Columbia September 2026

Columbia KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

SEPTEMBER 2026

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A FINANCIAL

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For costs, terms, conditions and complete details regarding these products, please contact your agent or the Knights of Columbus. Products may vary by state. Insurance solutions available to eligible members of the Knights of Columbus in U.S.A. and Canada. Knights of Columbus is located at: One Columbus Plaza, New Haven, CT 06510.

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CONTENTS

Columbia S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 6 B VOLUME 106 B N U M B E R 7

Departments 3 For the greater glory of God The witness of the Mexican martyrs reminds us that we are called to remain faithful to Christ above every earthly allegiance.

By Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly

A photo shows the rosary and cash found in the pocket of Chuck Costello, a member of the Knights who helped evacuate people from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. His body was later recovered from the wreckage of the south tower. This month marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (see page 10).

10 When It Mattered Most

The Order’s response to 9/11 included swift financial support for firstresponder families and scholarships for children of brother Knights.

By Brian Caulfield

14 ‘Help Me To Light the Way’

New Jersey Knight Chuck Costello gave his life on 9/11 to save people trapped in the twin towers.

By Jorge I. Domínguez-López

4 Learning the faith,

living the faith The word of God not only informs our minds but also searches our hearts and transforms them.

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

6 Knights of Columbus News Supreme Knight Joins French Knights for 50th Pilgrimage of Fathers to Cotignac • Knights Honor Mexican Martyrs in Guadalajara • Order Mourns Former Assistant Supreme Secretary • Relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Tour the US 8 Building the Domestic Church A series of columns on family life, leadership and financial stewardship

26 Knights in Action Reports from councils and assemblies, representing Faith in Action 30 Scholarship Recipients

TOP: Photo by Spirit Juice Studios — ON THE COVER: Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives

PLUS: From Saving Lives to Saving Souls – A firefighter at ground zero on 9/11, Father Tom Colucci’s path to the priesthood was built on a foundation of service and brotherhood.

ON THE COVER

18 A Prophetic Voice of Hope

Archbishop Fulton Sheen addresses delegates at the 93rd Supreme Convention in Miami Beach, Fla., in 1975.

This month’s beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen celebrates a great Catholic evangelist and Knight of Columbus.

By Derek Rotty

21 ‘His Heart Started To Beat’

The miraculous return to life of a baby born without a pulse paved the way for Venerable Fulton Sheen’s beatification.

By Jennifer Brinker

24 St. Francis of Assisi: 800 Years Young

The Franciscan jubilee reminds us that the Church’s most persuasive witness consists in lives transformed by the love of God.

By Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap.

Membership in the Knights of Columbus is open to men 18 years of age or older who are practical (that is, practicing) Catholics in union with the Holy See. This means that an applicant or member accepts the teaching authority of the Catholic Church on matters of faith and morals, aspires to live in accord with the precepts of the Catholic Church, and is in good standing in the Catholic Church.

kofc.org/join Copyright © 2026 All rights reserved

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EDITORIAL

Columbia

The Paradox of Freedom ON JULY 4, 1941, months before the United

States entered World War II, then-Msgr. Fulton Sheen published a book titled A Declaration of Dependence. Reflecting on the spiritual crisis of modern society and the rise of atheistic and totalitarian ideologies, Sheen observed that the U.S. Declaration of Independence hinges on a prior dependence on God, affirming that human beings are “endowed by their Creator” with unalienable rights. “When we deny God as the foundation of our rights, we shall no longer have rights,” he argued. “We are independent of dictators because we are dependent on God.” Sheen’s book title was more than a clever turn of phrase, and his argument extends far beyond American politics. It concerns the source of human dignity and the nature of freedom itself.

Modern notions of freedom are often grounded in self-sufficient individuality and begin from the premise that we are most free when nothing binds our choices — including human nature, let alone God or religion. By contrast, Christianity recognizes freedom not simply as freedom from, but freedom for — a gift from God ordered to the true and the good. “Freedom is a moral power; not a physical power; not the right to do what you please, but the right to do whatever you ought,” Sheen explained. “But ought implies law, and law implies order, and order implies justice, and justice implies God.” Six years before Sheen’s book, the September 1935 issue of Columbia published an article with the same title. The author observed, “Just so surely as the oak is dependent on the soil, human nature is dependent for its right functioning on the Power which created it.” Far from rendering a person servile, such dependence emboldened

St. Peter to declare to the authorities of his day, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The same conviction sustained Christian martyrs from ancient Rome to those who faced persecution in 20th-century Mexico.

“Instead of renouncing their freedom,” the article observed, “they were exercising it.”

Yet the freedom of the saints and martyrs was not determined by their outward circumstances. Christ speaks of a different kind of bondage, warning that “everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (Jn 8:34), while St. Paul declares, “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). Christian freedom thus entails conversion. Addressing U.S. bishops in 1988, St. John Paul II noted, “In the act of conversion the human person proclaims his or her dependence on God and acknowledges the need to obey God’s law in order to live in freedom.”

Paradoxically, authentic freedom is fulfilled in obedience to God and the gift of oneself in love. The Second Vatican Council taught that man “cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (Gaudium et Spes, 24).

In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV further noted that our “deepest vocation is to enter into the Trinitarian dynamic of love received and shared” (48). In every vocation, we exercise freedom most fully not by refusing to be bound, but by giving ourselves to another — and ultimately, to God. Christ himself shows us the way in his filial dependence on the Father and his prayer of trust, which we are called to make our own: “Not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42). B Alton J. Pelowski, Editor

Featured Resource: Men of the Word The Order’s Men of the Word Catholic Bible study helps men deepen their understanding of Scripture and apply its message to their daily lives. The 150-page guide presents salvation history from Genesis to Jesus Christ in 12 sessions, including four sessions incorporating lectio divina. Ideal for use in Cor or for individual study, Men of the Word is available in English, Spanish and French. Learn more, find accompanying videos and order the study guide at kofc.org/menoftheword.

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PUBLISHER Knights of Columbus SUPREME OFFICERS Patrick E. Kelly Supreme Knight Most Rev. William E. Lori, S.T.D. Supreme Chaplain Arthur L. Peters Deputy Supreme Knight John A. Marrella Supreme Secretary Ronald F. Schwarz Supreme Treasurer Anthony R. Picarello Jr. Supreme Advocate EDITORIAL Alton J. Pelowski Editor Matthew Kirby Editorial Director Andrew J. Matt Managing Editor Elisha Valladares-Cormier Senior Editor Megan Stibley Associate Editor Paul Haring Manager of Photography Cecilia Engbert Content Producer

Blessed Michael McGivney (1852-90) – Apostle to the Young, Protector of Christian Family Life and Founder of the Knights of Columbus, Intercede for Us.

HOW TO REACH US COLUMBIA 1 Columbus Plaza New Haven, CT 06510-3326 columbiamagazine.org columbia@kofc.org Address changes 203-752-4210, option #3 addresschange@kofc.org Columbia inquiries 203-752-4398 K of C Customer Service 1-800-380-9995

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F O R T H E G R E AT E R G LO R Y O F G O D

Loyal to the King The witness of the Mexican martyrs reminds us that we are called to remain faithful to Christ above every earthly allegiance

Photo by Michael Collopy

By Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly

ON AUG. 1 , we commemorated the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Cristero War in Mexico. Viewing the Catholic Church as a threat to its authority, the government of President Plutarco Elías Calles unleashed a sweeping campaign of persecution in 1926.

Parishes were closed, convents were dissolved, and many courageous Catholics were imprisoned. Priests, religious and lay faithful were executed, among them many brother Knights, including nine who have been canonized or beatified.

In that moment of crisis, Mexican Catholics, including Knights of Columbus, were forced to choose between loyalty to the state and loyalty to Christ and his Church. Their choice was made clear in their resounding cry: ¡Viva Cristo Rey y Santa María de Guadalupe! — Long live Christ the King and Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Today, most of us are not faced with such a dramatic conflict of loyalties. Indeed, the very idea of loyalty is often disregarded or ignored.

We live in an era of individualism that resists commitments to relationships and institutions whenever they limit personal freedom or threaten our popularity. Personal autonomy is king, and loyalty is often regarded as a quaint relic from a less sophisticated time. But this should not be the case for us as Knights. Loyalty — especially to Christ and his Church on earth — should be a defining virtue for us. To be in solidarity with our bishops and priests is more than a slogan. It is a reality that we strive to live out in thought, word and deed.

Loyalty binds us to the persons, groups and institutions that matter most. It is a steadfast commitment to protect those relationships and sacrifice for them. We are loyal to those to whom we are deeply attached — our families, our friends, our country, and the organizations we belong to and cherish.

But true loyalty is neither blind nor

servile. It has limits set by justice and charity.

Loyalty cannot excuse wrongdoing or sins — whether our own or others’. Charity demands that we will another’s good, even when doing so appears disloyal.

As Catholics, our primary loyalty is owed to God. In Scripture, the idea of loyalty is often expressed as faithfulness or fidelity.

God seeks a relationship with us and remains faithful when we are not. As St. Paul tells us, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself ” (2 Tim 2:13).

Despite our unfaithfulness — our lack of loyalty — God never abandons us. In fact, he proves his unfailing loyalty by sending his Son, Jesus, to restore us to right relationship with him. Jesus models the loyalty to the Father that we should strive to imitate.

As baptized Catholics, we are called to be loyal sons of the Father and faithful sons of the Church; as Knights of Columbus, we are also called to be loyal brothers to one another. Loyalty unites us as an Order, enabling us to support a brother Knight and his family whether nearby or across the world.

Loyalty also demands faithfulness to Christ our King — obeying his commands and faithfully following wherever he leads us as “builders of communion” and “servants of the coming Kingdom” (Magnifica Humanitas, 16).

When we serve the least of our brothers and sisters, we serve Christ himself as his faithful disciples. We remain loyal by maintaining our relationship with him through daily prayer, frequent reading of Scripture and regular reception of the sacraments.

In this way, we will be prepared to prove our loyalty to Christ when it is tested. The Cristeros faced the ultimate test of loyalty, and they met it as true Knights — willing to accept death rather than betray their King.

May we follow their example, placing God above all else so that we can say with them: ¡Viva Cristo Rey y Santa María de Guadalupe!

Loyalty binds us to the persons, groups and institutions that matter most.

It is a steadfast commitment to protect those relationships and sacrifice for them.

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LEARNING THE FAITH, LIVING THE FAITH

We Read Scripture. Does It Read Us? The word of God not only informs our minds but also searches our hearts and transforms them

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

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David acknowledges his sin before an all-knowing God. He begs to be forgiven.

He asks the Lord for “a pure heart” and “a steadfast spirit.” Can we not see ourselves in his plea for forgiveness? Psalm 51 is like a searchlight. Its beam shines on the sins we admit, but also on those we seek to deny, forget or hide. When we allow this psalm to read our hearts, we are set free to acknowledge our guilt, confess our sins and give thanks to God for his mercy. What a good psalm to pray before going to Confession or examining our consciences at night.

Other psalms “read” our human experiences — the perplexity we feel when someone gets ahead by cheating (see Ps 73), the bewilderment we feel when we are betrayed by a friend (see Ps 55), the distance from God we may experience in time of trouble (see Ps 22), the exultant praise and thanksgiving that wells up within us (see Ps 34). Yes, we read the Psalms, but the Psalms also read us.

The parables of Jesus “read” what is in our hearts. In John 2:24-25, we are told that “Jesus … did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.” We see ourselves in the prodigal son and the indignant older brother. Or in the servant who pleaded before his master for the forgiveness of his debt only to throttle a fellow servant who owed him much less.

