Knights of Columbus: You are the defenders of "religious freedom”

Pope to Knights of Columbus: “You are the defenders of religious freedom”

 

CARL ANDERSON

The Pope’s message to Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, ahead of next week’s Convention in California

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
 ROME

“In an era when collective action is taken to redefine and perhaps limit the exercise of the right to religious freedom, The Knights of Columbus have worked tirelessly  to help the Catholic community recognise and respond to the unprecedented seriousness of these new , dangerous threats to Church freedom and to public moral testimony.”

 

Benedict XVI stated this in a message to the Knights of Columbus, sent via the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, on the occasion of their annual Convention which will be held between 7 and 9 August in California.

 

In a message addressed to Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, the Pope stressed that “by defending the rights of all believers, as individual citizens and in the institutions, in order to work responsibly towards building a democratic society based on their beliefs, values and aspirations, your Order has proudly respected the high patriotic and religious principles that inspired its foundation.”