Though the movie is not historically perfect, I suggest you watch “Gangs of New York” for a taste of what life was like, for Catholics in pre-civil war America.
When Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, many insurance companies had clauses that would not allow their insurance products to be sold to someone who was not born on American Soil, or even, to those whose PARENTS were not born on American Soil.
Some insurance companies went so far as to specifically DECLINE any applications from Catholics, and even put that prohibition in writing.
The Knights of Columbus was formed to fill a void, and eventually the Knights formed their own Fraternal, Mutual Insurance Company.
To this day, most of the revenue raised by the Knights of Columbus comes from their Insurance operation.
They have one of the most competitive “dividend scales” in the industry.
As “investments” go, a KofC whole life policy will probably out perform a municipal bond, even after taxes, if purchased before age 50 and held for 20 years or more. Even if cashed out BEFORE death!
Anyway, there is your answer:
Necessity if the Mother of Invention!
Bigotry denied insurance to Catholics.
Catholics created their OWN insurance company!
There was lots of bigotry against catholics in america. from the days after the civil war until probably JFK was elected, catholics and black were both considered dangerous to america. I don’t have any proof to back this up, but my great grandfather claimed that the KKK was at one time as anti-catholic as it was anti-black. I’ve also been told that in america, masons were at one time anti-catholic.
Don’t you think it’s a little bit suspicious that the knights templar were into banking and insurance and that the knights of columbus were as well? And that the origins of the freemasons is connected to the knights templar? Also, don’t forget that the catholics murdered the knights templar. Stands to reason that the masons would not be overly friendly to the catholic church.
Your post sounds an awful lot like a lame excuse to me. The fact still remains that the knights of columbus is nothing more than a CATHOLIC ONLY version of the masons/shriners/knights templar.
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My father sold Knights of Columbus Insurance and was a 4th degree Knight. Talk about a hard job.....he could ONLY sell to other Knights!