Knights of Columbus

Important Poll

MSNBC is conducting a poll as to whether the words "In God We Trust" should remain on our currency. Please go to poll and vote: Poll

State Council Retreat

The State Council sponsors a retreat each year in October at Saint Alfonso Retreat House in West Long Branch. Thew mottow for the Retrear House is "Where God and Sea Come Together.

The dates for this year's retreat is October 24, 25, & 26

The State Retreatis held for members who cannot att end a retreat with their Councils or churches, and for members who wish to atend more than 1 retreat per year. For more information, contact Joseph M. Orosz, FDD @ CouncilRetreat@NJKofC.org

Urban Enterprise Zone Jobs Scholarship Act

As many of you may know, the Urban Enterprise Zone Jobs Scholarship Act
(S-1607/A-2897), is currently making its way through the New Jersey legislature.

This bill must receive a hearing in the Senate's Budget and Appropriations Committee, chaired by Senator Barbara Buono. Senator Buono, and Senate President Richard Codey, NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU that you wish to see this bill posted in committee!

You can send a message to both senators quickly and easily HERE:

If you are a New Jerseyan supporting school choice, showing your support could not be simpler, easier, or more important. Please Act Now!

Knights of Columbus sets record for charitable giving, volunteer service

New Haven, CT - June 6, 2008 - The Knights of Columbus announced today that it set new all-time records for charitable giving and volunteer service hours in 2007. Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson released the results of the survey in a speech to state deputies and members of the board of directors in New Haven, Connecticut.

The results of the Order's Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity for the year ending December 31, 2006 show that total contributions to charity at all levels reached $144,911,781 - exceeding the previous year's total by more $1 million. The figure includes $31,235,220 donated by the Supreme Council, and $113,676,561 in charitable donations from state and local councils, Fourth Degree assemblies, and squire circles.

The survey also shows that the reported number of volunteer hours by Knights for charitable causes grew to 68,270,432 hours, up more than 400,000 hours from 2005. There were 393,030 Knights of Columbus blood donors during the year, and Knights made more than 5.5 million visits to the sick and bereaved.

Cumulative figures show that during the past decade, the Knights of Columbus has donated nearly $1.28 billion to charity, and provided in excess of 612 million hours of volunteer service in support of charitable causes.

The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest lay Catholic organization, with more than 1.75 million members in the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, Central America, and Poland.

Urban Schools Scholarship Act

A bill titled the ‘Urban Schools Scholarship Act’ is beginning to make its way through the New Jersey State Assembly (bill A-1003) along with a sister bill in the New Jersey Senate (bill S-140). These two bills are a result of your New Jersey State Council’s affiliation with the New Jersey School Choice Alliance. You may remember a few years ago we sponsored a school choice petition drive, which was held at almost every parish in the state. Since that time we have aligned ourselves with the School Choice Alliance to work to make school choice an issue within the state. Through our collaborative efforts, as well as those of the voting public this past November, we are finally reaching a point wherein an acceptable bill is gathering support from our state legislators and may be released from committee for debate in the Assembly and Senate. The details of the bill can be found here.

OUR NEW MAGAZINE FUNDRAISER

A great new way to raise funds for all of our charitable needs!

Though an arrangement with READER”S DIGEST FUNDRAISING…the New Jersey State Council, Knights of Columbus, has developed a unique program.

You can RENEW AN EXISTING magazine subscription or ORDER A NEW ONE and the NEW JERSEY KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS will receive 40% of the total cost. There are over 700 magazines listed in our magazine store.

Very Important. To receive credit for your council, on the CHECK-OUT page you must list your

Council Name in the Box Titled " Participants First Name" and your Council Number in the Box

Titled " Participants Last Name".This will guarantee that your council will share 50/50 in

earnings with the State

DON’T WAIT! CLICK HERE AND ENTER OUR STORE AND PLACE YOUR ORDERS.

Pledge of Allegiance goes to court in US

The phrase "One Nation Under God" went on trial, as Kevin "Seamus" Hasson, President of the Becket Fund asked a federal appeals court to overturn a ban on saying the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.

In 2005, atheist activist Michael Newdow had succeeded in convincing a Sacramento court to ban the Pledge in the lawsuit Newdow v. Carey because he found the two words "under God" offensive to his atheist beliefs.

Hasson, who argued the case on behalf of schoolchildren who want to continue to say the Pledge, engaged the appeals judges in lively argument before a packed courtroom that included several of Mr. Newdow's boisterous supporters.

Hasson pre-empted Newdow's arguments by arguing that the phrase "under God" has always been used in American history as a way of protecting rights, not violating them. That's because "God-given rights" are rights the government can't take away.

After argument, Hasson commented, "This is about a lot more than just how school kids start their day. It's about where the next generation thinks its rights come from -- the creator or the state."

The Becket Fund is also representing the Knights of Columbus in the lawsuit. The Knights spearheaded the original campaign to include the words "under God" in the Pledge.

The court is expected to issue a decision soon.

Remember Our Soldiers

Please remember all our servicemen and women every day. Pray for the ones in harms way and far from home. If you can, donate something to them for a gift just to make them smile and know we are thinking of them always. Keep their morale and spirits high.

Remember:

It is the soldier not the reporter who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier not the lawyer who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the soldier not the poet who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier not the campus organizer who has given us freedom to demonstrate.

And it is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives protesters the right to burn the flag.

God, keep Your young men and women who serve our country safe from harm, and if it comes to pass that they die defending our country, gather them up into Your arms and take them home and let them know the peace of Your eternal love.

Embryonic Stem Cell Alternative Researcher Doesn't Like Destroying Life

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 11, 2007

Kyoto, Japan (LifeNews.com) -- Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University made international headlines recently when he devised a new process that allows for the creation of embryonic stem cells without the destruction of human life. Now, Yamanaka says he was prompted to search for ethical alternatives by his own conscience.

Invited by a friend to take a look at a human embryo -- a unique human being -- under a microscope, Dr. Yamanaka had a moral spark that changed his career.

For more on this story, visit: http://www.lifenews.com/bio2295.html

Welcome to the New Jersey State Council

Welcome to the New Jersey State Council of the Knights of Columbus. Father Michael J. McGivney and a handful of Catholic laymen founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882, in the basement of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in New Haven, Connecticut. The aim of the founder was to set up a parish-based lay organization that offered insurance benefits to the widows and children of members. In an era when parish and fraternal societies were popular, Father McGivney felt there should be some way to strengthen the religious faith of his flock and provide financial support for families overwhelmed by illness or the death of the breadwinner.

Today the Knights of Columbus have grown from that one local unit, or council, to over 12,000 councils in the United States (including Puerto Rico and Guam), Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Guatemala, and Saipan. In January 2006, the Knights of Columbus expanded to Poland.

Membership is over 1.7 million members, plus their families - approximately 5.6 million people total - many of whom are actively involved in volunteer service programs for the Catholic Church, their communities, their families, young people and one another.

The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest organization of Catholic men and their families, has been called "the strong right arm of the Church," and has been cited by popes, presidents and other world leaders for support of the Church, for programs of evangelization and Catholic education, for civic involvement and aid to those in need.

New Jersey Knights of Columbus adopts St. Augustine School in Louisiana

The New Jersey Knights of Columbus State & Local Councils have donated over $70,000 to St. Augustine School in New Orleans. For more information on the recovery process, and how you may help, click on: http://purpleknights.com/contact.htm

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