Knights of Columbus Insurance Join U.S. Military Archdiocese to Sponsor Spiritual Journey

03/08/2013 15:14

 

Over five hundred active-duty and retired U.S. military staff, injured veterans, spouses plus family members participated in the 55th International Military Pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine at Lourdes, France, May 24-26, 2013. Approximately a hundred and sixty individuals were a part of a “Wounded plus Handicapped Veteran Pilgrimage” program cosponsored by the Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese for Military Services.
 
The Memorial Day weekend with Knights of Columbus Insurance, pilgrimage included members of military from thirty-five nations. The trip was an occasion for rest, prayer and healing around the miraculous waters of the Lourdes grotto. The shrine is site of a reported Feb. 11, 1858 apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous. Water from a spring at the apparition site has resulted in many documented yet inexplicable physical cures.
 
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Military Services (AMS) had been the primary celebrant and homilist May 24 at the opening Mass for the American contingent in the Shrine’s Basilica of the Excellent Conception.
 
“Our pilgrimage these days is yet another time for all of us to heighten our belief,” he stated. “We come to this wonderful Shrine with many intentions. For some it will be health of mind and body. For others it might be part of a vocation search. Still others ask the Virgin for blessings on their families. We come to this sacred place and pray for all of those deployed in harm’s way and we beg Our Mother to intercede with her Son so that the world might experience that peace that only He can bring.”
 
Pope John Paul II developed the AMS being an independent archdiocese in 1985 as the only Catholic legislation liable for promoting and allowing faculties for priests to serve as chaplains in the U.S. military services establishments. AMS-endorsed priests work as chaplains at over 220 U.S. military installations in twenty-nine nations, together with 153 Veterans Administration medical centers throughout the nation. The AMS service population comes with American Catholic citizens doing work for the federal government in 134 nations around the world. Around the world, about 1.8 million Catholics depend on the AMS to meet up with their very own spiritual and sacramental requirements.
 
Supreme Knights of Columbus Carl Anderson joined up with the pilgrims in France. The Knights of Columbus has collaborated with the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) regularly in support of such initiatives.
 
“The Knights of Columbus Insurance organized its very first military pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1919,” Anderson stated, “and we were honored to return to this important Marian shrine aiding this pilgrimage of faith by simply our active duty as well as retired troops who have given up a lot for the nation. The great love these services women and men have for God as well as nation sets an exquisite illustration for everyone who has taken advantage of their sacrifices in the proper protection of our independence.”
 
A number of the first members of the Knights of Columbus were being Civil War veterans, and the Knights have really been committed to supporting folks that serve our country. In World War I, the K of C ran hospitality centers for U.S. troops throughout the United States and Europe under the banner “Everybody Welcome, Everything Free.” In World War II, the Knights of Columbus in Canada continued the army hut program, while in the United States, Supreme Knight Matthews served as a Catholic representative on the board of the United Service Organizations (more commonly known as the USO), through which the Knights continued to serve troops. Today, the Knights of Columbus Insurance works closely with the AMS in its continuing work for our troops and veterans with a variety of activities geared toward their spiritual and temporal needs.
 
 

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