Christopher Columbus and American Catholicism

Throughout the nineteenth century, Protestant Americans loved to remind Catholics that their own ancestors were the ones who settled America. Catholics responded, however, by noting that America was discovered by a Catholic, Christopher Columbus. Hence the image of Columbus became an important one for Catholics during this period. When a priest in New Haven, Connecticut, by the name of Michael McGivney put together what would become the most successful Catholic fraternal organization in the world, he could think of no better name to give it than that of the great navigator. On Oct. 2, 1881, a small group of men met in the basement of St. Mary’s Church on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut. Called together by their 29-year-old parish priest, Father Michael J. McGivney, these men formed a fraternal society that would one day become the world’s largest Catholic family fraternal service organization. They sought strength in solidarity, and security through unity of purpose and devotion to a holy cause: they vowed to be defenders of their country, their families and their faith. These men were bound together by the ideal of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of the Americas, the one whose hand brought Christianity to the New World. They were Knights of Columbus. Their efforts came to fruition with the incorporation of the Knights of Columbus on March 29, 1882. Today the Knights of Columbus have some 113,000 councils and about 1.7 million members worldwide.
(From the Knights of Columbus website)