.
AB 2336 will be heard on Tuesday, May 6 at 1:30 p.m. in the Assembly Health Committee, which is chaired by Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento). The committee will meet in Room 4202 of the state Capitol.
Prayer for Life
Eternal God,
Creator and sustainer of life,
bless us with the courage to defend all life
from conception to natural death.
Bless us with the strength to respect
all peoples from east to west, from north to south,
so that we may truly follow
the call of Jesus
to be neighbor.
we ask this in the name of Jesus,
who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
*From Being Neighbor: The Catechism and Social Justice, USCCB, April, 1998
God Bless
Hector Garcia
prolife@kofc953.org
To My Brother Knights and Their Families:
Many thanks to PGK Dale Edwards and everyone else who helped out on this year’s Irish Night. It was a successful event. Please see Dale’s article for further information.
At our March Business meeting we voted unanimously to pass the resolution to donate $1,500 from our Memorial Fund to help support a special retreat of members from the Newman Catholic Community, who will remember our deceased members in their prayers. In future years we anticipate having a special fund raiser to raise money to help support the Newman Catholic Community’s retreat. More than half of the new members to our council this year have come from the Newman Catholic Community.
As mentioned last month our council is conducting a Lenten food drive. I’m asking that each council member donate one can of food per day for the forty days of lent. If you can’t donate 40 cans of food, please donate what you can. If you don’t want to donate cans you can also donate cash or gift cards from a grocery store. We will collect your donations at our business meeting on April 10th. Please let me know about any of our council members who are in need. We will help our brother knights and their families first. The remainder will be given to local food banks.
Our annual Garage Sale for Charity is coming up on Saturday and Sunday, April 26th and 27th. Several Brother Knights are needed to help set up for the sale on Friday, April 25th as well as to help during the Garage Sale and cleanup on Sunday. Please contact Terry Corcoran or Steve Mills if you are able to help.
Thank you.
Go! Make a difference…
Fred Struck
Grand Knight, Council 953
The annual Irish Night dinner was very successful again this year. We had approximately 100 guests enjoying what everyone said was a delicious meal of corned beef and cabbage, thanks to the good work in the kitchen by David Carboni with help from Steve Mills and Terry Corcoran. The sing along with Bridget Brennan went well as usual with most trying to keep up with the rapid fire lyrics of the fun Irish tunes. Thanks to all who helped make the event successful again this year, both my fellow Knights and all the guests who keep coming each year.
Dale Edwards
Irish Night Chairperson