• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
More than 1,700 attended the States Dinner at the Civic Center in 1965, when the Knights of Columbus held their 83rd annual Supreme Convention in Baltimore. (CR File)

Baltimore and the Knights of Columbus

July 25, 2018
By Paul McMullen
Filed Under: Commentary, Feature, Knights of Columbus, Local News, Our Back Pages

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

The Knights of Columbus will acknowledge an important part of their roots Aug. 7-9, when the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization holds its 136th annual Supreme Convention in Baltimore.

The Knights were founded in 1882 in Hartford, Conn., by Father Michael J. McGivney. Five years earlier, on Dec. 22, 1877, he was among the first men ordained to the priesthood by then-Archbishop James Gibbons of Baltimore at what is now the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Father McGivney had studied at St. Mary’s Seminary, then located a 10-minute walk west of the basilica, and was one of three men from the Diocese of Hartford ordained by Archbishop Gibbons. It was 25 years before the first Ford Model T rolled off an assembly line, and The Catholic Mirror of Dec. 29, 1877, noted that “Only a few of the parents were enabled to gaze on this scene, for most of the students have their homes far away, and their parents were, in consequence, deprived of the happy spectacle.”

Twenty years later, Baltimore Council No. 205 was instituted Feb. 21, 1897, as the first in Maryland. It remains in existence, as the Shehan Council, headquartered on Harford Road in Hamilton.

This will be the third Supreme Convention to be held in Baltimore.

In August 1965, The Catholic Review reported that more than “2,000 delegates from 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, and the Phillipines” attended the 83rd annual Supreme Convention, the first in Baltimore.

More than 1,700 attended the States Dinner at the Baltimore Civic Center, where the head table included Mayor Theodore McKeldin, eight bishops and Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, who said that the Knights “must be in the forefront of activities beneficial to the church and the nation.”

He “challenged” them to be involved in activities such as “getting personally involved in fighting poverty … joining with other community groups to relieve racial tension,” and lauded them “in your attempt to dry up the sources of pornography.”

The Supreme Convention returned in 1989, when the Archdiocese of Baltimore was marking its bicentennial. Approximately 2,500 Knights gathered at the Baltimore Convention Center, where they heard from then-Archbishop William Keeler and Vice President Dan Quayle.

“The Knights,” the Review reported, “ended the convention with a seven-part pro-life resolution which commits the members to fighting for a human life amendment to the U.S. Constitution. … ”

Since 2005, Archbishop William E. Lori has served as the Knights’ Supreme Chaplain. They number more than 27,000 in the state of Maryland alone.

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Paul McMullen

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

  • A butterfly lands on a flowering bush with purple blossoms A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)

| Latest Local News |

Radio Interview: The true story of ‘Xavier Rynne’

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

| Latest World News |

Massacre ‘of faithful in the house of God’ in Congolese Catholic church leaves 43 dead

Pope welcomes young people to Rome for jubilee, thanks media for promoting truth

Cardinal Tomasi: Religious communities can play key roles in nuclear disarmament

Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man

Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Radio Interview: The true story of ‘Xavier Rynne’
  • Massacre ‘of faithful in the house of God’ in Congolese Catholic church leaves 43 dead
  • Pope welcomes young people to Rome for jubilee, thanks media for promoting truth
  • Cardinal Tomasi: Religious communities can play key roles in nuclear disarmament
  • Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man
  • Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says
  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en