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March 24, 2022BY TANYA CONNOR
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS
WORCESTER – “We have no building. There is not a bar. We have a cross, and we take that seriously.”
So says Grand Knight Richard Annunziata of the Knights of Columbus council at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and Our Lady of Loreto Church.
Knights do more than take the cross seriously – they share it. They’ve given crucifixes to people on the street and to youth separated from their families. And they’re inviting the public to their parish for choral reflections on the Stations of the Cross.
“A major goal of our council is evangelism, with a focus on deepening our connection to Jesus,” then using that connection to share him with others, says Mr. Annunziata.
Council #13575 started at Our Lady of Mount Carmel-St. Ann Parish, with the first organizational meeting held March 25, 2004, says a history from founding member Graziano “Nino” Giamei. On June 3, 2004, 13 men took their First Degree (the first step in joining the Knights). On July 16 that year the council, with 33 members, was chartered, and on Aug. 29 the first officers were installed. Now there are about 40 members, Mr. Annunziata says.
In the early years the council focused more on fund raising for the parish and the Knights’ charities, says Domenic Mercurio Jr., chancellor. Fund-raisers like dinners and a big band festival also brought parishioners together. Knights’ events were useful, but not necessarily spiritual, he says.
Mr. Mercurio recalls hearing Mr. Annunziata say that “we should do things more spiritually, pray more about our direction.”
“That’s when we started the concept of being responsive to the needs of the people,” Mr. Mercurio says. “Our informal theme is working in the vineyard,” the council is ready to do whatever their pastor and chaplain, Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, needs.
“They love the parish and want to do anything they can to help,” says Msgr. Pedone. “They just purchased medals and rosaries for the first Communion and confirmation classes. It was their idea.”
Knights say their service has included mulching and cleaning gutters at church, helping with parish events like the festival, and coordinating some parish outreach, including Christmas giving trees and a bereavement group.
They also give public witness and offer social and spiritual events for the parish and wider community.
An upcoming event is choral reflections on Stations of the Cross, to be presented by St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir at 6:30 p.m. April 1 in Our Lady of Loreto Church, 37 Massasoit Road.
Richard Monroe, the cathedral’s director of sacred music, who directs this choir, says organist Elizabeth Marcil will accompany them. They will lead the congregation in a chant and sing five longer choral pieces. Prayers and Scriptures will be read.
For the Knights, focusing on the cross doesn’t just happen in church; they’ve met people where they are – with the cross. Mr. Mercurio says they’ve bought more than 100 crucifixes on chains. He’s given them to boys and staff at McAuley Nazareth Home in Leicester at basketball competitions and cookouts the Knights organize there.
“I just thought the boys … needed to have a friend – Jesus – that they could count on,” he explains. “They’re missing their parents. They’re in a new environment.”
One boy asked the Knights, “Do you have another one? I want to give one to my mother.”
Mr. Mercurio, who is executive director of Worcester Public Market at Kelley Square, says he also gives crucifixes to homeless people in that area of the city.
“I thought if they had a crucifix on them it would remind them to pray,” he says. “I hold the crucifix up and say, ‘There He is; just ask Him for help.’”
“I will,” some recipients responded. One told him, “I’ve been praying for a crucifix.” Another, seeing him later, showed him she was wearing it.
Mr. Mercurio says he brought one of his employees and a couple vendors out to meet his fellow Knights doing street evangelization.
Mr. Annunziata says that he himself talked casually with them and passersby and asked, “Do you have a relationship with Jesus?” He says former Grand Knight Richard Trubiano offered rosaries to passersby and explained how to use them, and Shawn Gowen, council recorder, distributed rosaries, Bibles and prayer cards.
“It was just us” doing this outreach, Mr. Mercurio says, “but we have to credit the Knights, because the influence we have on each other – it causes us … to go looking for … ways to serve the people. … The Knights of Columbus is sort of the catalyst, the reason that we come together. I think the Holy Spirit … guides us.”
As a council, they “do the rosary in front of Planned Parenthood,” a local abortion facility, Mr. Mercurio says.
The Knights organize rosary vigils with adoration at church to pray about life issues, says Mr. Trubiano, the council’s pro-life chairman.
He says they also cook for residents of Visitation House, a home for women with unplanned pregnancies.
“We felt it is important that these ladies see men serving them … because the men in their lives … are absent, and they have to see that there are good men,” he explains. “We have dinner with them, we talk with them and we help them clean up. It’s something other than just giving them money and walking away. We’re pro-life. We want to walk the walk with them.”
Among many other activities, the Knights have seminarians over for dinner at the church, to give them a break in their routine, Mr. Mercurio says.
“I think the most important thing that we’ve learned as a council … we need to be open to the Holy Spirit,” he says. “We just realize the most important thing we can do in life is … be the face of Jesus to other people. … If people get help from you … maybe people will get influenced and help still other people.”
Since the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1911, only four percent of scouts have earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest achievement in the program. Leonard will become Eagle Scout No. 64 in his troop. His father was Eagle Scout No. 23 in the troop.
Leonard doesn’t have a Facebook account, but his father told him his Eagle Scout project received quite a bit of praise on Facebook.
“It makes me feel good that I’ve done something for the community,” he said.
The ground began to freeze last November so Leonard had to stop clearing the markers. If someone else decides to clear more of the remaining five to six thousand in the three cemeteries, he said he’d lend a hand.
