The mission of Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, has always been to protect Catholic families from financial hardship so that their children are free to grow up in the faith.

In 1882, a widow with young children had to prove that she had the means to care for them. If she could not, the state could take custody of her children and even deny her visitation, with the stated aim of preventing children placed in secular or Protestant homes from “lapsing back into Catholicism” through contact with their mother.

Catholic families today do not face such severe economic and legal threats. Yet the crisis of faith facing families is, in many ways, far greater. Study after study show that when it comes to passing on the Catholic faith, as the father goes, so go the children.

By strengthening Catholic men spiritually and financially, the Knights of Columbus continues the mission entrusted to us by our founder: to strengthen Catholic families, help their children flourish spiritually and materially, and, above all, keep families connected to the Church and deeply rooted in their faith in Christ!