World News
Challenges to marriage, religious liberty among Knights' top concerns
Published: August 8, 2012
ANAHEIM, Calif. (CNS) -- Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson called the number of attendees at the Knights of Columbus 130th supreme convention in Anaheim "a testament to the growth and development" of the international fraternal organization. More than 2,000 Knights from around the world -- many of them with their wives and children -- along with 12 cardinals and more than 70 bishops attended the Aug. 6-8 convention. Anderson made the comments at the States Dinner, a high point of the convention that brings Knights together in a celebration of patriotism. The bishops, archbishops and cardinals attending the dinner processed through a massive exhibit hall in the Anaheim Convention Center, each waving a flag and smiling at the Knights cheering from either side of the aisle. After the clergy reached their seats on the dais, the assembly joined in the national anthems of countries in which the Knights are represented. The celebratory tone carried through the keynote speech of Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York -- a member of the Knights of Columbus for more than 30 years -- who got a big laugh after thanking Anderson for booking him into the honeymoon suite of the hotel where the convention took place. He went on to say he wanted to turn his audience's attention away from "the crimson tide" of bishops and cardinals seated before them and focus instead on the Knights and their wives, and the sacrament of marriage. "'For an increase in vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life and the sacrament of marriage' should perhaps become the new phrasing for a prayer of the faithful at every Mass," Cardinal Dolan went on, referring not to high divorce rates -- but to low sacramental marriage rates. Other speakers focused on the issue of religious liberty -- a hot topic at a convention with "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land" as its theme.
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