Welcome to the Knights of Columbus - Hamburg Council 2220

The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest lay Catholic family service organization. Our Knights stand side by side together with our families as we work, through acts of charity and the choices of our everyday lives, to lead a good Catholic life and bear witness to the Good News of the Gospel.

Father McGivney's Vision

A small group of men established the Knights of Columbus in the basement of St. Mary's Parish in New Haven, Connecticut in the spring of 1882. Led by their priest, Father Michael J. McGivney, the group saw that both Catholics and the Church itself was facing some serious problems such as anti-Catholicism, ethnic prejudice, under-employment and the lack of true social standing.

Father McGivney vowed to resolve those problems by creating an organization of Catholic men who would work together to do the following:

• Strengthen themselves and one another through their Faith in God.

• Strengthen their families and their everyday family life and way of living.

• Help each other in times of need such as sickness or death by the means of a simple insurance plan that allowed their wives and any children to not have to face uncertainty and poverty.

• Support their priests and bishops in any way possible.

• Serve the Church and the Church community by aiding anyone who needed help or assistance with any aspect of their life.

Connecticut officially chartered the Order of the Knights of Columbus on March 29, 1882. The group soon grew and now is a global organization that has over 1.6 million members in 13 different countries.