Our Mission
Together, we’re empowering Catholic men to live their faith at home, in their parish, at work and in their community.
Our Principles
Charity
Charity is at the heart of our work and our faith — as it always has been
Unity
When we stand united, our Order is a force for the defense of our faith, our families, and one another.
Fraternity
As Catholic men, we transform friends into brothers — brothers who care for one another.
Our History
The Founding
In the late 19th century, Catholic families were especially vulnerable. It was a time when many employers had a policy of “Irish Need Not Apply.” Immigrants often had to take the most dangerous positions in the mines, on the railroads, and in the factories. Accidents, disease and overwork led too often to the family’s breadwinner suffering an early death, leaving his wife and children destitute, with no social safety nets.
In 1882, a little more than four years after being assigned as an assistant priest to St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut, the now Blessed Michael McGivney 
gathered a handful of men in the church basement to establish a new fraternal association dedicated to helping men and their families with spiritual and temporal needs.
Father McGivney formed the Knights of Columbus as a fraternal benefit society to, in large part, provide assistance to those families who had tragically lost their breadwinner. But he and the men he gathered in that church basement saw an even “higher calling” that they expressed in the Order’s three main principles: Charity, Unity and Fraternity.
Today
The Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest Catholic fraternal benefit society, with more than 6,000 local councils and 1.9 million members spread around the globe in over a dozen countries! Father McGivney’s vision of caring for families who lost their means of support when the father died has become a fraternal benefit society with over $100 Billion of life insurance in force, $24 Billion of assets under management, and 42 consecutive years of superior ratings for financial strength from A.M. Best… and has given more than $1.55 billion to charity!
Our Council
Knights of Columbus Holy Spirit Council 17048 was instituted on June 22, 2018 after Pastor Michael Hebda charged a parishioner Knight to recruit Catholic men and form the council. Father Hebda served as the council’s Chaplain until his retirement at the end of 2021.