Sunday, June 3, 2018

The Knight's Shield - June 2018

Please welcome to 11689 our newest Brother, Greg Kropidlowski, who completed his admission degree, hosted right here at St. Paul of Tarsus. Also thank you to Chuck Lomasney for standing in as a candidate from 11689 so Greg was not alone.

At the time of this writing we need two more candidates to receive Star Council. Please help keep this honor ongoing for 11689 and ask a friend or someone you know to consider joining the Order. The next admissions degree is at St. Lawrence on Thursday, June 14, at 6:30 pm.

It is with sadness that I am informing all of you that Brother Carl R. Maron, 78 years old, went home to the Lord on May 9, 2018. Please keep Carl and his family in your prayers. May he rest in peace.

This will be the last message from me to you as your Grand Knight. It has been my honor to serve Council 11689 as your Grand Knight! I stepped into a great legacy of past Grand Knights, and I hope that I lived up to your expectations as your Grand Knight! Thank you to my beautiful wife Janice, who without her love, support and guidance I would not have been able to perform my duties to 11689.

In a very short month. I will become your Past Grand Knight as I take on a different role in our council as the Three Year Trustee. As it was a unanimous decision this year, our council elected current Deputy Grand Knight, Mike Hartel as our new Grand Knight. It has been a quick two years for both of us, and I know Mike will lead our council to new heights during his time as Grand Knight! Looking back on the past two years, it is hard to believe that twenty four months have passed since you elected me as your Grand Knight. Thank you for trusting me to lead our council. Together, we have accomplished a great deal for our community, parish, and our families. Even though we have made many strides toward greatness, there is always more that we can do to build the domestic church and our Brotherhood. You have my commitment that as the three year trustee, I will work as hard as I did in this past two years to meet and exceed the needs of the community and church.

The 2018 State convention is now over, and on behalf of our 1st alternate delegate Ted Czarny and his wife Sherri (Deputy Grand Knight Mike Hartel and his wife Karla were unable to attend), and my wife Janice and I, we would like to thank all of our Brother Knights for allowing us to represent 11689 at this great event. The new State Officers will be ready for their new positions starting July 1st. I would like to thank our Worthy State Deputy Ken Unterbrink for leading the State of Michigan for the last two years through a very difficult time as we lost our Worthy State Secretary Tony Vittorini...may God rest his soul. Tony was awarded the Posthumous Golden Knight Award.

The New State officers are:
State Deputy: William Chasse
State Secretary: Walter Winkle Jr.
State Treasurer: Christopher Kolomjec
State Advocate: Barry Borsenik
State Warden: Charles McCuen (shown below)

The guest speaker this year was Worthy Deputy Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Patrick Kelly.He is also the executive director of the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. He talked to us about Long Term Sustainability of Brother Knights, and how everyone knows who the Knights of Columbus are, but they don’t know what we do. The Knights have produced a video series on this topic, and he would like us all to view and pass out the link to anyone you can:

The skies cleared and the Living Rosary was able to be prayed as tradition.

Hundreds praying and waiting for the rain to hold off for the Living Rosary. As usual the weather cooperated and the front lawn of the Grand Hotel provided the ideal location. Below the balloons of the Rosary released to Heaven.

To the Officers who will be completing their terms, I extend my sincerest thank you for the performance of your positions. It has been my pleasure to serve with each of you. To those who have been newly elected as an officer, I congratulate you and wish each of you well during the coming fraternal year. At our May general membership meeting, elections were held and the fol-lowing Brothers were elected to serve as your officers for the coming year:

The Man of the Shroud Exhibit was on display from May 31st until June 4th. I hope you had a chance to stop by and see this wonderful event. The Shroud of Turin has long been venerated by the faithful and is believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. The Shroud is one of the most scientifically studied religious icons in history. As science has progressed, so has the speculation on how the image of the crucified man of the Shroud was made. Thank you to Fr. Jerry for allowing the Knights of Columbus to bring this to St. Paul of Tarsus and the many people it took to assemble, disassemble and support the event.

Special thank you to Msgr. Todd Lajiness, Rec-tor and President of Sacred Heart Major Semi-nary in Detroit. Msgr. Todd lived and studied in Rome while he was Cardinal Szoka’s secretary. He has studied the shroud while he was in Rome and continues to share his wonderful presentation and reflections on the Man of the shroud.

Thank you to Steven Kargenian, our new pan-cake breakfast chairman, for his behind-the-scenes organization, and Phil Kwasny for putting on another successful breakfast...along with all the help that jumped right in to serve St. Paul’s.

Thank you to Greg Csernai for organizing our annual spring roadside cleanup. We had a small turnout, but we got’er done! Thank you to Ray Coughlin, Greg Csernai, Tom Gray, Mike Hartel, James Lambertus, Ralph Pullis and Gary Skarb for coming out and having some fun!

Many people have been asking for the Larger K of C lapel pins. I have them available for purchase – the cost is $5.00 each. Anyone interested can get one at the General Membership or Officers meetings.

Vivat Jesus
Art Krygowski
Grand Knight / Youth Director

EASTER EGG HUNT COMING UP!!!