Or in the merchant searching for fine pearls who sells everything to obtain one of great value. Jesus’ parables reveal our need to forgive and to be forgiving, our search for God’s love, and much more.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the Scriptures “read” what is in our hearts. After all, in every Scripture passage the voice of Christ resounds. So whenever we open the Scriptures, let this be our prayer: “Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my thoughts” (Ps 139:23). B

The parables of Jesus “read” what is in our hearts.

In John 2:24-25, we are told that “Jesus … did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.”

Photo by Paul Haring

IT IS GOOD for us to read the Scriptures prayerfully. But how?

Often we gravitate toward favorite passages that inspire or console us. I frequently return to Jesus’ invitation, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). Those words of Jesus never fail to encourage and strengthen me, especially when cares weigh heavily on my heart. Most of us, I think, have a few “go-to” verses in Scripture, especially in times of trial.

Sometimes we read Scripture to jumpstart our prayer. Setting aside time for quiet prayer, we may find it difficult to focus our thoughts and affections. We think of everything except the Lord and his love.

Ref lecting on a few lines of Scripture can channel our thoughts and feelings, prompting conversation with God. At other times, we may want to study Scripture. When we come upon a passage that is hard to understand, we might consult the footnotes in our Bibles. This might further prompt us to join a Bible study group.

The Knights of Columbus offers a wonderful Scripture study, Men of the Word, that is used in Cor and other Bible study settings to help participants understand and love sacred Scripture more deeply. There are many Bible study groups for women as well.

In these ways, we read and understand Scripture. But isn’t it also true that Scripture reads us? How often do biblical passages shed light on what we are feeling, thinking or doing, leading us to take stock of ourselves and repent of sinful patterns of behavior?

Scripture is like a mirror in which we see ourselves as we really are, not the image we project before others, whether online or in person. Scripture reveals us to ourselves.

Consider Psalm 51. It is a penitential psalm in which King David repents of his adultery and his treachery in trying to cover it up.

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Supreme Chaplain’s Challenge

FROM TOP: Provincial Archives of the Canadian Redemptorists — The Reconciliation of Jacob with Esau (1860), Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872), wood engraving, Digital Vision Vectors via Getty Images — OSV News photo / Mario Tomassetti, Vatican Media via Reuters

A monthly reflection and practical challenge from Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” (Gospel for Sept. 13, Mt 18:21-22) To forgive others can be very difficult at times, especially when someone repeatedly offends us.

Jesus tells us there is no magic number that limits our obligation — our desire to forgive and show mercy to others must be boundless, just as God’s mercy toward us is infinite. We pray in the Our Father, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Our very salvation depends on our willingness to forgive, for God will forgive us in the measure that we forgive others (cf. Mt 6:14-15).

Catholic Man of the Month Venerable Alfred Pampalon (1867-1896) IN THE FINAL hours of his life,

28-year-old Father Alfred Pampalon lay in the Redemptorist infirmary. His caretakers were astonished to hear the Québécois priest sing the Magnificat — a final expression of the Marian devotion that had marked his life.

Born in Lévis, near Québec City, Alfred Pampalon was one of 12 children. His father was a stonemason who helped build churches, including the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.

Alfred’s mother, who died when he was 6, taught him to love virtue, and his first words were said to be the names of Jesus and Mary.

At age 9, Alfred entered the Collège de Lévis, where classmates called him “a saint” and often chose him to settle disputes during recess. After two serious illnesses, Alfred discerned God’s call to religious life. Known for his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, he later recalled, “My resolve to consecrate myself to God grew ever stronger within me.”

Liturgical Calendar Sept. 3

Challenge: This month, I challenge you to make a list of the people in your life — past and present — whom you find or have found difficult to forgive, and to sincerely pray for them each day.

To view future challenges, visit kofc.org/monthlychallenge

St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church Sept. 5 St. Teresa of Calcutta, Virgin Sept. 8 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sept. 9 St. Peter Claver, Priest (USA) Sept. 14 The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Sept. 15 Our Lady of Sorrows Sept. 16 Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian, Martyrs Sept. 21 St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist Sept. 23 St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest Sept. 26 Sts. Isaac Jogues and Jean de Brébeuf, and companions (Canada) Sept. 29 Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels Sept. 30 St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church

In June 1886, at age 18, Alfred made a pilgrimage on foot to the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré and entered the Redemptorist community there.

Despite concerns about his health, he professed religious vows the following year. He later began seminary studies in Belgium, where he struggled with philosophy but persevered by imagining Mary and St. Joseph asking the exam questions. Ordained in 1892, Father Alfred spent three years in priestly ministry in Belgium before declining health forced him to return to Canada in 1895.

Back at St. Anne’s Basilica, he joyfully served pilgrims by preaching and hearing confessions before tuberculosis confined him to the infirmary. Father Alfred died Sept. 30, 1896. Pope John Paul II declared him venerable in 1991. B

Holy Father’s Monthly Prayer Intention

Let us pray for a just and sustainable management of water, a vital resource, so that everyone may have equal access to it.

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KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS NEWS

Supreme Knight Joins French Knights for 50th Pilgrimage of Fathers to Cotignac

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Above: Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly (second from right) prays the rosary with brother Knights from St. Louis, King of France Council 16501 in Saint-Cyr-surMer during the Pilgrimage of Fathers to Cotignac. • Left: The supreme knight meets with French Knights following an open-air Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces.

distillation of this experience centered on our principles of charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism.”

Every participant brings his unique intentions, but all are united as they pray for renewed commitment to their vocations and entrust their families to the care of Mary and St. Joseph.

In Cotignac, the pilgrims visited the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces on Mont Verdaille and the Monastery of St. Joseph on Mont Bessillon. In 1519, the Blessed Mother appeared to a woodcutter on Mont Verdaille, requesting that a church be built there.

In 1660, St. Joseph appeared on Mont Bessillon to a shepherd dying of thirst, revealing to him a spring under a boulder and saving his life. The site attracts some 150,000 pilgrims every year.

Remarking on France’s rich Catholic heritage — in Cotignac and beyond — Supreme Knight Kelly encouraged French Knights to remain committed to their nation and to continue their faithful Catholic witness. The first councils in France were chartered 10 years ago, in August 2016. Today, the jurisdiction counts more than 1,700 Knights in 65 councils.

“Do what you can to stay united in charity, in unity, in fraternity, and also importantly, patriotism,” the supreme knight said. “France is a great nation — the eldest daughter of the Church — and you should be proud of who you are as Knights. Continue doing what you’re doing under the intercession of Blessed Michael McGivney, and under the guidance of St. Joseph.” B

Photos by Tamino Petelinšek

MORE THAN 2,000 MEN , including Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and dozens of other Knights, participated in the 50th annual Pilgrimage of Fathers to Cotignac, a three-day walking pilgrimage held in southeastern France.

From July 3-5, husbands, fathers and aspiring fathers walked about 75 miles (120 kilometers) across the Provence region, participating in what has become one of France’s largest gatherings of Catholic men. As they made their way toward Cotignac, home of two apparition sites — of the Blessed Mother in the 16th century and St. Joseph in the 17th — the pilgrims sought the intercession of Mary and Joseph as they reflected on their own roles as protectors and providers for their families.

“The unity that is here is a very, very real thing to experience,” Supreme Knight Kelly said. “It’s a hard pilgrimage.

It’s July, it’s very hot, and it involves some suffering. But that’s what a pilgrimage is, and I think that suffering brought everyone together under the guidance of St. Joseph and Our Lady of Graces.”

The Pilgrimage of Fathers began in 1976 when Jean-Louis Bouzereau, concerned about his wife’s high-risk pregnancy, promised the Blessed Virgin Mary he’d walk the distance from his hometown of Aix-en-Provence to Cotignac if the baby was delivered safely. Upon the birth of his daughter, Bouzereau kept his promise, making the journey alongside one friend that summer. From there, the gathering grew; today, some 80 Pilgrimages of Fathers take place throughout France each year, attracting thousands of men, including hundreds of French Knights.

“The Knights of Columbus are called to be pilgrims — not just for a weekend through these pilgrimages, but throughout the year in our parishes,” said France Territorial Deputy Arnaud Boutheon, who participated in this year’s pilgrimage to Cotignac. “What we must live out in our councils is a C O L U M B I A B SEPTEMBER 2026

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Order Mourns Former Assistant Supreme Secretary THE ORDER MOURNS the

Knights Honor Mexican Martyrs in Guadalajara KNIGHTS AND THEIR FAMILIES from

Mexico gathered at the Sanctuary of the Martyrs of Christ the King outside Guadalajara, Jalisco, on July 5 for an annual pilgrimage commemorating the martyrs of the Cristero War — including six saints and three blesseds who were Knights of Columbus.

This year’s pilgrimage fell near the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Calles Law on July 2, 1926.

Approximately 500 pilgrims prayed

the rosary and attended Mass with Father Eduardo Salcedo, Mexico West state chaplain, as principal celebrant.

“The Knights of Columbus martyrs gave their lives for their faith,” said Supreme Director Jorge Estrada. “[They] showed us the path we must follow to redouble our efforts and be heralds of hope.”

Construction of the shrine began in 2007, supported in part by major contributions from the Supreme Council. It is one of several sites associated with the martyrs — along with the Sanctuary of Christ the King in Silao, Guanajuato, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City — that Knights in Mexico visit on annual pilgrimages. B

death of Former Assistant Supreme Secretary Ronald J. Tracz of North Branford, Connecticut, who died Aug. 3 at age 73 after a battle with ALS. Born in New Haven in 1952, Tracz was a Knight for 50 years and worked for the Supreme Council for more than 40 years, serving as assistant supreme secretary from 2007 to 2017. He was the charter grand knight of Holy Family Council 8882 in New Haven and helped develop the Order in Poland.

Tracz and his wife, Ann, were married for 50 years and have five children and 13 grandchildren. B

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP: Photo by Carlos Elizondo — Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives — Photo by Matthew Barrick

Relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Tour the US THE MAJOR RELICS of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the

French religious sister who experienced visions of Jesus in which he revealed the devotion to his Sacred Heart, were escorted throughout the United States by Knights of Columbus on a monthslong tour.

The 150-pound reliquary, which holds the saint’s clavicles, two ribs and a portion of her brain, was transported from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paray-le-Monial in France to the United States by a delegation of French Knights and was first displayed in Orlando, Florida, on June 11 during the U.S. bishops’ consecration of the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Knights then transported the relics to a series of churches, including the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, where they were present during a Mass marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, celebrated by Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori.

Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori incenses the major relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore on July 5.

The relics were later brought to Denver, where they were venerated at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception before the 144th Supreme Convention. They subsequently returned to the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven, Connecticut, and will remain in the United States until late September. B SEPTEMBER 2026 B C O L U M B I A

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BUILDING THE DOMESTIC CHURCH

LEAD WITH FAITH

MISSION OF THE FAMILY

Fostering Cultures of Growth

Be Apology Willing

By Matthew Marquardt

Families with strong foundations are grounded in words and deeds of forgiveness

Christians have a responsibility not only to seek God and religious truth themselves, but to help others do the same, always respecting their freedom, dignity and conscience (see Dignitatis Humanae, 1-3).

This has critical implications for Christian leaders, who are called to create environments where people can grow in their personal relationships with God while contributing to the external goals of the organization.

This is not just a good or charitable idea; it’s God’s law. It is embedded in the heart of the New Covenant, flowing directly from the Greatest Commandment — to love God with all your heart (Mt 22:37) — and the New Commandment — to love one another as God loves you (Jn 13:34).

Every time a new project is started, a working group assembled or a task assigned, leaders within Catholic organizations should consider not only what needs to be accomplished, but how the work can help those involved grow. By fostering trust, leaders give team members opportunities to contribute ideas, exercise initiative and develop their gifts in service to the organization’s mission. B — Matthew Marquardt is president of Canadian Catholic News, executive director of Catholic Conscience and a member of Toronto Council 1388.

