Knightline Sept. 14, 2005 - Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council

www.kofc.org
KnightLine
SEPTEMBER 14, 2005 VOL. 22 • NO. 13
NEWS FOR KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS LEADERS
CONTACT
THE KNIGHTS
For questions about Knights
of Columbus relief efforts,
offers of assistance, and
questions about insurance
matters connected with those
affected by Hurricane Katrina,
contact:
1-800-380-9995
Fax: 1-203-752-4007
E-mail: katrina@kofc.org
Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson spoke with the Order’s 70 state deputies via conference
call Friday, Sept. 2, to discuss the Order’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
Shown taking part in the meeting are Supreme Secretary Robert J. Lane, Deputy
Supreme Knight Jean Migneault and Assistant Supreme Treasurer Dennis Savoie.
SPECIAL EDITION: HURRICANE KATRINA
Immediate Assistance Sent;
At Least $2.5 Million Pledged
ON SEPT. 2 THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS ANNOUNCED THE LARGEST
disaster relief effort in its history. The Order pledged a minimum
of $2.5 million in financial assistance and is challenging
Knights and local units to contribute to the Knights of Columbus
Katrina Relief Fund in an amount equal to or greater than the Order’s
pldge. One hundred percent of contributions
will go directly to hurricane
relief; all donations to
Knights of Columbus Charities are
tax deductible or tax creditable in
Canada (see page 3).
Visit www.kofc.org for up-todate
information on Hurricane
Katrina and the Order’s response
Of that money, $250,000 was distributed to Catholic Charities in
affected areas, and $1.25 million will be used in the immediate future to
assist those displaced and left indefinitely homeless. An additional
$1 million will be set aside and used to rebuild the estimated 130
Catholic schools destroyed or seriously
damaged in the storm and
its aftermath.
The Knights of Columbus has
nearly 50,000 members and their
families in Louisiana, Alabama
and Mississippi. Another 45,000
Knights and family members live
in Florida, where Hurricane
Katrina first hit.
“We are asking all of our councils
and assemblies in the United
States and Canada to become
active in the relief effort within 60
days either through cash donations
or volunteer efforts,” said
Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson.
“We are also asking our members
and councils to support the
collection appeal of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops.”
On Aug. 31, the Supreme
Council provided initial relief
funds for the victims of Hurricane
Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida. Initial contributions
of $10,000 each were
made available to those Knights of
Columbus state councils.
ADDITIONAL KATRINA COVERAGE,
PAGE 2
1

FROM
SUPREME KNIGHT
CARL A. ANDERSON
Rising to
the Challenge
They say a picture is worth a thousand
words. Below is the picture I
want to share with you, with the
hope that it will motivate you and your
brother Knights to consider what more
or what else you can do for the Order’s
Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
This school desk is about all that is
physically left of St. Thomas the Apostle
School in Long
Beach, Miss. The
school was destroyed
and the
church severely
damaged by Katrina’s
winds and
waves. The 250-
plus students
who would be
seated in school
desks like this
one are, safely,
elsewhere.
Our Order has commited $1 million
to help finance the rebuilding of the hundreds
of Catholic schools damaged or
destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, including
St. Thomas. And I have no doubt that
we will accomplish that goal if not surpass
it.
Helping our neighbors and
brother Knights
rebuild their lives.
It is more than a fund-raising challenge,
though, as anyone who has read
the newspapers or watched TV coverage
of the storm’s aftermath would agree. It
is more than rebuilding a few homes,
schools and churches. It is about helping
people rebuild their lives.
I am heartened by the response
shown by so many Knights in the few
short days following the storm. Your
cash donations and contributions of
goods locally, to Catholic Charities and
to our own disaster relief efforts are having
an impact. Knights and family members
who are volunteering in the region,
or helping to relocate and settle families
elsewhere, must also be congratulated
for the work they are doing.
The solidarity we Knights showed in
2001, when we raised and disbursed
more than $1 million in the weeks
immediately after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, convinces me that we can rise to
the challenge we face now. Vivat Jesus!
