Tribute to the Worthy Past Supreme Knight
Knights of Columbus Board Meeting
August 2, 2022
Nashville, TN
It is a great honor and a profound joy to offer a tribute to our Worthy Past Supreme Knight, Carl A. Anderson.
And let me begin with this: Carl and Dorian are among my dearest friends. Our friendship began one morning on the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington when a mutual friend, Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, introduced me to Carl. At the time, Carl was working on the Hill and I was a recently ordained priest struggling to finish my doctorate. As time progressed, Carl moved on to HHS, then to the White House and I became the priest secretary of James Cardinal Hickey, who was, at that time, the Archbishop of Washington. Carl and I would meet from time to time, on occasion at the White House mess. Along the way, I came to know Dorian and their young and growing family.
But the best was yet to come.
It began when Carl made the decisive move to serve the Knights of Columbus, first, overseeing the Knights’ public policy office in Washington, then, founding, along with Msgr. Albacete, the John Paul II Institute in Washington, and still later becoming the State Deputy of the District of Columbia. By then I was Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, and Carl very kindly invited me to serve as State Chaplain. As I witnessed Carl in these various roles, I began to appreciate not only the breadth of his knowledge and the depth of his skills but also the vision of human life and dignity that permeated his thinking and decisions coupled with a loving fidelity to the Lord and to the Church.
But there’s more.
In the year 2000, Carl became the Supreme Knight and a year later I became the Bishop of Bridgeport – and, as all of you know, Bridgeport and New Haven are close to one another. This afforded me many opportunities to visit with Carl and Dorian. Then, one fine day in 2005, Carl asked me to serve as Supreme Chaplain – a privilege for which I shall always be deeply grateful. I mention this because it gave me a front row seat from which to witness Carl’s inspired leadership of the Knights of Columbus over the course of two decades, leading it to unprecedented growth in membership, in the expanse of its charities, and in insurance and financial products, but most of all in the breadth of its vision. Under Carl’s leadership, the Knights of Columbus was established in Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, France, and Korea, while its presence increased in the Philippines, Mexico, and Central America.
As the Knights reached new heights of charity under its leadership, so too its commitment to the unborn and to their mothers deepened, with the expansion of the Order’s ultrasound program, its support for the March for Life, and a host of other initiatives designed to help mothers in need and to foster family life – initiatives to which Carl gave the necessary vision, leadership, and impetus.
As persecution broke out in the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Syria, it was Carl’s leadership that put the Knights at the forefront of efforts to call attention to the plight of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities. It was Carl, who led the Order in working closely with bishops across the Middle East in coming to the aid of communities that suffered from war, injustice, deprivation, and most of all, the shedding of innocent blood. Testifying before Congress and working closely with the Obama Administration, Carl persuaded the American government and the international community officially to recognize this religious persecution as a human rights violation. Thus, did Carl lead the Order in making visible to the eyes of the world the suffering of these heroic peoples, thus helping to protect and defend them.
These are but a few of Carl’s accomplishments in a lifetime of faith, service, and leadership of the Knights of Columbus, accomplishments that lead me to this conclusion. Few people have the breadth of interests and depth of knowledge that Carl possesses – whether it is philosophy, theology, law, business and business ethics, government, public policy, and international affairs – or literature, classical music, the cinema, or his prowess as a hunter or his expert knowledge of wine and also tequila. It is rightly said that Carl Anderson is truly a renaissance man. But saying that is saying too little. Carl, you are not only a man of many interests and skills, but a disciple of the Lord, a man of faith, wisdom, insight born of the Holy Spirit, a man with a capacious mind and even more capacious heart.
This evening, I am proud to join with our Worthy Supreme Knight in honoring my good friend, Carl A. Anderson. Ad multos annos! Vivat Jesus!