Knights of Columbus Insurance Join U.S. Military Archdiocese Sponsoring Spiritual Journey

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Knights of Columbus Insurance Join U.S. Military
Archdiocese Sponsoring Spiritual Journey

• Over 500 active-duty and retired U.S. military
  people, injured veterans, spouses and even family
  members participated in the 55th International
  Military Pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine at
  Lourdes, France, May 24-26, 2013. Around a
  hundred and sixty people were an important part
  of a Wounded in addition to Disabled Veteran
  Pilgrimage program cosponsored with the Knights
  of Columbus Insurance along with the Archdiocese
  for Military Services.
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• The Memorial Day weekend with Knights of Columbus
  Carl Anderson, pilgrimage included people in
  military from thirty-five countries. The trip was
  an occasion for rest, prayer and healing around
  the miraculous waters of the Lourdes grotto. The
  shrine is site of a reported Feb. 11, 1858
  apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a
  14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous.
  Water from a spring at the apparition site has
  resulted in many documented yet inexplicable
  physical cures.
• Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Military
  Services (AMS) has been the key celebrant and
  homilist May 24 at the opening Mass for the
  American contingent in the Shrines Basilica of
  the Excellent Conception.

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  Our pilgrimage these days is yet another time
for all of us to heighten our belief, he said.
We come to this wonderful Shrine with many
intentions. For some it will be health of mind
and body. For others it might be part of a
vocation search. Still others ask the Virgin for
blessings on their families. We come to this
sacred place and pray for all of those deployed
in harms way and we beg Our Mother to intercede
with her Son so that the world might experience
that peace that only He can bring.   Pope John
Paul II made the AMS as being an independent
archdiocese in 1985 as the only Catholic legal
system responsible for marketing and giving
faculties for priests to serve as chaplains in
the U.S. military services establishments.
AMS-endorsed priests function as chaplains at
more than 220 U.S. military installations in 29
nations, and 153 Veterans Administration medical
centers throughout the United States. The AMS
service population comes with American Catholic
civilians doing work for the federal government
in 134 nations. Around the world, around 1.8
million Catholics depend upon the AMS in order to
satisfy their spiritual and sacramental
needs.   Supreme Knights of Columbus Carl
Anderson joined the pilgrims in France. The
Knights of Columbus has collaborated with the
Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS)
regularly in support of such initiatives.
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The Knights of Columbus organized its first
military pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1919, Anderson
stated, and we had been honored to revisit this
essential Marian shrine aiding this pilgrimage of
faith by simply our active responsibility as well
as retired troops who have given up so much for
the nation. The great love these service men and
women have for God as well as country sets a
fantastic example for all of us who have taken
advantage of their sacrifices in the defence of
our independence.   Numerous first members of
the Knights of Columbus were being Civil War
veterans, and the Knights have long been
committed to encouraging people who serve our
nation. In World War I, the K of C ran
hospitality centers for U.S. troops throughout
the United States and Europe under the banner
Everybody Welcome, Everything Free. In World
War II, the Knights of Columbus in Canada
continued the army hut program, while in the
United States, Supreme Knight Matthews served as
a Catholic representative on the board of the
United Service Organizations (more commonly known
as the USO), through which the Knights continued
to serve troops. Today, the Knights of Columbus
Insurance works closely with the AMS in its
continuing work for our troops and veterans with
a variety of activities geared toward their
spiritual and temporal needs.   Article Source -
http//www.kofc.org/un/en/news/releases/detail/lou
rdes06102013.html