DIOCESE OF BILOXI
CNS PHOTO BY PAUL HARING
Seminarian Paul Gros, left, from flooded Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans,
serves dinner to evacuees in Baton Rouge, La., Sept. 6. Eight seminarians from New
Orleans and Baton Rouge helped serve food to 320 Hurricane Katrina evacuees staying
at the temporary shelter. Gros is a member of Most Blessed Sacrament Council
10455 in Baton Rouge.
Knights of Charity
Councils and individual members help piece together lives
of those who have lost everything
Knights rushed into action in
the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina with an outpouring of
charitable endeavors and hands-on
help for victims of the worst natural
disaster in U.S. history. With its network
of councils, Knights were able
to direct aid and volunteer efforts
where they were needed most as they
collaborated with local government
and emergency relief agencies.
With members active in the field,
examples of charity abounded
throughout the Order.
Knights helped out near the scene
of destruction as members of Pierre
Part-Belle River (La.) Council 5352
worked with an elected state representative
to form “Cajuns for
Katrina.” The group prepared meals
and collected truckloads of food and
other relief items for New Orleans
evacuees who were sheltered at
Nicholls State University in
Thibodaux.
Eric Cusimano, a Columbian
Squire from Jesuit Marquette Circle
4156 in New Orleans, put aside his
personal loss and joined relief efforts.
New Orleans’ Jesuit High School,
where he was entering his senior
year, was flooded when the hurricane
broke through the city’s levees. Yet
three days after the storm, Cusimano
was at a football game at the
University of Louisiana selling raffle
tickets to raise money for medications
for elderly people.“Right now I
want to focus on helping some people
who need it a lot more than I do,” he
told The News Star in Monroe, La.
Councils opened their homes
throughout the disaster areas to shelter
hurricane victims, and individual
Knights and their families in safer
areas opened their doors to those who
were left homeless.
Council homes have also been
used as staging areas for relief efforts.
In the hard-hit city of Picayune,
Miss., the home of Oscar J. Gelpi
Council 6872 was used as a command
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE, PAGE 3
2

KATRINA COVERAGE FROM PAGE 2
center for police officers, including
military police from a National
Guard unit that came from Ohio.
On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the
Salisbury Red Cross used the home of
St. Francis de Sales Council 3489 to
train more than 100 volunteers before
sending them south. “The Knights
have always been good neighbors and
ready to help whenever we ask,” said
Red Cross executive Alan Lee.
Mississippi’s Fourth Degree Vice
Supreme Master Paul Gospodarski
reported, “Hundreds of central
Mississippi Knights are cooking thousands
of meals each day at the coliseum
in Jackson for evacuees.”
Soon after the hurricane, members
of Daniel Patrick Sullivan Council
10208 in Hot Springs Village, Ark.,
got busy renovating 42 governmentowned
homes for evacuees.
Paul Bettge, Texas State Council
public relations chairman, said that
Lake Jackson Council 6812, to which
CNS PHOTO BY PAULA GOLDAPP, SOUTH TEXAS CATHOLIC
Msgr. Richard Shirley unloads a van full of
disposable diapers donated by parishioners
of St. Pius X Church in Corpus Christi,
Sept. 6, and home to St. Pius X Council
11567, which he serves as chaplain. The
pastor and vicar general of the diocese was
among those helping to collect and drop
off items for Hurricane Katrina evacuees
being housed in Corpus Christi. Catholic
parishes were responsible for collecting
items for babies and young children as
part of a city emergency plan.
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
Donors in the United States should make checks payable to
Knights of Columbus Charities USA Inc., and send them to:
Knights of Columbus Charities USA Inc.
Gift Processing Center
PO BOX 9028
Pittsfield, MA 01202-9028
Attn: Hurricane KATRINA Relief
Donors in Canada should make checks payable to
Knights of Columbus Canada Charities Inc., and send them to:
Knights of Columbus Canada Charities Inc.
Gift Processing Center
PO BOX 7252 Station A
Toronto, ON M5W 1X9
Attn: Hurricane KATRINA Relief
One hundred percent of contributions will go directly to hurricane
relief, and all donations to Knights of Columbus Charities are
tax-deductible.
he belongs, prepared 275 breakfasts
for evacuees in the local church hall,
and delivered 200 more meals to
nearby hotels for those who were
unable to travel. “At our council
meeting, we voted to continue this
program, once or twice a week, for as
long as it is needed,” he said.
