First Community of Knights of Columbus Established in UGCC
Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), on November 6, headed a liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection in Kyiv which was dedicated to the creation of the first Knights of Columbus community in the UGCC, the UGCC Information Department informs.
During the sermon, the supreme archbishop of the UGCC noted that the Ukrainian idea of chivalry is the idea of the active implementation of the highest ideals contained in the Holy Gospel, the Word of God. Indeed, a knight not only listens to the Word of God, but also performs it. “Chivalry has always been the builder of the future, for it laid the unshakable foundations of the personal, family and community social life. The Knights of Columbus was established in order to put the Word of God as the foundation for the very complicated social structure that prevailed in the United States in the 19th century. So we're happy that the idea of chivalry is being implemented in the life of the laity of our church,” said the preacher.
UGCC bishops and priests as well as the laity belong to the Knights of Columbus community.
The head of the church thanked Fr. Volodymyr Malchyn for the spiritual guidance of the community, as well as the wives of the knights as their husbands “declare to the world and the church that Christian principles are the foundations of homes and families.”
After the Liturgy, the Primate of the UGCC took part in the meeting of the St. Volodymyr Leadership Council of the Knights of Columbus, which discussed plans for the council of the Knights of Columbus in the UGCC.
The Knights of Columbus is a world-famous Catholic fraternal service organization, established in 1882 by Roman Catholic priest Michael J. McGivney. It started as a small group of parishioners in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, who gathered at St. Mary’s Church to support widows, families, and orphans of the parish. Today, there are nearly 2 million members in more than 10 countries.
The process to establish the Knights of Columbus in Ukraine was launched by the previous head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Lubomyr Husar, who in August 2005, during the 123rd Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus, which was held in Chicago, USA, invited the knights to visit Ukraine. This initiative was later supported by the head of the UGCC Patriarch Sviatoslav and Metropolitan Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine. The first council of the Knights of Columbus in the UGCC was formed on September 20, 2013, at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ and bears the name of St. Volodymyr. A Roman Catholic council of the Knights of Columbus exists in Lviv.
