The fraternity fostered by the Knights of Columbus “contributes to our unity” and helps Knights grow in holiness and build up the Body of Christ, members of that Catholic fraternal organization were told at an Aug. 5, 2025 Mass to open their annual convention.
“As good and faithful Knights, we recognize the importance of our personal commitment to growth in holiness, unity, charity and fraternity,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA and serves as the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He offered a prayer that “these days of deliberation (at the convention) will be a time of consolidation, growth and renewed friendship.”
Archbishop Broglio celebrated a votive Mass for Pope Leo XIV at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to open the Knights of Columbus’s 143rd Supreme Convention, which is being held Aug. 5-7 in Washington, D.C. The gathering includes meetings, opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration, Confession, additional Masses, exhibitions and other events.
“We begin our days together in the nation’s capital with a perfect prayer for our new Holy Father who has, in his brief pontificate, often returned to the message of unity,” Archbishop Broglio said.
Calling the pope, “the foundation for unity and truth,” the archbishop noted that “fundamental to charity is the truth – it is the first rule of pastoral care.” He urged those at the Mass not to be “led astray by every new thought and idea that springs from someone’s imagination.”
“We are to be motivated by the truth and love according to the truth,” Archbishop Broglio said. “We depend on Peter (the pope) to confirm us in that faith.”
He said that from the time of the Apostles there has been an effort “to allow the faithful transmission of the Gospel and the confirmation of the community in unity.”
“Do we not pray for Pope Leo this morning so that he might have the strength and valor to confirm us in truth?” Archbishop Broglio asked. “We pray that Leo will always be heard as an apostle of the truth.”
More than 2,000 Knights and their family members attended the Mass that was concelebrated by more than 80 priests and more than 40 bishops, archbishops and cardinals. Attendees at the Mass came from almost every state and Puerto Rico and as far away as Canada, Mexico, Poland, Ukraine, South Korea and other nations.
For John Winfrey, a Knight of Columbus from Maryland, Mass is a fitting start to open the gathering because “we begin our supreme convention the way we open everything – with praise to God. It puts us in the right frame of mind.”
For Marcos Colón, a Knight from Puerto Rico, the convention is important because “we need to learn from and join in prayerful fraternity with our brother Knights.”
Reminding the Knights that “we live that fraternity upon which (founder) Blessed Michael McGivney based our order,” Archbishop Broglio noted that “no one in need is a stranger to us.”
“That is why we see Knights passing out winter coats, giving primary necessities to our beleaguered brothers and sisters in Ukraine, caring to the wounded in Lourdes and in so many other situations where the love of God urges us to make charity a part of our name.”
In his homily, Archbishop Broglio noted that “people are constantly writing to the bishops of this country to tell us what we are doing wrong, what payers we should have people say ... how terrible the government is, how beneficial it is, that we are engaged in politics, that we do not condemn politicians enough, and so forth.” In the face of that, he said, the faithful must remain united.
Pointing to the motto of Pope Leo, In Illo uno unum – “In the One (Christ) we are one” – the archbishop said that such unity “is the path to perfection in the Apostles and so also for all of humanity.”
“Unfortunately, the current world situation reminds us continually of the work to be done – peace and civility to be restored, and care to be extended to the poor, to the lost and to those on the margins,” he lamented.
Noting that the new pope was “born on our shores,” Archbishop Broglio called Pope Leo “a citizen of the world,” because “as pastor for the Universal Church, he belongs to us all.”
“We pray for him and await his guidance as we delve more deeply into the mystery of our Christian vocation,” the archbishop said.
Referring to the Mass’s readings from Ezekiel 34:11-16, Ephesians 4:11-16 and the Gospel of John 17:11, 17-23, Archbishop Broglio said they “speak to us about the immense love of God for each human person... the passionate interest of the Lord for the person.”
Those readings offer “this great impersonal world” what he called “a concrete expression of care through leadership.”
“It is good that we pray for our new Holy Father, Pope Leo during this Mass,” Archbishop Broglio said. “Pope Leo, truly a citizen of the world, will show us the way and we are ready to listen to him.”
In welcoming the Knights to “Mary’s house,” Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the National Shrine, noted that “it is often said that the Knights of Columbus are the strong right arm of the Church, for this National Shrine, the Knights of Columbus have been the strong right arm of Mary’s shrine.”
“With every project we have undertaken, the Knights of Columbus have been our staunch supporters and part of the mortar that keeps the National Shrine together,” he said, adding that “the most visible sign of the Knights’s presence” at the National Shrine is the “majestic Knights Tower.”
“Soaring 329 feet into the air, the Knights Tower can be seen from all over Washington, raising our eyes to the heavens,” Msgr. Rossi said.
He also pointed out that the Knights were instrumental in the installation of the National Shrine’s Incarnation Dome in 2007 and the Trinity Dome in 2017 and that members of the Knights have served for more than 40 years as ushers “providing a vital service to our guests exercising the ministry of hospitality.”
“May Mary Immaculate, the Mother of Hope, guide your deliberations during this 143rd Supreme Convention and fill your life each day with the power of hope,” Msgr. Rossi prayed at the start of the Mass.
