POPE FRANCIS SENDS MESSAGE TO KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to the Knights of Columbus who have been holding their 131^st Supreme Convention in San Antonio, Texas from August 6^th to 8^th . Addressed to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson (pictured) and signed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the message says Pope Francis has been comforted in the first months of his pontificate by the many messages of prayerful encouragement and solidarity he has received from so many Knights and their families.

Noting the theme of the Convention, ‘Be Protectors of God’s Gifts’, the papal message says that in fidelity to the founding vision of their order in the late nineteenth century, the Knights of Columbus continue to play an outstanding role in helping Catholic men to respond to their vocation to be ‘protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment’. 

Conscious of the specific responsibility which the lay faithful have for the Church’s mission, the message continues by inviting each Knight, and every Council, to bear witness to the authentic nature of marriage and the family, the sanctity and inviolable dignity of human life, and the beauty and truth of human sexuality. In this time of rapid social and cultural changes, it says, the protection of God’s gifts cannot fail to include the affirmation and defense of the great patrimony of moral truths taught by the Gospel and confirmed by right reason, which serve as the bedrock of a just and well-ordered society.
SHARED FROM RADIO VATICANA