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“I’M SORRY” — two small words, three short syllables, two seconds to say. They become everyday words in many Catholic households, yet they can also remain unspoken for days, months or even years.

Sometimes, apology aversion begins young.

“Angela, please tell Art you’re sorry for stepping on his drawing.” Angela’s puzzled gaze at her mother asks, “What drawing? What brother?”

“Go on. He’s waiting,” Mom continues.

“So?” her silence says. “I can wait longer.”

Persuasion being futile, Mom acts: “Angela, you will sit on the steps until you’re ready to tell your brother you’re sorry.”

Her stiff-lipped stance speaks volumes: “If you make me, I’ll say it. Just know I don’t want to.

Something about those words really bothers me.”

Parents teach their children, “When you’re wrong, say you’re sorry. It’s the right thing to do.” Yet somewhere between childhood and adulthood, the instruction can lose momentum. The right thing to do becomes the hard thing to do. But it’s this hard thing that helps make families resilient, strong and loving.

What does an apology actually say? It says, “I acted badly,” not, “I’m a bad person.” It says, “I messed up,” not, “I’m a mess.” An apology simply means, “At that time and place, I did or said something wrong.”

Say that you and I have been arguing loud and long. I estimate my wrongdoing at 20%, yours at 80%.

You estimate the reverse. Whatever

the actual ratio, do I have anything at all to apologize for? My apology doesn’t depend on your share of the blame. It depends on mine, however low I think it is. In any heated exchange, chances are each party said or did something apology-worthy.

While it’s true that actions may speak louder than words, saying “I’m sorry” may speak louder than simply acting sorry. The words add credibility. The best apologies are words backed by action.

When parents say “I’m sorry” followed by a genuine gesture of love, it can have powerful ripple effects on their children. Giving apologies begets apologies. A sincere “I’m sorry” encourages reciprocation and reconciliation.

In sum, few words carry the healing potential of “I’m sorry,” “I apologize” and “Forgive me.” Even if misunderstood, the intent behind them is worthy. B DR. RAY GUARENDI is a clinical psychologist, author and national radio and television host. A member of Bishop McFadden Council 3777 in North Canton, Ohio, he and his wife, Randi, have 10 children, all of whom were adopted.

FROM LEFT: pixelfit / E+ via Getty Images — StockPlanets / iStockphoto via Getty Images

By Dr. Ray Guarendi

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FAMILY FINANCE

Do I need life insurance if I’m single?

By David B. Cary

Life insurance can benefit everyone, not just those who are married and have children. Consider the following ways it could provide valuable financial protection for those closest to you.

Cover final expenses. Naming your next of kin as your beneficiary can help pay for funeral, burial and other end-oflife expenses without requiring loved ones to use their own funds.

Protect shared financial obligations.

Do you have loans with a co-signer or plan to leave your home to an heir?

Naming that person as your beneficiary

could help cover outstanding debts or make it easier to keep the property.

Provide for loved ones. Do members of your extended family depend on you?

Naming a parent, niece or nephew, sibling or friend as your beneficiary can help continue that support after your death.

Support your business. If you own a business, life insurance can help a business partner purchase your ownership share, hire a replacement or provide for employees if you die unexpectedly.

Secure your future and leave a legacy.

Purchasing life insurance while you’re relatively young and healthy may help you qualify for lower premiums while securing valuable protection for the years ahead. As your life changes, so will your financial priorities. What begins as a way to protect loved ones and preserve your

legacy may also provide living benefits during retirement. A Knights of Columbus insurance agent can help you discern the right choice as your needs evolve*.

For more tips and information, visit kofc.org/familyfinance. B — David B. Cary, FICF, ChSNC, is regional vice president for the Central Region of the Knights of Columbus. A former general agent, he is a member of St. Francis of Assisi Council 10792 in Strongsville, Ohio. * Knights of Columbus and its agents are not permitted to provide financial planning, legal or tax advice.

FOR YOUR MARRIAGE

A Game Changer The Church’s vision of marriage is a countercultural challenge that becomes an immeasurable gift

By Mike Sweeney

FROM TOP: Drs Producoes / E+ via Getty Images — Frazao Studio Latino / E+ via Getty Images

A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO, my wife, Shara, our two young

children and I attended an Advent penance service at our home parish. Beside me, my 9-year-old niece held a laminated examination of conscience. Pointing to one of the listed sins, she innocently asked, “Uncle Mike, what does ‘contraception’ mean?”

I gently told her that was something her parents could explain later. But her question stayed with me. Although Shara and I had made a promise of purity on our first date and kept it until our wedding night, we had never been properly formed in the Church’s beautiful teachings on marriage and sexuality.

Driving home, I told Shara that I had confessed something I hadn’t even known I needed to. It turned out she had the same realization. Through the grace of confession, God opened our hearts to a deeper understanding of marriage.

Our penance was not simply a litany of prayers but a roadmap to a treasure. We enrolled in Natural Family Planning

classes, and what began as our penance became one of the greatest gifts God gave our marriage.

There were certainly challenges — traveling with the team during “green days” and being home during “red days” required sacrifice, communication and trust. But for us, NFP became Navigating Faithfully with Prayer.

Through God’s grace, I began to see Shara’s beauty not merely through my own desires but with a new vision, magnified through the lens of the Church. Our marriage was renewed as we began to experience Christ’s promise of life in abundance ( Jn 10:10).

We thought we were going to an Advent penance service to prepare a manger in our hearts. Instead, God used that experience to deepen our understanding of marriage — and our openness to his gift of life. B MIKE SWEENEY, a five-time Major League Baseball All-Star and member of the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame, has been a Knight of Columbus since 2014. He and his family live in Southern California.

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Three FDNY firefighters raise the U.S. flag in the wreckage at ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001: from left, George Johnson, a member of Msgr. William F. Burke Council 2672 in Rockaway Beach, N.Y., Billy Eisengrein and Dan McWilliams.

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WHEN IT MATTERED MOST The Order’s response to 9/11 included swift financial support for first-responder families and scholarships for children of brother Knights

By Brian Caulfield

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OPPOSITE PAGE: Photo by Lori Grinker

hen terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the Knights of Columbus responded with immediate assistance for those directly affected. The day after the attacks, the Order established the $1 million Heroes Fund, providing $3,000 to the families of full-time law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel who died in the rescue and recovery efforts. The first check was delivered Sept. 13, and a total of 419 families received benefits from the fund to help cover immediate expenses as they grieved.

In addition, through the longstanding Francis P. Matthews and John E. Swift Educational Trust Scholarships, named for past supreme knights, the Order provided funds for Catholic college tuition to children of Knights of Columbus first responders who were killed in the performance of their duties or declared permanently disabled as a result of their rescue and recovery efforts. More than 30 children affected by 9/11 have received such scholarships over the years, including some who were infants at the time of the attacks (see page 31).

Among the nearly 3,000 people killed on 9/11 were 46 members of the Knights of Columbus, including 12 firefighters and six law enforcement officers.

The following stories offer a glimpse of how the Order came to the aid of the families of first responders when it was needed most.

A HEROIC BROTHERHOOD Although initial news reports on Sept. 11 claimed that a small plane had flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center in an apparent accident, New York firefighter Ken Haskell said to himself, “We’re under attack!”

He had been a New York City police officer responding to the scene in 1993 when terrorists set off a bomb in the underground garage of the north tower.

“I knew, sooner or later, they would be back to finish the job,” he recalled recently. “So even before the second plane hit, I knew this was going to be a terrible day.”

Although he was beginning his day off at his Long Island home that Tuesday morning, he said goodbye to his wife and young child and drove to Ladder Company 159 in the Flatlands neighborhood of Brooklyn. He and other off-duty firefighters from his company loaded into a bus, stopped at nearby firehouses to pick up other first responders and headed to what would become known as ground zero. The south tower had already fallen, and as they crossed the Manhattan Bridge, they saw the north tower collapse.

“I turned to one of the guys and said, ‘We’re all going to know somebody who just died there.’”

Haskell’s remark carried profound personal weight. His two brothers, Tommy and Timmy, were also firefighters, and he didn’t know if either had reached ground zero before him.

Working for hours on rescue and recovery efforts at the site, he found firefighters who told him that Tommy was in the south tower and Timmy in the north tower when each collapsed.

“I knew it was not good,” he recalled. He drove to his mother’s house to break the news. “Officially, everyone in the buildings was listed as missing. I knew there was little hope of them being alive, but I didn’t say so at the time.”

Timothy Haskell’s remains were found a few days later, and his funeral Mass was celebrated with grief and reverence. The remains of Thomas Haskell, an FDNY captain, were never identified.

Thomas’ wife, Barbara, and their three daughters received a Heroes Fund check during a visit from a Knights of Columbus insurance agent. Timothy was not married, and the Heroes Fund check went to his mother.

“It’s a wonderful thing that the Knights did,” said Ken, a member of Memorare Council 3476 in Seaford for the past 30 years. “It’s not so much the money, it’s the thought that goes into it. The firefighters have such a strong bond of fellowship, just like the Knights do. That’s why I’m a member.”

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hometown who were killed that day. The committee sponsors educational events and provides scholarships to qualifying students at the local public high school.

“Everything we do is for the memory of our brothers and the other Seaford High School alumni who died,” said Dawn.

“We bring the whole senior class [each year] to the 9/11 Memorial at ground zero so they will learn about what happened that day and how so many sacrificed so much.”

Ken, 57, retired in 2016 after 26 years with the fire department. Looking back on 9/11, he said, “Twenty-five years may seem like a long time, but for those who went through it, the time doesn’t matter. One year, five years, 25 years — you still feel it just the same. I miss my brothers every day.”

AGENTS OF MERCY Shock. Sadness. Compassion. These were some of the emotions that flooded the minds of Knights of Columbus insurance agents as they delivered Heroes Fund checks to families in the wake of 9/11. Established the day after the terror attacks, the fund provided $3,000 to the families of first responders killed in the performance of their duties, regardless of their faith or membership in the Knights of Columbus.

Though the families welcomed the assistance, and the agents were proud to represent the Order in providing it, delivering the checks was an excruciating task they wished had never been necessary.

“I remember vividly that day, which devastated our country and the world,” said Robert Roy, then a field agent who covered an area in Rockland County where many New York police officers and firefighters lived. Among the checks he 12

delivered was one to Dorothy Richard, whose husband, Vernon, a firefighter and Baptist, died at the World Trade Center.

A lieutenant and 24-year veteran of the FDNY, Richard was promoted posthumously to captain in a ceremony a few days after the attacks.

“She had spoken to her husband by phone just an hour before everything happened, and he said he was coming home,” Roy recalled the widow telling him. “She was numb with shock, but very appreciative of the funds. This was an initial something to get them through the next few weeks with expenses, something to help before any other benefits.

It was given without filling out a lot of paperwork or going through red tape.”

Joseph Pollaci was a general agent in New Jersey who delivered a check to Cindy Rodriguez, widow of Richard, a police officer and member of San Salvador Council 299 in Perth Amboy who died at the World Trade Center after bringing several people to safety.

“I was watching the horror of 9/11 on the TV, and saw the second plane hit,” recalled Pollaci, now retired and living with his wife in Florida. “It was very scary and very personal for those who were close to the situation.”

His father had been a general agent before him, so Pollaci considered it a special honor to represent the Order by delivering the Heroes Fund check.

“It was not something you took lightly. You knew you were entering people’s homes at perhaps the saddest time of their lives,” he said. “But we were proud of the fact that we as Knights had done something like that, to give some form of help in a time of great need.”

Photo by Radhika Chalasani

Ken Haskell stands at the south pool of the 9/11 Memorial beside the engraved names of his two brothers, Thomas and Timothy, both FDNY firefighters who died Sept. 11, 2001.

