The Knights of Columbus was founded by a Catholic priest, Father Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut on October 2, 1881, and incorporated under the laws of the U.S. state of Connecticut on March 29, 1882. Michael J. McGivney, a young Catholic priest at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn., gathered a group of men in the parish to create a society to, as the Knights’ website now says, “prevent Catholic men from entering secret societies antithetical to Church teaching, uniting Catholic men and helping families of deceased members.” The goal of the group was to care for the poor and the widowed, to make its members better Catholics and better Americans, and to contribute to the spiritual and civic well-being of the church and the local communities of its members.
Chaplain
