Do the Knights of Columbus help? I know that our local chapter has an account called a Seminary Burse but they’ve never used any of the money for anything in 7 years.
In my former council in Indiana, we had two seminarians from our parish that we made sure to raise money for.
They had a State program named S.O.S. (save our seminarians) that money was available from.
Our council picks one or two seminarians from the local area every year and provides a cash donation to help cover out-of-pocket expenses, but nothing substantial enough to completely cancel college loans, etc.
“Do the Knights of Columbus help?”
The Order provides dozens of scholarships each year for seminarians. These are limited to $2,500 per year, and can be renewed for up to four years. Going back a couple of years (the last year for which I could find data), the Knights were supporting about 130 or so seminarians throughout the United States and Canada.
More directly, local Councils often “adopt” seminarians and provide them with small stipends, usually about $500 per year, while they’re in the seminary. I believe that each seminarian is limited to a maximum of $2,000 per year.
It’s not a huge sum, but I know that our former pastor told us that he received these stipends when he was in the seminary, and it helped him out. As well, the seminarians that my own Council has supported have been appreciative.
Sometimes, Councils also provide other gifts to seminarians. I think that one year, our Council bought our seminarian an inexpensive laptop computer (about $750, I think).
sitetest
RE: your local KofC seminary burse and not helping anyone for 7 years... If they have the burse and no one specific to help, maybe they should consider helping the Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations (see link in post 1). They are helping concrete individuals and have had to turn some applicants away due to lack of funds.
The Burse from the Knights is to help pay for Books or some pocket change like 1000 bucks for one of our seminarians..
**Do the Knights of Columbus help?**
Yes, other organizations too.