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Photo by Jeffrey Bruno

A FATHER AND HIS SONS When Robert Wallen joined his local Knights of Columbus council in 1990, he did not give much thought to the family benefits of the Order. He was 25, single, working for a Wall Street data company and making few long-term plans. But after marrying his wife, Theresa, in 1994 and becoming a New York City firefighter, with their first child on the way, he took out insurance policies with the Knights and remembered hearing about the Matthews and Swift Scholarship.

“I got out the flier with all the benefits that I had stuffed in a desk drawer,” recalled Wallen, who is a 36-year member of Henry Stolzenthaler Council 1675 on Staten Island. “I thought, ‘I’m a fireman with a family now, so maybe I should pay more attention to this.’”

In the aftermath of 9/11, Wallen and his family, together with many other families of first-responder Knights, would become gratefully aware of the full benefits of membership.

He was detailed at the time to a firehouse near his Staten Island home and made it to the World Trade Center with dozens of other first responders from the borough after both towers had collapsed. He worked on search and rescue until after midnight and returned to the site regularly over the next few days.

Like many others laboring at ground zero in those dark days, he developed a serious illness from the toxic conditions. Declared permanently disabled with a blood cancer, he retired from the FDNY as a lieutenant in 2006. A stem cell transplant from a matching donor in Germany eventually

saved his life by producing healthy bone marrow. Wallen has met the donor in person and finds significance in the fact that his first name is Florian, the patron saint of firefighters.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that somehow God was at work,” he affirmed.

His younger son, Kevin, was 20 months old on 9/11 and took advantage of the scholarship when the time came for college, graduating from St. John’s University in Queens in 2024.

Now 26, he is an apprentice electrician working in Manhattan.

“I can’t say enough about the Knights and the opportunity I received through the scholarship,” said Kevin. “I am in a much better financial situation than a lot of others my age because of it.”

Wallen’s older son, also named Robert, passed up the scholarship to attend SUNY Maritime College and works part-time as a pilot for the New York City Ferry. Inspired by his father’s example, he is now a New York firefighter himself.

“I was in first grade when 9/11 happened,” said Robert, 31.

“My father was definitely a driving factor in my decision” to become a firefighter.

Both sons are Knights in the same council as their dad.

“I saw what the Knights were all about,” said Kevin, who joined soon after he turned 18, “and I wanted to be a part of it.” B BRIAN CAULFIELD is a vice postulator of the cause for canonization of Blessed Michael McGivney and past grand knight of Holy Family Council 8882 in New Haven, Conn.

Robert Wallen (left) and his two sons, Robert Jr. and Kevin, ride the Staten Island Ferry past Lower Manhattan with One World Trade Center visible in the distance.

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‘Help Me To Light the Way’ New Jersey Knight Chuck Costello gave his life on 9/11 to save people trapped in the twin towers

By Jorge I. Domínguez-López

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pulled over. It was a woman, and he’s running into traffic.

He’s like, ‘I’m not gonna leave her there.’”

She added: “He did what had to be done. He didn’t have fears about something like that. He just did what was necessary.”

SERVICE AND CHARITY Charles Gregory Costello Jr. was born in Queens on Feb. 24, 1955, the oldest of four siblings. In 1960, the family moved to Old Bridge, New Jersey, just a couple of blocks away from the home of Mary Norton, his future bride.

“Chuck was very religious, and he was also very outgoing — he liked everybody, and everybody liked him,” recalled Raymond Costello, his younger brother, who was also an elevator mechanic. “When we walked around in New York, he would reach into his pocket, and if it was his last dollar, or his lunch or whatever, he would hand it to a homeless person.”

Kevin Wyer remembered growing up in the neighborhood with Chuck.

“We were a bunch of wild kids and Chuck was the good kid,” Wyer said with a laugh. “You know, we were getting into trouble, and he was getting us out of trouble. Anybody needed help, he was there. So he was a really good person.”

Though Chuck and Mary grew up in the same neighborhood, they didn’t meet until their 20s and married in 1989.

Back in the mid-1980s, Mary didn’t attend church very often.

That changed soon after she began dating Chuck.

Gary Hershorn / Getty Images

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n the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Charles “Chuck” Costello Jr., a 46-year-old elevator mechanic and member of St. Ambrose Council 6424 in Old Bridge, New Jersey, was working about 20 blocks north of the World Trade Center at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo. “It was not common for him to work in Manhattan at all,” recalled his wife, Mary Costello. “He usually worked in Jersey.”

Chuck was preparing to repair the hotel’s elevators when a Boeing 767 passenger plane slammed into the north tower at 8:46 a.m.; a second one struck the south tower at 9:03 a.m.

As more than 300,000 people fled Lower Manhattan, Chuck ran in the opposite direction. “I’ll be fine,” he told a coworker before heading into the north tower at around 9 a.m. He later entered the south tower as well.

Firefighters and law enforcement officers who witnessed Chuck’s evacuation efforts at ground zero referred to him as “the elevator man.” His body was recovered in the south tower’s elevator shaft next to a firefighter and a police officer on Jan. 5, 2002. In his pocket were $77, his driver’s license and his rosary.

To those who knew Chuck best, it made perfect sense.

“After the towers went down, I was like, ‘What was he thinking, running in there, with the kids and everything else?’” said childhood friend Kevin Wyer. “That’s Chucky — he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he didn’t.”

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Above, from left: Chuck Costello is pictured in his U.S. Navy uniform. • Costello holds his infant son, Charlie, at home in early 1995. • Opposite page: The Tribute in Light illuminates the New York City skyline on Sept. 11, 2018, as seen from Jersey City, N.J.

Photos courtesy of Mary Costello

His faith “was definitely the number one thing in his life,” Mary recalled. “I can remember watching him at church in those early days. He was in another zone when he was sitting there praying. You could tell he wasn’t just waiting for Mass to end. He was deep in thought and deep in prayer.”

During and after his four years in the U.S. Navy, from 1975 to 1979, Chuck served the Church in many ways. Stationed largely at Pearl Harbor, he also served in Japan and the Philippines. When a hurricane demolished a children’s hospital in the Philippines, Wyer, who also served in the Navy, recalled that Chuck helped rebuild it.

“He took his 30-day leave that you get every year, and he volunteered to help rebuild that hospital,” Wyer said. “And that’s what he did. He always took the time to take care of people.”

Following his time in the Navy, Chuck was an extraordinary minister of holy Communion, played guitar for Mass at St. Ambrose for 27 years, taught confirmation classes and, as his brother Raymond noted, was “the one who went to the church rectory to shovel snow” even as a boy.

If he wasn’t at work, Chuck was playing outdoors with his four children — Theresa, Amanda, MaryKate and Charlie — coaching soccer, or involved in activities of the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh or the Knights of Columbus. His family and friends later discovered that he quietly assisted numerous people in need.

THE MEANING OF LIFE Joseph Langlois, then-treasurer of St. Ambrose Council 6424, was working in 7 World Trade Center next to the twin towers on Sept. 11. He didn’t see Chuck that day, but he remembered raising funds with him a few months earlier outside an A&P supermarket during one of the New Jersey

State Council’s Intellectual Disabilities Program drives.

“He was a very friendly guy,” Langlois recalled, “and obviously he cared enough to be doing this in the first place.

It showed he cared about the people we were trying to support. Everything I heard afterward only reinforced that impression.”

Chuck’s funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Ambrose Church on Sept. 29. Langlois led the Fourth Degree honor guard, even though Chuck was not a Fourth Degree member.

“This was the least we could do for him,” Langlois said, “show him the respect of having the Fourth Degree there when normally we wouldn’t.”

But there was a problem.

“You couldn’t get into church,” he said. “We absolutely could not get into the church. It was wall-to-wall packed with people.”

The Knights waited outside.

“At the end of the Mass,” Langlois recalled, “we formed a ceremony with the swords in the air and people walked underneath.”

Among the hundreds in attendance were many people whom Chuck had helped in one way or another over the years.

“We found out there were so many people he was helping after he passed,” Wyer recalled. “They came forward or called Mary and said, ‘I just want to tell you how good your husband is.’ He didn’t brag about nothing. He just did it. He did what was right, and he never mentioned nothing.”

Chuck wrote in one of his notebooks the year before he died, “The meaning of human life to me is just plain learning to love.

I feel learning to love is the key to all life. And yet I feel this lesson has been one for me where I still have a long way to go.”

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point, I try every day to make him the proudest and happiest father I can.”

On the night of Sept. 10, 2001, Chuck visited his father’s house. He had been working late on a memorial for deceased members of the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh. Chuck went outside, sat alone in a chair in the backyard and stared up at the sky.

“My father used to tell everyone,” Raymond said, “that was Chuck getting his orders for the next day.”

Chuck was honorably discharged from military service on Jan. 5, 1981. His body was recovered at ground zero exactly 21 years later, on Jan. 5, 2002.

Weeks after the tragedy, Mary found a personal prayer Chuck had written in the book he used to teach religious education classes. In a box titled “What is your prayer for the faith journey?” he had written: Help me to light the way for those in the dark. And when I enter the darkness, let me not panic but patiently wait to remember the light. B JORGE I. DOMÍNGUEZ-LÓPEZ is an editor and freelance writer based on Long Island, N.Y.

Mary Costello holds a framed photograph of her husband, Chuck, outside her New Jersey home. Taken by their 6-year-old son, Charlie, in 2001, the photograph shows Chuck holding a U.S. flag with his hand over his heart.

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Photo by Matt Greenslade

When Cardinal John O’Connor, the beloved archbishop of New York, died May 3, 2000, Chuck went to pay his respects at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The New York Times quoted him as saying: “I don’t consider today sad because he accomplished what he set out to accomplish, and he’s gone on to a better life.”

Chuck was only 46 when he died on 9/11, leaving behind a young family. Charlie, his youngest child, was just 6 years old.

Remembering that day, his sister Kathy Birch Costello recalled saying to her son: “If Uncle Chuck is gone, this is the exit he would have written.”

Charlie, whose full name is Charles Gregory Costello III, has few memories of his father, yet Chuck remains the moral compass of his life.

An elevator mechanic like his father, Charlie is also a volunteer firefighter in Summit, New Jersey.

Charlie said that not long ago he considered buying a fancy car. Then he remembered that his father had never cared about such things, so he decided he didn’t need one.

“I am a Roman Catholic, and we believe he is always with us in spirit,” affirmed Charlie, who recently celebrated the birth of his own son, Charles Gregory Costello IV. “He influences almost every thought and decision in my life. At this

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From Saving Lives to Saving Souls A firefighter at ground zero on 9/11, Father Tom Colucci’s path to the priesthood was built on a foundation of service and brotherhood

Photo by Cindy Schultz

By Scott Warden A 15-YEAR VETERAN firefighter, Tom Colucci had just come off an overnight shift at his Lower Manhattan firehouse when the call to return came. He made his way back through the Lincoln Tunnel, grabbed his gear and rode the West Side Highway to ground zero with three or four other firefighters crammed into one car. The south tower came down just as they arrived.

“We climbed into the rubble and just started digging,” Colucci said. “There were reports that 40,000 people were missing. Sadly, very few survived, but we didn’t know that.

Any kind of void we saw, we went through it, to see if we could find any kind of survivors, any kind of hope.”

The north tower came down during their initial search.

“We heard a big rumble, and we just ran and ran, as far as we could,” he said. “I remember ducking behind a car. It was a giant roar, and then we got up, and we were just covered with all this debris.”

Today, Father Tom Colucci, 70, is pastor of Most Precious Blood Parish in Walden, New York, and chaplain of Most Precious Blood Council 9254. His path from firehouse to rectory is, on its face, an unlikely one — a retired firefighter ordained a priest at age 60. But there’s more to his story than a late-life career change. It’s a case study in what fraternity does to a man, and how a life spent running toward danger can become a life spent running toward the hungry, the sick, the grieving and the dying.

