87 years ago

It signaled the beginning of a massive campaign by the Knights to support the war effort and in so doing eliminate any doubt about the ability of Catholics to be loyal and patriotic Americans.
A fraternal and charitable society for Roman Catholic men, the Knights of Columbus was founded by Irish-American priest Fr. Michael J. McGivney and several laymen in 1882 in New Haven, Conn. In addition to providing friendship to its members, the Knights also offered care to needy members and their families through an insurance fund that paid for funerals and provided families with short-term financial support. The Knights was also dedicated both to defending Catholicism from its attackers and championing the belief that American democracy and Catholicism were thoroughly compatible. Tellingly, the group’s name was chosen in honor of Christopher Columbus, a figure who was both an American hero and a Catholic. It indicated in a very explicit way the desire to provide their members with a Catholic equivalent to the Puritans’ Plymouth Rock.
The Knights experienced rapid growth in the 1890s, fueled by a combination of rising patriotism spurred by the Spanish-American War and enthusiasm generated by the 400th anniversary of Columbus? arrival in the New World. By 1905 the organization had chapters in every state.
An additional source of the membership growth for the Knights was a rising tide of anti-Catholicism in the 1890s as promoted by the American Protective Association. In these early years the membership of the Knights was overwhelmingly Irish American. By the turn of the century Irish Catholics were experiencing rapid upward mobility into the ranks of the middle class and beyond. As a consequence they became increasingly sensitive to anti-Catholicism, rightly seeing it as an impediment to their ongoing success. In 1914 the Knights established a Commission on Religious Prejudices to expose instances of anti-Catholicism and foster a spirit of religious tolerance.
But the decision that had a far greater impact in improving the image of Catholics in America came two years later. In 1916, the Knights began a program to offer recreational and religious services to American military personnel stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border. At the time American had 250,000 soldiers there in response to cross-border confrontations with Pancho Villa. Knights councils in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California established facilities in the military camps that doubled as recreation centers open to all soldiers regardless of faith and Catholic chapels. Part of their motivation for this program came from the awareness that the Protestant-oriented YMCA had established similar services. This program would soon provide the template for a much larger effort by the Knights when the U.S. entered World War I the following year.
The Wilson administration announced a policy of strict neutrality when Europe plunged into war in the summer of 1914. Most Americans supported the decision, especially Irish Americans not eager to see the U.S. help England and German Americans aghast at the idea of a U.S. attack on the Fatherland. Nonetheless, a faltering effort by the Allies on the battlefield and Germany’s repeated sinking of American vessels in the Atlantic eventually compelled Wilson to go to war. The formal declaration came on April 6, 1917. Eight days later, Supreme Knight Flaherty wrote his letter to Wilson pledging support for the war effort. It soon earned the Knights the status of the official Catholic organization for the U.S. armed forces.
On June 24, as the mobilization effort was in full swing, the Knights Board of Directors voted to raise $1 million to pay for camp centers like those established along the Mexican border. Fundraising efforts appealed both to the Knights membership as well as the general Catholic population.
“What greater consolation,” noted one appeal, “than to feel that through our small, individual, financial sacrifice, we will make it possible for our Catholic men to receive Absolution on the eve of battle, and also to furnish the sweet consolations of religion to the wounded and dying.” Money came in so fast the goal was quickly upped to $3 million.
By December 1917, the Knights had established 73 “huts” on military bases throughout the U.S. As with the original ones established along the Mexican border, these facilities offered free coffee, candy, and cigarettes and provided billiard tables, playing cards, and other games. Some of the larger huts had post offices, libraries, and stages for entertainment. All made certain that every soldier, no matter what his faith, felt welcome by posting a sign over the doorway that read: “Everybody Welcome, Everything Free.” For the Catholics who made up 40 percent of the Army and Navy, the huts also offered Mass, confessions, and other religious services at designated times. So many of the volunteers who ran the huts (all of them medically unfit or too old for military service) were Irish Americans that soldiers took to calling them “Caseys.”
When the American Expeditionary Force headed overseas to the battlefields of France, the Knights followed. They established hundreds of huts in the camps, but also manned mobile kitchens that brought hot coffee and soup to soldiers in the trenches. Knights volunteers also worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. At the height of their operations, in late 1918, some 70 tons of supplies arrived every day at Knights facilities — paid for by a fundraising campaign that eventually brought in over $14 million.
When the war ended in November 1918, it was clear that the Knights of Columbus had accomplished their goal. Not only had Catholic soldiers and sailors had their religious needs met, but millions of non-Catholic servicemen returned home with a favorable impression of their American Catholic brethren. On the homefront, the national press ran numerous glowing stories about the Knights’ patriotic efforts. Anti-Catholicism remained a popular sentiment in much of America, but the war campaign by the Knights greatly undermined the believability of the claim that Catholics lacked devotion to America and its institutions.

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
April 15, 1848: The Irish tricolor flag is flown for the first time in Dublin by members of the Young Ireland movement.
April 19, 1897: In the first running of the Boston Marathon, John J. McDermott of New York City finished first.

HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
April 14, 1866: The teacher of Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy, is born in Feeding Hills, Mass.
April 18, 1817: Mathematician Michael Roberts is born in Cork.
April 20, 1829: “The Nun of Kenmare,” the feminist and social activist Margaret Anna Cusack, is born in Dublin.