Knights of Columbus 130th International Convention Comes to Anaheim This Week

News provided by

Aug 06, 2012, 05:34 ET

More than 80 Bishops and Cardinals will join 2000 members and their families for meeting

ANAHEIM, Calif., Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following the very successful Guadalupe Celebration yesterday – in which tens of thousands of the faithful flocked to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe organized by the Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles – the Knights of Columbus will begin their 130^th annual International Convention in Anaheim.

It will be the largest gathering of Catholic bishops and cardinals in America outside of the annual U.S. Bishops Conference meetings. More than 80 archbishops and bishops – including 12 cardinals – and scores of clergy will join more than 2,000 Knights of Columbus and their family members for the convention at the Hilton Hotel in Anaheim Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 7-9. Members and bishops will come from throughout North America, the Caribbean, the Philippines and Poland.

The meeting is a mixture of business, recognition and fellowship, highlighted by the annual report of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson Tuesday afternoon.

Activities begin Tuesday with a 9:30 a.m. Mass celebrated by Bishop Tod Brown of Orange. He will be joined by more than 80 cardinals, archbishops and bishops from around the world.

Later that evening, the attendees will hear a keynote address from Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York at a formal dinner.

Media must be credentialed and are invited to cover the Opening Mass, the Supreme Knight's Report and the States Dinner. Please RSVP to Andrew Walther or Matthew St. John (below).

More than 500 delegates will participate in business sessions Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and many service and achievement awards will be presented Wednesday afternoon.

Tuesday's events — Mass, opening session and dinner — will be broadcast live by the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), CatholicTV, Canada's Salt and Light Television and EWTN Radio. Sirius/XM's The Catholic Channel will broadcast its popular Busted Halo program live from the convention site Monday and Tuesday.

The Knights of Columbus was founded in 1882 by Father Michael McGivney, a parish priest in New Haven Conn. The organization has grown to 1.8 million members worldwide. In 2011, Knights donated more than $158 million and more than 70 million hours of service to charitable causes.

SOURCE Knights of Columbus