Colucci had already been weighing the priesthood before 9/11, quietly meeting with a vocation director as retirement neared. But the deaths of his FDNY brothers that morning threw life into stark relief.

“These guys — I’m having coffee and donuts with them one morning, and a half hour later, they’re gone,” he said.

What sealed his decision was another catastrophe: a gas explosion near the end of his firefighting career.

“I hit my head and had a blood clot on the brain and two brain surgeries,” he said. “I even received last rites.”

He retired as a captain in 2005, spent seven years in formation at a Benedictine monastery and entered St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York, in 2012. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 2016.

“It wasn’t like an ‘aha’ moment,” he said. “I kind of had priesthood in my mind when I retired, something 9/11 had solidified. A lot of guys in the firehouse already called me ‘Father Tom’ anyway.”

Father Colucci was encouraged to become a Knight while still in seminary and joined the Order in 2013. In February 2025, he became a Fourth Degree Knight during the

Father Tom Colucci, pastor of Most Precious Blood Parish in Walden, N.Y., displays his FDNY captain’s helmet before Mass at the parish in August.

historic 125th anniversary exemplification at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

“These guys are phenomenal,” he said of the Knights of Council 9254. “They do all the ushering, the security, the repairs.”

The fraternity of the Knights, reminiscent of his years with the FDNY, has become especially valuable since his ordination.

“I’m here all by myself — the only priest,” he said. “I need some fraternity; the Knights are great.”

Grand Knight Gerald Mishk Jr., a retired law enforcement officer, has watched that bond run both ways.

“Father Tom has, since day one here, applied his experiences to the way he shepherds our parish,” Mishk said. “His experiences as a 9/11 firefighter contribute to his compassion.

Our Masses are always filled to capacity since Father Tom took over the parish. He is loved by all parishioners.”

There is a straight line between Father Colucci’s two vocations: service.

“As a firefighter, it was a total life of service,” he said. “It’s the same thing as a priest. I’m on call almost every day. I went from saving lives to saving souls.” B SCOTT WARDEN is managing editor of Vibrant Catholic, the quarterly magazine of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, and a member of Holy Trinity Council 12741 in New Haven, Ind. SEPTEMBER 2026 B C O L U M B I A

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VOICE OF HOPE This month’s beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen celebrates a great Catholic evangelist and Knight of Columbus

By Derek Rotty

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CNS file photo

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His family later moved to nearby ur world is full of Peoria, where the seeds of his intelprophets of gloom, and lectual life were planted and his love I would be one of them of learning was cultivated in Cathoif I did not practically believe in lic schools. After attending St. Viator God,” Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen wrote College and St. Paul Seminary in in a 1951 newspaper column titled Minnesota, he was ordained a priest “There Is Hope.” of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919.

Sheen helps us to understand After ordination, he studied at The mid-20th-century American culture, Catholic University of America in from roughly 1925 to 1975. As a Washington, D.C., and the Catholic priest, university professor, bishop University of Louvain in Belgium, and media personality, he engaged where he earned a doctorate in the profound ideas and changes philosophy and became the first of the time. He presented to an American to win the prestigious audience of Catholics, Protestants, Cardinal Mercier Prize. He returned skeptics and nonbelievers ways to to Washington in 1926 to teach at navigate a turbulent period and find CUA, where he remained until 1950. hope by remaining faithful to the His intellectual formation objective truth revealed by God in prepared him to understand and enthe person of Jesus Christ.

Then-Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen is pictured with an NBC gage the philosophies shaping modNo matter what darkness the radio microphone in an undated photo. ern life. Sheen wrote, taught and world faced, Sheen’s message always preached about many of the era’s conveyed the reality of Christian major questions — science and faith, education, marriage hope, which he wanted to share with a weary, often hopeless world. That message was present throughout his books, radio and sexuality, politics, economics and communism. Yet his response to these questions was never merely academic. The broadcasts and syndicated newspaper columns. solution to problematic historical movements and dilem“Times are bad,” Sheen acknowledged in that 1951 colmas, he maintained, was the eternal truth revealed by God. umn. “But despite these facts, this is not the end of civilizaSheen also engaged his contemporaries through popular tion; nor are we to be without hope. We have simply reached media, and his association with the Knights of Columbus bea moment in history where God is permitting us to feel our gan decades before he formally joined the Order. When the inadequacy, so long as we trust only in ourselves.” national Catholic Hour radio program was launched in 1930, As the Church prepares to celebrate Sheen’s beatification the Supreme Council contributed $5,000 — the largest sinon Sept. 24 in St. Louis, that prophetic note of hope remains gle subscription — and continued its substantial support in timely — as does his long relationship with the Knights succeeding years. Following the inaugural broadcast, Sheen of Columbus. delivered a series of seven addresses.

Over the following decades, Sheen spoke at numerous A CALL TO ENGAGE THE WORLD K of C events and collaborated with the Order in Catholic Fulton John Sheen was born May 8, 1895, in the rural educational and evangelization efforts. In 1946, for example, farming town of El Paso, Illinois, the eldest of four boys.

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Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives

Archbishop Fulton Sheen (front row, second from right) joins fellow bishops and Knights at the 88th Supreme Convention in Houston in 1970. With him are Coadjutor Bishop John Morkovsky of Galveston-Houston (center); Supreme Chaplain Bishop Charles Greco of Alexandria, La. (left); and Supreme Director James Foley of New York, next to Bishop Greco. Foley had proposed Archbishop Sheen for membership in the Order in 1968.

the Supreme Council promoted his pamphlet “Communism, the Opium of the People” through full-page newspaper advertisements across the United States and Canada, prompting requests for thousands of copies.

Sheen’s public apostolate continued to expand. In 1950, he became national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and in 1951 he was consecrated an auxiliary bishop of New York. Soon afterward, his television program, Life Is Worth Living, made him a national celebrity, and in 1953 he won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality. He quipped that his success was due to the valuable contributions of the writers Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Between 1962 and 1965, Bishop Sheen attended all sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He worked closely with then-Father Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), who served as a theological expert on the commission for mission. In a 2012 Vatican Radio interview, Pope Benedict recounted how “Fulton Sheen ... would fascinate us in the evenings with his talks.”

From 1966 to 1969, Sheen served as bishop of Rochester, New York; upon his retirement, Pope Paul VI named him titular archbishop of Newport, Wales. On May 11, 1968, Sheen joined Rochester Council 178 and became a Fourth Degree Knight two months later.

In 1970, Archbishop Sheen stood before delegates to the 88th Supreme Convention in Houston and offered his brother Knights a challenge characteristic of his lifelong ministry: Engage the world through a faith made visible in action. Five

years later, at the 93rd Supreme Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, he would return to that challenge from another direction, urging Knights to place Jesus at the center of their response to modern culture.

Sheen’s Houston address, titled “The Signs of the Times,” identified the Church as being in a transitional moment that called for new ways of carrying out her mission. He instructed Knights to take up a “theology of action” rooted in charity and encouraged them to work with others, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, “whenever you can for the betterment of the world.” He reminded them not to assume that “only Catholic organizations work for the kingdom of God.” “Our new mission,” he concluded, “is to rebuild a morally united nation.”

Sheen particularly urged Knights to engage young people.

“Teach them patriotism, honesty and reverence for parents,” he instructed delegates. But such efforts required trust between the generations, strengthened by works of mercy: “A great example would be given if they would dig into their pockets to give something to the afflicted for whom they plead.”

Sheen’s call for engagement culminated in a theme he addressed frequently — the inseparability of Jesus Christ and his cross. “Our new mission to the world,” he said, “must put the two together again.”

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with words while exercising discipline, doing personal penance and showing compassion for the suffering. In all ages, those who would work for God’s kingdom must engage the world as Jesus did, in word and deed.

THE PRIMACY OF CHRIST Sheen opened his address at the 1975 convention with a deeply personal admission: “I am worried about America.

So are you.”

The bishop believed Americans had become so absorbed in the immediate crises of the age that they had lost the perspective necessary to understand them.

“What makes us unable to understand our problems is that we are obsessed with the insanity of the contemporary news of the hour,” he said. “Our hands are before our eyes, and we have no retrospect, no views of the past by which we may judge the present.”

He also challenged an idea that had developed in the postwar era: that “there would never be a limit to [man’s] progress.” Such confidence in human achievement, he believed, could obscure man’s dependence on God. Sheen proposed only one answer to this malaise: “Somehow or other, there has to be a restoration of the meaning of our existence, and that has to center around Christ himself.”

Sheen pointed to two practical responses. The first was to respect and protect human life amid developments that divorced technical progress from nature and justice. The second was catechetics and education.

“Think of what a tremendous impact you Knights of Columbus could make for the Church in America if you insisted on real catechetics being taught in schools,” he said. “There is only one reason for supporting our schools and for making sacrifices, and that is because we have a philosophy of life, because we believe that souls are to be saved.”

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Making Jesus and his revealed teaching the center of Catholic education, Sheen argued, would also provide a witness to millions “outside our churches [who are] adrift without any faith.”

They “would come and talk if they could only find some of that love and some of that certitude and some of that Christ-likeness,” he continued. “But that requires discipline and order.”

Finally, he left the delegates with marching orders: “So, when you go home, in your parishes, insist on the primacy of Christ.”

Sheen lived only four more years. On Oct. 2, 1979, Pope John Paul II embraced him at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and told him: “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the Church.”

Sheen died Dec. 9, 1979. His cause for canonization opened in 2002. He was declared venerable in 2012, and Pope Francis recognized a miracle attributed to his intercession in 2019.

Sheen’s voice endures because it points beyond the passing crises of any one age. His answers to the questions of his time — and ours — were grounded in the ultimate source of hope, Jesus Christ.

No matter what darkness the world faced, Sheen sounded that prophetic note of hope tirelessly and joyfully for a world that needed to hear it. The hunger for hope in human life was the foundation of his work. Now, as the Church prepares to name him Blessed, his message remains no less urgent. B DEREK ROTTY is a teacher and writer on Catholic history and culture and the author of Prophet of Hope: Fulton Sheen Responds to the Modern World (Our Sunday Visitor, 2025). He lives with his wife and five children in Jackson, Tennessee, where he is a member of Father Jay Jackson Council 1101.

Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives

Left: Archbishop Fulton Sheen addresses delegates at the 88th Supreme Convention in Houston in 1970. • Above: Supreme Knight John McDevitt escorts Archbishop Sheen to the podium for his address to the delegates at the 93rd Supreme Convention in Miami Beach, Fla., in 1975.

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‘HIS HEART

Started To Beat’ The miraculous return to life of a baby born without a pulse paved the way for Venerable Fulton Sheen’s beatification

By Jennifer Brinker

F

Photo by Jeffery Noble

or 61 minutes after his birth, James Fulton Engstrom’s heart didn’t beat. Delivered at home on Sept. 16, 2010, Bonnie and Travis Engstrom’s son entered the world with a knot in his umbilical cord and no pulse.

He was rushed to the hospital, where medical professionals worked on his tiny body for roughly 20 minutes, then ceased resuscitation efforts.

“It was like ‘all hands off ’ so that they could call time of death,” Bonnie Engstrom recalled. “And it was at that moment, when everyone stopped working, that instead of calling time of death, his heart started to beat.”

The Engstroms had already chosen Fulton as their son’s middle name in honor of the 20th-century author, media evangelist and archbishop, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen.

During her pregnancy and after James was born, Bonnie prayed for Sheen’s intercession. Looking back now, the family can’t forget the weight of that moment — their newborn was lifeless for 61 minutes, one minute longer than Sheen’s beloved daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament.

