Supreme Knight's Report

Membership and Council Growth

Knights of Fraternity

Members of Oak Cliff Council 3593 in Dallas sold food and drink at the annual St. Mary of Carmel Parish carnival. The booth netted $560 for the parish general fund and provided interested carnival-goers with an opportunity to find out more about the Knights of Columbus.

Continued strong membership growth is absolutely essential to our ability to meet the needs of our Church and communities. I am happy to report that as of June 30, 2007, the end of our fraternal year, our membership had grown to an all-time record high of 1,741,288.

We initiated more than 68,000 new members last year. Another 13,000 reactivated their memberships while 28,348 brother Knights passed away. Therefore our net membership gain for the year was 19,162.

The past year has been very good for council growth as well. We instituted 246 new councils, and reinstituted four, for a total gain of 250 councils. Initial membership in these new or reinstituted councils totaled 6,250 new Knights. We’ve also had good results from our council reactivation program, which brought 181 suspended councils back to life, bringing in almost 2,500 new or reinstated members.

We set a new record for round table formation, totaling nearly 3,800. Reporting round tables recruited an average of three new members each, providing us with another 5,600 new or reinstated members.

The Order instituted its first council in Poland in January 2006.

Our potential for recruitment among Hispanic Catholics is virtually unlimited. The Supreme Council now has a number of 9 Spanish-speaking employees working full-time in this area. We are also pleased to announce the recent addition to the Supreme Council staff of of the first-ever, full-time liaison to the Philippines, Former Visayas Deputy Eduardo G. Laczi.

We continue to make good progress in Poland. The Order instituted its first council there in January 2006. We now have eight active councils in Poland, and I was proud to personally present council charters and install our first district deputies there earlier this year.

We continue to move toward our goal of establishing a Knights of Columbus presence in every parish, on the way to establishing a Knights of Columbus council in every parish.

As I said at our March 29th Founder’s Day celebration, the Knights of Columbus must take a leadership role in assisting every parish priest in the renewal of parish life.