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The amazing story behind the Knights of Columbus’ role in National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

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Members of the Knights of Columbus participate in a Eucharistic procession in New Haven, Conn., May 18, 2024. The procession and Mass that proceeded it at St. Mary’s Church marked the beginning of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s Seton Route. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz, courtesy of Knights of Columbus)

Members of the Knights of Columbus — the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization — played a major role in accompanying Jesus in the Eucharist across the country in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.

“As the pilgrimage has crisscrossed our country, it has been Knights at every parish helping us make this a success,” Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, chairman of the board of the National Eucharistic Congress, told Our Sunday Visitor.

Tim Glemkowski, CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress, agreed: “Wherever the pilgrimage has gone, the Knights have been there to provide stability, security, and reverence.”

The pilgrimage, which began in May, consists of four routes — from the north, south, east and west — that will converge in Indianapolis for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress held July 17-21. The congress marks the culmination of the National Eucharistic Revival, the U.S. bishops’ three-year initiative that seeks to renew the Catholic Church by enkindling a living relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist.

The Knights, along with OSV, are founding partners of the congress.

“Aside from the fact that it was the Supreme Knight who suggested we have four processions across the country ending in Indianapolis when I first spoke to him about a coast-to-coast procession,” Bishop Cozzens said, “it is hard to imagine how we could have pulled it off without the Knights on the ground, parish by parish, being the key volunteers for the pilgrimage.”

Serving the pilgrimage

Founded in 1882 by Father Michael J. McGivney at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut, the Knights today boast nearly two million members who make up nearly 16,000 councils worldwide. The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton route of the pilgrimage, from the east, began at St. Mary’s, which houses the tomb of McGivney, who is being considered for sainthood.

Thousands of Knights and their families have participated in all four routes of the pilgrimage, according to the July/August issue of the Knights’ magazine, Columbia.

Members of the Knights of Columbus lead a procession from Our Lady of Sorrows to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Victory in Victoria, Texas, May 28, 2024, during the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. (OSV News photo/Janet Jones, courtesy The Catholic Lighthouse)

“Knights have played an active role in the pilgrimage, from planning logistics and providing hospitality for the perpetual pilgrims, to participating in Eucharistic processions in towns, cities and metropolises across the United States,” the Columbia staff writes.

For his part, Bishop Cozzens listed the many services he noticed by the Knights: processing with or carrying the canopy above the Blessed Sacrament, helping organize volunteers, assisting with parking and, in his diocese, organizing all-night adoration at the first parish stop on the Marian route from the north.

“The Knights have been all in, doing whatever is needed with their typical attitude of hands-on service,” he said. “They have truly shown themselves to be the Knights of the Eucharist.”

Planning the pilgrimage

In addition to Bishop Cozzens, Glemkowski said that the head of the Knights, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, was instrumental in framing the pilgrimage as a four-part procession. According to Columbia magazine, two other Knights — Father Roger Landry of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and chaplain at Columbia University in New York City, the only priest traveling a pilgrimage route from beginning to end, and Father John Anthony Boughton of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal — also supported the idea.

Glemkowski said that people don’t realize how involved the Knights were from the beginning.

“In fact, one of the first external meetings I had once I was on board the Congress was with the leadership of the Knights and we discussed the possibility of the pilgrimage heavily, well before anyone knew about it,” Glemkowski said. “Once it was approved, Peter Sonski [who does education and outreach for the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center] was critical on the advisory committee for the NEP [National Eucharistic Pilgrimage] to both connect with local councils and provide strategic counsel.”

Participating in the pilgrimage

As the Knights’ leader, Kelly himself stepped in when needed. Bishop Gerardo J. Colacicco of New York told Our Sunday Visitor about Kelly’s involvement while processing through New York City.

“As I walked beneath the canopy held aloft over the monstrance containing the Most Blessed Sacrament, which I was privileged to carry through the streets of Manhattan, my eyes happened to glance to the left and to my surprise, Patrick Kelly … was carrying one of the poles [of the canopy],” he told Our Sunday Visitor. “We had not been told that he would be with us.”

He was dressed simply, Bishop Colacicco said, with nothing to indicate who he was.

“[J]ust a faithful man who obviously loved the Lord enough to walk with him, protect him with the covering of the canopy, to escort him through the streets of the city,” he remembered.

Having spent months preparing for the procession, he knew Kelly was not scheduled to appear.

“To say I was taken aback is an understatement,” he described his reaction.

After some time, another person took Kelly’s place, and he “disappeared as quietly as he appeared,” the bishop remembered.

“At one point I whispered ‘thank you’ but I’m not sure he heard me,” he said. “I was moved beyond words and grateful for his witness and quiet act of devotion. There were many memorable blessings that day, Patrick Kelly was one of them.”