By any measure, James shouldn’t have survived, much less grown up without lasting brain damage. When a follow-up MRI at 3 months old indicated a healthy brain,

Bonnie and Travis Engstrom are pictured with their eight children in 2019. James Fulton Engstrom holds up an image of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

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Bonnie picked up the phone at the urging of her mother, Alberta Fandel, and called the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation in Peoria, Illinois, to report what had happened to their son.

Within a year, the Diocese of Peoria had convened a tribunal to investigate the possible miracle, gathering medical records and testimony from everyone involved. Nearly a decade later, in 2019, Pope Francis formally approved James’ healing as a miracle attributed to Sheen’s intercession, clearing the way for his beatification.

The long-awaited beatification Mass will take place Sept. 24 at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, where tens of thousands are expected to gather to celebrate the man the Engstroms now describe as a “close family friend” in heaven.

‘THIS IS A BIG DEAL’ James, the third of eight children, was born in his family’s home in Goodfield, Illinois, a suburb of Peoria, where Sheen was an altar server and was later ordained to the priesthood 22

in 1919. The Engstroms, who now live in nearby Washington, chose each of their children’s names with saints and other holy patrons in mind.

“It was during my third pregnancy that the Lord brought Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen into our lives,” Bonnie explained.

“Travis and I began watching reruns of his show Life Is Worth Living and we loved Bishop Sheen’s wit and passion. Knowing he was born, raised, and ordained in the same area we call home, Travis and I chose Fulton for our baby’s middle name and began asking for Archbishop Sheen’s intercession.”

When James was delivered without signs of life, Travis, a member of Father John Menco Council 6707 in Washington, distinctly remembers hearing someone say he needed to baptize his son. He took water from a nearby cup Bonnie had been sipping from during labor and, calling upon the Holy Trinity, baptized the newborn James Fulton.

Sometime in the past year, while recalling the story of his son’s birth, Travis learned that no one in the room that day had actually said those words out loud.

Photo by Kara Kamienski

James Fulton Engstrom stands with his parents outside St. Patrick Church in Washington, Ill., in July.

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“He’s just a normal kid.

It’s incredibly exciting and humbling, and it’s such an honor that he will forever be this footnote in the biography of Fulton Sheen, and the history of the Church in America.”

“To me, it feels like divine intervention, like — ‘Hey, you need to do this,’” he said. “It was clear as day, somebody told me to baptize him.”

Also present that day was Jenny Witt, a family friend who later described feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room and having a vision of Sheen’s ordination day at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria.

“I remember watching Jenny ask him, ‘What is his name?’”

Bonnie said. “I remember sitting on the floor and in my head repeating Fulton Sheen’s name: Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen. That really in itself was a prayer, but that was as eloquent as it got.”

James was admitted to the NICU, where he remained hospitalized through early November. Given that he had been without a detectable heartbeat for 61 minutes, doctors expected catastrophic brain damage. But a follow-up MRI at 3 months old showed that his brain was “perfectly normal,” Bonnie said.

After the MRI results, Bonnie’s mother encouraged her to call the Sheen Foundation.

“I said, ‘I don’t need to bother them,’ and she replied, ‘Honey, this is a big deal, they’re going to want it in a file somewhere,’” Bonnie recalled.

As a young child, James sometimes found the public attention uncomfortable. On occasion, he would come along when his mother gave talks about their story, and some people wanted to “touch the miracle,” almost treating him like a relic, Travis noted.

“When he was little, and people would come up and get too much in his face, that was really hard for him,” Travis said. “I think for years that forced him to kind of separate and distance himself and want to be away from it.”

As he’s gotten older, that dynamic has changed. People are less physically intense and more likely to say things like “That’s really cool, James,” Travis said. James has come to embrace his story and is more comfortable with it being public.

Now a 16-year-old high school sophomore, James navigates a typical teen life much like his peers — school, friends, yard

work and odd jobs for older parishioners, who are very protective of him, Bonnie said. Last year, he was manager of the freshman football team at Washington High School, where his dad is the offensive coach and teaches physics. James’ classmates sometimes recognize him from news stories about the miracle, and he has taken that attention in stride.

“Miracle babies can still grow up to be little boys who get in trouble and teenage boys who are delightful and frustrating,” Bonnie said. “He’s just a normal kid. It’s incredibly exciting and humbling, and it’s such an honor that he will forever be this footnote in the biography of Fulton Sheen, and the history of the Church in America.”

A FAMILY’S DEVOTION As tens of thousands of pilgrims fill The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis for the beatification Mass this month, all eyes will be on James as he carries a relic of Sheen in the entrance procession, accompanied by his family.

It’s a fitting role for a boy whose healing paved the way for this moment — and a fitting tribute to Sheen, an innovative evangelist who spread the Gospel through radio, print and television and inspired a strong devotion in the Engstrom family.

While watching Sheen’s television programs with Travis during her pregnancy, Bonnie recalled telling him, “He’s so amazing; he’s obviously going to be a saint. We should name our baby after him.”

The family’s knowledge of Sheen and devotion to him have increased in the years since James’ birth, especially in their understanding of his love for the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist, Bonnie said.

Bonnie credited Sheen as a pivotal influence in helping her form a relationship with the Blessed Mother. Through Sheen’s book The World’s First Love, Bonnie said she came to understand Mary “not just as a statue … but as a real woman who was a real wife and mother.”

Travis, who returned to the Catholic Church while in college, said his devotion to the Eucharist and understanding of the real presence have grown and deepened since learning more about Sheen, whose daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament resonates with him.

Bonnie said their son’s miraculous healing was given to their family, but it was also “given to the Church, for the Church.”

“I think it might be a little providential that the beatification will take place now that James is older and just more aware and more present, and will remember it,” Travis said.

“I just feel grateful.”

As for James, he describes Sheen as a “guide” and “protector” and prays to him every day, though he tends to keep the details of those prayers private.

“I talk to Fulton Sheen and God every day,” James said.

“Bishop Sheen is a friend, and I know he is praying for me.” B JENNIFER BRINKER is a reporter for the St. Louis Review and Catholic St. Louis, publications of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

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ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI: 800 Years Young The Franciscan jubilee reminds us that the Church’s most persuasive witness consists in lives transformed by the love of God

By Cardinal Séan O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap.

Editor’s Note: Pope Leo XIV proclaimed a Franciscan Jubilee Year from Jan. 10, 2026, through Jan. 10, 2027, commemorating the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi.

The jubilee culminates in the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ Transitus (Oct. 3, 1226) and his feast day (Oct. 4).

W

e don’t know how much we should trust artificial intelligence, but I couldn’t resist asking it, “Who is the most popular saint in the history of the Catholic Church?” The answer I received was that, by far, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the most popular, followed

by St. Francis of Assisi, with St. Joseph in third place. St. Francis’ appeal is almost universal. His radical living out of the Gospel, his love for Christ and his joyful nature have touched people throughout the world. During Francis’ lifetime, more than 5,000 men joined his First Order as friars, and after his death millions of men and women joined the three orders he founded. As the Church celebrates the 800th anniversary of his death, we must ask ourselves: What is it about St. Francis that has garnered such attention and generated so much emotion?

All three synoptic Gospels recount the story of the rich young man who approaches Jesus with his questions: What do I have to do to be saved? What can give purpose to my life?

Jesus told him, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mk 10:21). All three Gospels report that the young man went away sad because his possessions were many. Only Mark’s Gospel, however, states that Jesus looked at the man with love.

It is my conviction that if that young man had even suspected how much the Lord loved him, he would gladly have sold his possessions and distributed his wealth to the poor.

When we realize that God loves us unconditionally with such gratuitous love, we experience the liberation that allows us to overcome the shackles of wealth, pleasure and power.

We become truly free.

Over a thousand years later, another rich young man hears the same invitation of Jesus: “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, … and come, follow me.” Francis of Assisi did just that. He followed Jesus joyfully, illumining the path for thousands who followed.

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THROUGH FRANCIS’ EYES In the Fioretti of St. Francis, Brother Masseo questions him: “Why is the whole world running after you?” St. Francis answers that God could not find a greater sinner through whom to display his infinite mercy. The appeal of St. Francis remains undimmed eight centuries after his death. In the Gospels, the Greeks tell the apostles, “We wish to see Jesus” ( Jn 12:21). In looking at Francis, people are able to catch a glimpse of Jesus — to see his love, his humility and his goodness.

The witness and holiness of the saints have always been the most powerful tools of evangelization. Various facets of Francis’ life make him appealing. Francis’ love of nature and regard for creation, his Gospel-based nonviolence, his call to be a universal brother and his commitment to serve the poor have made him captivating across religions and cultures. In a world so dangerously divided by war, racism and greed, St. Francis’ message of solidarity and peace is more important than ever.

On my desk is a statue of Francis that I cherish. The saint is wearing a ragged habit, and he is holding a bird in his right hand. Another bird is perched on his shoulder, looking at St. Francis’ face. Birds became very important to St. Francis. He loved the way they always sang God’s praises. They neither sow nor spin; they neither plant nor gather into barns but, like the lilies of the field, are a reminder that our heavenly Father takes care of us. St. Francis would have loved the

Over a thousand years later, another rich young man hears the same invitation of Jesus: “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, … and come, follow me.”

Francis of Assisi did just that.

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St. Francis in the Desert (circa 1480), Giovanni Bellini (circa 1424/25-1516), oil on panel, The Frick Collection, New York

African American spiritual “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” The song proclaims: “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, for his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.”

I enjoyed reading David McCullough’s biography of the Wright brothers. As young men, they studied birds and became convinced that if birds could fly, so could human beings. That insight inspired them to build the first airplane.

Like the Wright brothers, when St. Francis saw birds, he saw more than most people did. In birds, Francis saw God’s providence, beauty, joy and freedom. Francis had a sacramental vision of the world. He saw in a humble worm crushed on the road a symbol of Christ crucified in the words of the psalm: “I am a worm, not a man” (Ps 22:7). Everywhere Francis saw signs of God’s love hidden in plain sight.

THE SECRET OF JOY St. Francis is the rich young man who discovers how much God loves him and then makes a gift of himself to God and to others. Francis’ conversion unfolded in three moments. First came his vision of Christ crucified, telling him to rebuild the Church; then came his embrace of the leper, in whom he discovered a neighbor, a brother and Christ in a distressing disguise. The third moment was the trial before the bishop, where Francis returned his rich clothing to his father. There Francis discovered, in the fatherhood of God, the foundation of his own spirituality: poverty — that is, trust in the Father’s providence — and freedom from attachment to wealth. In God’s fatherhood, Francis saw that we are all brothers and

sisters, and he perceived his call to a universal bond that extends to all people and all creation. In that moment, Francis realized that God so loved the world that he sent us Jesus Christ to be our brother and our Savior.

Francis is defined by his loves, especially his love for Christ crucified. Franciscan devotions include the Christmas crèche, where Jesus is born in poverty, and the Cross, which St. Francis called his book, where we read the greatest love story in the world. Francis’ love for Christ and his Holy Mother is manifest in his love for the Church and in his deep devotion to the Eucharistic Lord. When Francis saw the spire of a church, he knelt, kissed the ground and prayed: “We adore thee, O Christ, and we bless thee, here and in all the churches in the whole world, because by thy holy cross thou hast redeemed the world.”

St. Francis, a deacon, loved priests and the sacraments, and he lived with unfailing obedience and devotion to the Holy Father, the successor of St. Peter. In Francis, we find so much joy and beauty to celebrate and imitate. We discover that lovingly following Christ is the true path to joy — the joy of the Gospel. B CARDINAL SEÁN O’MALLEY, O.F.M. CAP., is the archbishop emeritus of Boston. Until 2025, he served for more than a decade as a member of the Council of Cardinals and as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. A Capuchin Franciscan for more than 60 years, he has been a member of the Knights of Columbus since 1993.

