Thanks for the detailed post.
I don’t have time to dedicate to being in the leadership functions for the next few years. (The nice thing about doing fundraisers is that I can do...if I have time. But if I don’t, then I can say “no.” If I take on a leadership role, “no” is not an option until the end of the fraternal year)
Not to say never...but not for the next couple of years.
I agree with what you’re saying as to fraternal correction. That is a must and I certainly would hope that this happens on a more-or-less typical basis. Dedicating the time to the adult catechesis (and correction is part of that) is really important. Frankly, I don’t see it...but I hope that this is due to my being in the periphery rather than it not happening.
The reason I’m so aggravated about this is that in my council we had such a legislator a few years ago. He made great hay in his election campaign about how solidly pro-life he was, how he was a solid Catholic, Knights of Columbus member, and so on. Being Maryland, he was able to vote pro-life on a lot of bills. But when one, that was actually somewhat close, came up a couple of years ago, he was one of the deciding votes. And he voted the wrong way. There were a number of members of our council who felt totally betrayed by this...and we wanted the council to let him know that we were not happy with his decision. Not a matter of suspension or expulsion, but simply a matter of providing the fraternal correction. The leadership in the council was unwilling to even consider the matter. Not because it wasn’t their place to judge the man’s Catholicity, but because they didn’t want to get involved in politics. (This is rather ironic as the Knights as an organization takes political positions on many issues, from the Pledge of Allegiance to pro-life politics to — recently — immigration) In fact, when a motion to do so was put forward, it was initially ruled out of order...but when pressed, it was shunted to the executive committee and then quashed there.
Had the GK or another leader advised me that they were taking some sort of action — talking with the person...or anything, literally ANYTHING else, I wouldn’t be as frustrated. But...they didn’t feel that they should get involved in politics. The way they put it was not as a principled stand. The way they put it appeared to be due to a lack of moral courage (I could be wrong, but that’s my perception).
Very frustrating.
So when I see this type of issue come up, I consistently go back to that experience and consider the frustration that came up from that experience.
Thought you should know why I’m as involved in this one as I am.
Leadership - you might be surprised that there are any number of leadership positions that take minimal amounts of time. If you’re already working lots of fundraisers, you’re already committing the time. But in any event, on behalf of Grand Knights everywhere, thanks for coming out to help. If half our Knights did that, we’d get three times as much stuff done as we do.
About your experience in your Council, I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t know how the resolution was crafted, so I can’t say what I’d have done as Grand Knight.
I don’t think that as Grand Knight I’d have mentioned someone by name.
Remember that as Knights, as Councils, as an Order, we take positions on poliCIES, but not poliTICS. Thus, we can say, “It’s important that SR.989 is passed to protect unborn life.” But we can’t say, “State Sen. Hornblower voted against SR.989, and thus, he’s a bad guy!”
If I had a wayward legislator in my Council, direct fraternal correction would have occurred privately. I’d have tried to get my Chaplain involved in it, as well.
In terms of motions or resolutions in the Council, I think I’d have permitted something like this:
“Whereas the protection of unborn human beings in the State of Maryland would have been enhanced by the passage of SR.989, and
“Whereas all good Catholics in the legislature had an absolute moral obligation to uphold the Culture of Life by voting in favor of SR.989 to protect in law unborn human life, and
“Whereas in the recent vote on SR.989, several legislators who call themselves Catholic and Knights of Columbus, voted against this important legislation,
“We condemn the compromise with the Culture of Death that their votes represent."
And I’d call it a day.
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