Thousands of evacuees from New
Orleans were transported by bus to
Houston, where they were given cots,
a change of clothes and three meals a
day at the Astrodome complex,
which includes Reliant Stadium and
the convention center. Texas Knights
turned out in large numbers to provide
assistance, and District Deputy
Richard Flores coordinated the volunteer
activities of about 50 Knights per
day. St. Ambrose Council 12474, to
which he belongs, has worked with
the stadium on charitable projects,
and Flores was called to help with the
relief efforts. He and fellow Knights
work about 12-hour shifts, mostly
dishing out the tons of food that
arrive on trucks each day.
“We have about 30,000 evacuees
throughout the whole complex,
sleeping on cots almost end to end
from one end of the floor to the
other,” Flores said. “When they first
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
CHARITIES
UNITED IN CHARITY
got here, they were shell-shocked,
with blank, tired faces. Some said
this was the first time they’d eaten in
four days. After a day or so here, they
began to respond and smile when
you’d say hello.”
Jim Collins, state program director,
told of a man in the Houston stadium
who wore ragged clothes and a
Knights in Houston are working
12-hour shifts cooking and
serving food to evacuees
wide grin. “He had just found his
daughter, who was about 12 or 13,”
Collins said. “They had been separated
in New Orleans and hadn’t seen
each other till they got to Houston.”
Another man “had been in the
water in New Orleans for three days
till a helicopter pulled him out,”
Collins said. ◆
Send reports and photos of your council’s
response to Hurricane Katrina.
Send to katrina@kofc.org or
Columbia, 1 Columbus Plaza,
New Haven, CT 06510-3326
PUBLISHED 18 TIMES A YEAR BY THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS SUPREME COUNCIL
1 Columbus Plaza, New Haven, CT 06510-3326
203-752-4398 ◆ knightline@kofc.org
3

KnightLine
1 Columbus Plaza New Haven CT 06510-3326
The Best in the
Business
BY THOMAS P. SMITH JR.
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
(AGENCIES AND MARKETING)
This past June, many of our
agents attended the annual
meeting of the Million Dollar
Round Table. MDRT is the premier
association of financial professionals,
and only about 3 percent of life insurance
agents worldwide qualify for
membership. I am proud that the
Knights of Columbus has 88 MDRT
members, or about 7 percent of our
field force. The names of those 88
agents will appear in the October issue
of Columbia magazine. If your agent’s
name appears, why not call and congratulate
him for being among the best
in the business?
The MDRT Code of Ethics calls for
member agents to “always place the
interests of their clients above their
own interests,” and to “give the best
IMPORTANT NOTICE: As of Aug. 31, the Knights of Columbus
suspended lapses of policies and premium notices in FEMA-designated disaster
areas for at least 60 days. If you are a Knights of Columbus policyholder from
the affected areas on the Gulf Coast, call 1-800-380-9995 with any questions
regarding your policies or other matters. We are here to serve you.
possible advice to clients by seeking to
maintain and improve professional
knowledge, skills and competence.”
MDRT expects of their members exactly
what we expect of our agents —
exemplary sales practices…outstanding
service…high ethical standards.
What does this mean for you and
your family? It means that your professional
Knights of Columbus agent
won’t simply try to push a policy on
you. He’ll take the time to review your
current coverage with you. He’ll ask
questions about your needs, goals and
budget. He’ll recommend a plan to help
you meet your needs and move toward
accomplishing your goals. Most importantly,
he’ll answer your questions. He
wants your purchase to be an informed
one. Exemplary Sales Practices.
Whether or not you purchase life
insurance coverage that evening (and
we hope that you do!), your relationship
with your agent won’t end. Things
change. Things like needs, goals and
budgets. What is an appropriate
amount of coverage today may not be
appropriate tomorrow. He’ll meet with
you annually to make sure you and
your family remain adequately protected.
Outstanding Service.
As a brother Knight, he has the best
interests of you and your family at
heart. He will render that service,
which, under the same circumstances,
he would apply to himself. High
Ethical Standards.
To identify your professional
Knights of Columbus agent, visit “Find
an Agent” at www.kofc.org. ◆
INSIDE:
• Special Coverage:
Hurricane Katrina and
the Knights of Columbus
Response
• Supreme Knight’s Message
Page 2