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Faith

Members of St. Bede the Venerable Council 15478 in Holland, Pa., carry flags and banners as they lead a procession through the town during St. Bede the Venerable Parish’s annual Padre Pio Parish Festival last year. Participants walked about a mile, carrying a statue of St. Pio of Pietrelcina.

BBQ BLESSINGS Msgr. Dan F. Curtin Assembly 709 in Glens Falls, N.Y., hosted its 25th annual clergy appreciation barbecue at St. Michael the Archangel Church in South Glens Falls. Father Robert A. Nugent Council 11160 provided food and helped organize the event, which was attended by nearly 40 clergy members from the Diocese of Albany.

ONE NATION UNDER GOD Father Dermot J. Dwyer Council 10379 in Colfax, Calif., organized a rosary at St. Dominic Parish to pray for the United States in celebration of its semiquincentennial. Past Grand Knight Joseph Klobucar, a U.S. Army veteran, led the Pledge of Allegiance before participants recited a prayer consecrating the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

SEMINARIAN INVESTMENT St. Christopher Council 4788 in Edmonton, Alberta, donated CA$200,000 to support the Foundation of St. Joseph Seminary and Newman Theological College. The proceeds — from the sale of the council’s home corporation building — were used to start a scholarship fund for seminarians.

A PLACE TO REMEMBER James Joseph McLean Sr. Council 8551 in Jasper, Ala., donated $50,000, proceeds of various council fundraisers, to St. Cecilia Catholic Church to support the church’s $275,000 columbarium project.

PARISH REFRESH Knights from Bishop Jerome J. Hastrich Council 12078 in Show Low, Ariz., and St. Mary of the Angels Council 7912 in Pinetop organized a cleanup at St. Anthony Parish in McNary. Council members cleared the grounds of weeds, branches and other debris — enough to fill a trailer.

DIVINE MERCY TRADITION More than 100 people attended the annual Divine Mercy Sunday prayer service organized by Immaculate Heart of Mary Council 7560 at Pope John Paul II Church in Pagosa Springs, Colo. Knights from Father John C. Bowe Assembly 2704 carried an image of Divine Mercy into the church, and the service concluded with the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

Mario Perez, a member of St. Monica Council 12880 in Miami Gardens, Fla., paints a stainless steel cross at the entrance of St. Monica Church. The Knights funded, built and installed the new cross to replace an old, rotting wooden cross.

TOP: Photo by David Suns

KNIGHTS OF THE ROSARY Father George Fangauer Council 5168 in Duncan, Okla., gave 1,000 rosaries to Father Oby Zunmas, pastor of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church and a brother Knight, to distribute to people in the priest’s home country of Nigeria.

TOKEN OF FAITH To celebrate Father’s Day, St. Joseph the Carpenter Council 13968 in Lebanon, Ind., distributed St. Joseph prayer coins to fathers at St. Joseph Church after three weekend Masses.

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Family

DINING TABLE GENEROSITY Our Lady, Star of the Sea Council 9258 in Solomons, Md., organized three dinner fundraisers to support the construction of a new preschool building at Our Lady, Star of the Sea Parish. The dinners raised a total of $1,300, and about 40 pounds of leftover food were donated to St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen in Great Mills.

ONE COLUMBIAN FAMILY Msgr. Francis J. Desmond Council 13348 in Lewes, Del., raised more than $7,600 for brother Knight Gabe Salome to help cover medical expenses related to his ALS diagnosis.

BOTTOM: Photo by Moberly Photography Inc.

Dale Arbuckle (left) and Dean Arbuckle of Father Joseph E. Mills Council 10486 in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, deliver food to the Eastern Passage Community Fridge. Since September 2025, the council has donated more than 1,000 pounds of food to the pantry through the Food for Families program, including more than 280 pounds during its most recent visit.

STUDENT SUCCESS St. Michael the Archangel Council 15458 in Canton, Ohio, donated a box of chips, an anti-choking LifeVac kit and $2,000 to St. Michael the Archangel School. The proceeds provided financial support to students in need. The snacks, which the council has provided periodically for more than two years, are given to students who do not have one for the day.

RINGING IN FAITH Woodstock (Ill.) Council 776 purchased 20 sweatshirts — a value of $785 — for eighth grade students at St. Mary Catholic School for their class trip to Washington, D.C. During the trip, the students visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and

toured the iconic Knights Tower, which was erected with support from the Supreme Council and houses a 56-bell carillon.

SECURITY UPGRADE Pasco (Wash.) Council 1620 donated $5,000 to St. Patrick Parish and St. Patrick Catholic School to help fund a new security system. The council’s donation covered more than 12% of the project’s total cost.

ELEMENTARY EXCELLENCE Koronadal (Mindanao) Council 4576 held a distribution event at Marbel 7 Elementary School, giving children toys, school uniforms, hygiene kits, food and drinks. Knights also led the children in prayer, song and dance.

FIGHTING HUNGER TOGETHER St. Mary’s Stony Hill Council 14675 in Watchung, N.J., donated $15,600 to Food Bank Network. In the past five years, the council has donated $50,000 to the food bank.

Knights from Bardstown (Ky.) Council 1290 and family members gather around the council’s food collection bin at the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral. The council organizes two food drives during the year to support the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Bread for Life Community Food Pantry, collecting 10,140 pounds of food so far this year. Since 2019, the council has collected more than 135,800 pounds through its drives for the pantry.

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Community

Members of Albay (Luzon South) Council 3610 prepare meals for inmates of Albay Provincial Jail. The council joined other groups to volunteer at this monthly prison ministry organized by St. Gregory the Great Cathedral. Mass was celebrated at the jail’s outdoor chapel, and a priest was available for the sacrament of penance.

A HEALING RIDE Bill Rhodes Assembly 2886 in Ozark, Mo., organized an equine therapy event for about 30 veterans and their family members at Reasons Rescue Ranch in Sparta on June 6, the 82nd anniversary of D-Day. K of C councils across the state and other donors raised more than $7,000 to make the event free for veterans.

CLOTHING NEIGHBORS Msgr. John A. Welsh Council 4312 in Memphis, Tenn., sponsored a coats and clothing drive at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. More than 60 coats and 70 clothing items were collected and delivered to Catholic Charities of West Tennessee. The council has held the drive for nine years, collecting about 1,000 clothing items during that time.

YOUNG HOOPERS Msgr. Jean A. Prevost Council 12380 in Fall River, Mass., organized its annual Knights of Columbus Free Throw Contest at Bishop Connolly High School. The council has

sponsored the contest for more than 25 years, with nearly 30 children ages 9-14 participating this year.

FAIRWAY DRIVES SUPPORT FIREFIGHTERS St. Maximilian Kolbe Council 9058 in East Hampstead, N.H., donated $5,000 each to the fire departments in Atkinson and Hampstead to help purchase lifesaving equipment. The donation came from the council’s annual charity golf tournament, which raised an additional $13,000 for other charities supported by the council.

SHEPHERDING HELP St. Patrick of Arcola Council 13971 in Fort Wayne, Ind., donated $2,500 to Shepherd’s House, a faith-based recovery program for veterans experiencing homelessness.

BROTHERS WHO UPLIFT St. Michael Council 12617 in Sioux Falls, S.D., helped purchase and install a new lift for brother Knight Brian Fletcher’s minivan after his previous lift broke.

Eric Kliebenstein, community director of St. Margaret of Scotland Council 16568 in Oceanside, Calif., delivers hygiene kits and feminine hygiene products to staff members at Children of the Immaculate Heart, which serves survivors of human trafficking. The council raised $1,000 at St. Margaret Parish to purchase the supplies.

SNACKS FOR VETERANS Several councils and assemblies near Salem, Va., support the Snacks for Veterans program at the Salem VA Medical Center, which launched in July 2025 at the center’s request. Participating councils and assemblies contribute at least $150 annually to provide healthy snacks for patients, and Knights assist with special events throughout the year.

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Life

LEFT: Photo by Władysław Krupa

SUPPORTING MOTHERS York Council 1530 in Dallastown, Pa., organized its second annual Mother’s Day diaper drive at St. Joseph Catholic Church, collecting more than 6,200 diapers and more than seven boxes of wipes for Human Life Services.

Past Grand Knight Robert Malatyński of St. Queen Jadwiga Council 15268 in Rzeszów, Poland, delivers baby supplies to Sister Liliana of the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, president of Single Mothers’ Home Caritas, a local maternity home and apostolate of the congregation. The council donated items valued at 1,700 złoty (about $450) and has supported the home for two years.

District Deputy Michael Haight (left) and Grand Knight Ruben Mendoza-Medrano (right) of St. Juan Diego Council 16444 in La Crosse, Wis., hold a Knights of Columbus Silver Rose at St. James Catholic Church following a pro-life Mass organized by several local councils. Father Francis Heindl Assembly 1902 in Tomah provided an honor guard for the liturgy, during which more than 240 people prayed for an end to abortion.

LIFE IN FOCUS St. Paul the Apostle Council 12021 in Richardson, Texas, raised $60,000 for White Rose Women’s Center in Dallas, which used the donation in part to help purchase a new ultrasound machine. The Supreme Council donated $14,700 through the Ultrasound Initiative to support the purchase. The golf fundraiser has raised more than $600,000 for the center since 2000.

PINT BY PINT St. John Neumann Council 7343 in Charlotte, N.C., worked with the American Red Cross to organize a blood drive at St. John Neumann Catholic Church. More than 25 pints of blood were collected, including eight donated by Knights. The council has organized drives for more than 20 years, hosting at least four each year.

MAKING A SPLASH John Cardinal Dearden Council 744 in Mount Clemens, Mich., raised $2,300 for a water-accessible wheelchair

for St. Francis Camp on the Lake, a summer camp for people with disabilities. The council donated an additional $2,165 to support the camp’s maintenance, food, counselors and other needs. The council has supported the organization since 2006, with donations totaling more than $20,000.

CORRECTIONS The National March for Life in Ottawa, Ontario, featured on page 6 of the June issue took place May 14. • In the report titled “Two Councils, One Pro-Life Mission” on page 29 of the June issue, the Supreme Council’s Ultrasound Initiative match was $26,500, bringing the total to $53,000.

See more at www.kofc.org/knightsinaction Please submit your council activities to knightsinaction@kofc.org SEPTEMBER 2026 ✢ C O L U M B I A

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SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

Supreme Council Awards College Scholarships For the 2026-2027 academic year, the Knights of Columbus awarded scholarships totaling over $1 million to more than 500 students.

Most recipients are the children of Knights, or Knights themselves, attending Catholic universities or Catholic colleges in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico or the Philippines. These figures include more than $205,000 given to more than 82 seminarians in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about the Order’s scholarship programs, visit kofc.org/scholarships.

JOHN W. MCDEVITT (FOURTH DEGREE) SCHOLARSHIPS

This scholarship was established in 1998 in honor of the Order’s 11th supreme knight. Recipients must be enrolled at a Catholic college or Catholic university in the United States and be a Knight, the wife of a Knight, or the son or daughter of a Knight. Columbian Squires and widows and children of members who died in good standing are also eligible. In addition to 40 new recipients, 85 scholarships were renewed for the current academic year.

New recipients are: Isabella Aherns, Lianne Alexander, Chloe Anderson, Emily Anderson, Talya Becker, Peter Britton, Jude Chmelik, Kathryn Cinson, Pippa Cornett, Owen Crossman, Lucas Debry, Damian Deitchman, Angelina Ippolito, Sarah Dawson, Ashling Doherty, Kaylee Farrell,

Addyson Gruden, Raleigh Kaul, Sean Kostner, Therese Librande, Isabelle Locco, Margaret Martin, Justin Miller, Giovanni Moceri-Guillen, Abigail Mohs, Louis Monaco, Sarah Moody, Sophie Petka, Anastasia Polipnick, Nathanael Resong, Jonah Roberts, Molly Rupinen, Liliana Schechinger, Landon Schmitt, Luke Shirek, Michael Stehlin, Anna Theriault, Peter Trautman and Spiridon Tullius.

FOURTH DEGREE PRO DEO AND PRO PATRIA SCHOLARSHIPS

A total of 75 U.S. students received Fourth Degree Pro Deo and Pro Patria scholarships of $1,500 each. These scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence to incoming freshmen in bachelor’s degree programs at Catholic colleges or Catholic universities. The recipients are Knights of Columbus

or Columbian Squires, the son or daughter of a Knight in good standing, or the son or daughter of a Knight who was in good standing at the time of his death.

Contingent on satisfactory academic performance, these scholarships are renewed for a total of four years.

This academic year, 16 new scholarships were awarded and 59 renewed. The following are first-time recipients: Anne Drinan, Nizel Garcia, Teagan Hagemeyer, Aidan Hickey, Luke Hynes, Aidan Hynes, Antone Krempges, Gemma LoGrippo, Abigail Mohs, Lilian Nagy, Gavin Reiley, Aurelia Ribellia, Nina Schoenfelder, Stephen Simon, Avery Struby and Finnian Williamson.

FOURTH DEGREE PRO DEO AND PRO PATRIA SCHOLARSHIPS (CANADA)

These scholarships are for students entering colleges or universities in Canada, with requirements regarding K of C membership that are essentially the same as for their U.S. counterparts.

Ten new scholarships were awarded and 25 renewed for the current academic year.

New recipients are: Christian Borkowski, Alphonsa Cyriac, Maeve Daley, Kamie Landry, Morgan Matthews, Vincent Morris, Yujin Nicassio, Megan O’Brien, Nicholas Plustwa and Clare Toeckes.

ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS

Percy J. Johnson Scholarships are awarded to young men attending U.S. Catholic colleges or Catholic universities and are funded by a 1990 bequest of Percy J. Johnson, a member of

Seville Council 93 in Brockton, Mass. Eleven scholarships were awarded and 14 were renewed for the current academic year.

The new recipients are Xavier Adkins, Xavier Brisson, Jacob Corbett, Nicholas Jalbert, Liam Kilner, Timothy Martz, Aiden Ortiz, John Reyes, Christian Lebron Rodriguez, Wyatt Rothgery and Joshua Stone.

In 2000, Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. received a $100,000 donation from Frank L. Goularte. A scholarship fund in his name was established to provide $1,500 in need-based grants that are administered, in general, according to the rules of the Pro Deo and Pro Patria Scholarships. Eight new scholarships were awarded for the current academic year and 10 were renewed. The new recipients are Ann Corry, Sophia Guilford, Isaiah Hefty, Lilliana Lange, Liam Moylan, Philomena Olsson, Luke Walter and Johnathan Zwart.

From 1995 to 1997, Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. received bequests totaling nearly $200,000 from the estate of Anthony J. LaBella. In his will, LaBella remembered the kindness shown to him by Knights when he was an orphan in Farmingdale, N.Y. The bequests have since been used to establish a scholarship fund in LaBella’s name. Earnings from the fund provide scholarships for undergraduate study in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Pro Deo and Pro Patria Scholarships. This year, five new scholarships were awarded to Braeden Arndt, Hope Emmerich, Maria Harkins, Sophia Loehr and Carenna Mixon, and 13 were renewed.

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In 1997, Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. received a bequest from Dr. Arthur F. Battista to establish scholarships for graduates of the Cornwall (Ontario) Collegiate and Vocational School. These $1,500 and $2,000 annual scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit, financial need, community service and extracurricular activities.

Preference is given to Knights; to the children or grandchildren of members; to students recommended by the Ontario State Council; and to students bound for Catholic colleges or Catholic universities. For the current academic year, 14 new scholarships were awarded and 13 renewed. New recipients are: Kaydence Antoinie, Amrutha Shree Ammu Chandramouli, Taylor Deby, Fajr Gondal, Tuba Haroon, Eman Khan, Alyssa MacDonald, Kali Marleau, Rebecca Marleau, Fatima Mouazen, Alexander Moussa, Hanujan Rajenthiram, Akaran Rasaratnam and Manahel Saleem.

a Catholic college education.

Periodically, the board has approved continuation of the grant program. For the 2026-2027 academic year, two scholarships were renewed for Garriana Laurent and Bronte Terry.

SISTER THEA BOWMAN FOUNDATION – K OF C SCHOLARSHIPS

PUERTO RICO SCHOLARSHIPS

This scholarship is named for Sister Thea Bowman (19371990), an African American religious who inspired many people with her urgent and uplifting call for better education for children of the African American community.

In December 1996, the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors, in partnership with the Sister Thea Bowman Foundation, authorized a four-year grant in the amount of $25,000 per year to support deserving African American students pursuing

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS

The Order has an endowment at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., that provides Knights of Columbus graduate fellowships. For the 2026-2027 academic year, three fellowships have been awarded to Andrew Kelly, Adam Turock and one additional student, and five were renewed.

Five new fellowships for the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America were awarded for the 2025-2026 academic year to Mia Bytnar, Father Martin Yanshang Cui, Katia Luna, Libby McGuire and Savannah Willard, and one was renewed.

For the current academic year, two new scholarships were awarded to Yabriel Delgado Gerena and Miguel Martínez Ocasio.

PHILIPPINES SCHOLARSHIPS

For the current academic year, 14 new scholarships of $500 were awarded and 22 renewed. The new recipients are Kyla M. Amar, Kerlyn Anne L. Babia, Bebz Lorrey B. Baculio, Jannah Wayne S. Banquillo, Alex F. Cabunilas, Joyce Ann B. Dulawan, Mc Andrallize D. Gegantoca, Mart Jansen D. Hierco,

Educational Trust Fund The Francis P. Matthews and John E. Swift Educational Trust offers scholarships to the children of members who are killed or permanently and totally disabled by hostile action while serving with the armed forces during a covered period of conflict. In 2004, the Matthews Order declared that military conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan would be covered under the trust fund. Also eligible are the children of members who are killed as a result of criminal violence directed against them while performing their duties as fullSwift time law enforcement officers or full-time firefighters. An application must be filed within two years of the date of the member’s death.

As of June 30, a total of 814 children have been recorded as eligible for benefits from the Francis P. Matthews and John E. Swift Educational Trust Fund scholarship program since its establishment in 1944.

Thus far, 360 eligible children have chosen not to use the scholarships, three have died, and 129 who began college either discontinued their studies or fully used their scholarship eligibility before graduation. To date, 308 students have completed their education through the fund, and there is one future candidate.

One student — Lucy Miller — is currently working toward her degree.

Shyn Mhyr D. Marabe, Erl Lorenz Matthew H. Nieva, Mico S. Serbito, Angelo A. Serilo, Marv David R. Solanoy and Ana Rosario T. Vitaliz.

MEXICO SCHOLARSHIPS

For the current academic year, seven new scholarships were awarded in the amount of $500 each, renewable for up to four years. In addition, 10 were renewed. The new recipients are: María del Cielo Salas Benavides, Armando

Azarial Gallegos de la Cruz, Zaira Josefina Ortiz Farjado, Óscar Elizardo Baeza Gonzales, María José Romero Hoil, José Emilio Dominguez Torres and Jesús Emiliano Navarette Moreno.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Scholarship applications for the upcoming academic year will be available after Jan. 1.

For more information, visit kofc.org/scholarships.

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COLUMBIA (ISSN 0010-1869/USPS #123-740) IS PUBLISHED 10 TIMES A YEAR BY THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, 1 COLUMBUS PLAZA, NEW HAVEN, CT 06510-3326. PHONE: 203-752-4000, kofc.org. PRODUCED IN USA. COPYRIGHT © 2026 BY KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT NEW HAVEN, CT AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO COLUMBIA, MEMBERSHIP DEPARTMENT, P.O. BOX 554, ELMSFORD, NY 10523.

CANADIAN POSTMASTER — PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 1473549. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, 50 MACINTOSH BOULEVARD, CONCORD, ONTARIO L4K 4P3.

PHILIPPINES — FOR PHILIPPINES SECOND-CLASS MAIL AT THE MANILA CENTRAL POST OFFICE. SEND RETURN COPIES TO KCFAPI, FRATERNAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT, PO BOX 1511, MANILA.

LEFT: Photo by Matthew Barrick

GEAR UP FOR GAME DAY.

To owners of Knights of Columbus insurance policies and persons responsible for payment of premiums on such policies: Notice is hereby given that in accordance with the provisions of Section 84 of the Laws of the Order, payment of insurance premiums due on a monthly basis to the Knights of Columbus by check made payable to Knights of Columbus and mailed to same at PO Box 1492, NEW HAVEN, CT 06506-1492, before the expiration of the grace period set forth in the policy. In Canada: Knights of Columbus, Place d’Armes Station, P.O. Box 220, Montreal, QC H2Y 3G7 ALL MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOS, ARTWORK, EDITORIAL MATTER, AND ADVERTISING INQUIRIES SHOULD BE MAILED TO: COLUMBIA, PO BOX 1670, NEW HAVEN, CT 06507-9982. REJECTED MATERIAL WILL BE RETURNED IF ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED ENVELOPE AND RETURN POSTAGE. PURCHASED MATERIAL WILL NOT BE RETURNED. OPINIONS BY WRITERS ARE THEIR OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. SUBSCRIPTION RATES — IN THE U.S.: 1 YEAR, $6; 2 YEARS, $11; 3 YEARS, $15. FOR OTHER COUNTRIES ADD $2 PER YEAR. EXCEPT FOR CANADIAN SUBSCRIPTIONS, PAYMENT IN U.S. CURRENCY ONLY. SEND ORDERS AND CHECKS TO: ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT, PO BOX 1670, NEW HAVEN, CT 06507-9982.

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KNIGHTS OF CHARITY

Photo by Jody Horton

Knights of Charity Every day, Knights all over the world are given opportunities to make a difference — whether through community service, raising money or prayer. We celebrate each and every Knight for his strength, his compassion and his dedication to building a better world.

Members of St. Joseph Council 14674 — from left, Victor Almaguer, Grand Knight Alex Gomez and John Tijerina — give backpacks filled with school supplies to children during the council’s distribution at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Manor, Texas.

About 300 students received backpacks and supplies worth about $5,000, donated

by Knights and other parishioners as well as local businesses.

To be featured here, send your council’s “Knights in Action” photo as well as its description to: Columbia, 1 Columbus Plaza, New Haven, CT 06510-3326 or email: knightsinaction@kofc.org COLUMBIA SEP 26 ENG COVERS 8_19 C.indd 3

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KOC PLEASE, DO ALL YOU CAN TO ENCOURAGE PRIESTLY AND RELIGIOUS VOCATIONS. YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

‘His great love never fails to amaze me.’

Father Lowie Anacta Palines Diocese of Borongan and Military Ordinariate of the Philippines Nichols Council 6059, Nichols Air Base

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Photo by Tamino Petelinšek

The story of my vocation can be told through simple moments in my life. Beginning at age 9, I found joy in serving at the altar during Mass at St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish in our humble town of Sulat. At age 12, I entered the minor seminary in Borongan City.

Helping others brought me fulfillment, and each day felt more complete through prayer.

In those ordinary moments, I always felt that God’s guiding presence was constant and true.

After 15 years of formation, I returned to my parish church to be ordained a priest. In 2005, I became a chaplain in the Philippine Coast Guard, retiring last year as its first chaplain to attain the rank of commodore. This year, I celebrate 30 years of priestly ministry.

Many people were instrumental in my vocation: my parents, pastors and many others, including the Knights of Columbus, whose scholarships supported my studies. But above all, I thank the good Lord — his great love never fails to amaze me.

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