Knight Life. Fr. Donnelly Assembly 566. In service to One. In service to all.

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1 Knight Life Fr. Donnelly Assembly 566 Knights of Columbus in the Fourth Degree Father Bernard J. Donnelly Assembly 566 c/o Mick Mithelavage 4117 SE Paddock Drive Lees Summit, MO RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED IN GOD WE TRUST In service to One. In service to all. Volume 13 Number 2 March / April, 2016

2 Fr. Bernard J. Donnelly Assembly Memo from our Faithful Navigator Greetings Ladies & Sir Knights, The Exemplification of the Fourth Degree is fast approaching (April 9th), and we are asking each of you to invite all the Third Degree Knights you know to join us. Fourth Degree candidates need to have their forms and payments sent in as soon as possible. [ has more detailed information] The Honor Guard has been and will continue to be busy through the end of May. We need new Sir Knights to join the Honor Guard. Several Sir Knights have been working and will continue to work on improvements to our float for the upcoming parades. Please march with us or ride on the float in the Brookside & Kansas City St. Patrick's Day Parades. All are welcome. Our March meeting will be on St. Patrick's Day. We ll enjoy dining at Council 4962's traditional St. Pat's Dinner, and then we'll go downstairs for our meeting. Your share of the dinner cost is only $3; the Assembly will subsidize the remainder. This is a very important meeting, as we will be nominating officers for the upcoming year. Please attend. VIVAT JESUS! JESUS LIVES! SMA, Protect Us Mike Murtha Faithful Navigator mikemurthakc@gmail.com Mark Your Calendar March 12, Saturday March 13, Sunday Lee s Summit St. Patrick s Day Parade Daylight Saving Day March 17, Thursday Kansas City St. Patrick s Day Parade March 25, Friday March 27, Sunday April ASSEMBLY 566 DINNER & BUSINESS MEETING May 5, Thursday May 8, Sunday May 15, Sunday 3 RD THURSDAY OF EVERY OTHER MONTH, BEGINNING IN JANUARY DINNER BEGINS AT 6:30 PM, FOLLOWED WITH THE ROSARY BUSINESS MEETING BEGINS AT 7:00 PM LOCATION: RAYTOWN COUNCIL 5101 BLUE RIDGE CUTOFF, KCMO Good Friday Easter State Convention in Jefferson City Capitol Plaza Hotel & Convention Center 415 West McCarty Street, Jeff City, MO Acension of Jesus Mothers Day Pentecost UPCOMING STATE EVENTS March 1, Tuesday April 9, Saturday Catholic Education Grant Submissions Due 4 th Degree Exemplification Hilton Kansas City Airport 8801 NW 112 St, Kansas City, MO 4 th Degree Exemplification Information

3 REPOSE OF THE SOUL Please take a moment to pray for the souls and families of our dearly beloved Brother Knights who have passed away over the past few months. Sir Knight Jack C Uhlig o Passed away on February 29, 2016 o He is an Honorary Member of Assembly 566 o He is a member of Pope Pius XII Council 4962 Ladies, Message to the Ladies Our next meeting is on St. Patrick s Day. We will be having Corned Beef and Cabbage served by the Knights Council #5962. The cost for the dinner is $7.00. The 4th Degree Knights Assembly will cover $4.00 per meal, and we will pay our usual $3.00 per person for the meal. This will also be our annual election, and we still need two volunteers to serve as officers. I am asking you to pray about this and help keep our auxiliary going. Remember we can t operate an auxiliary without filling all four officer positions. Please keep our seminarians and priests in your prayers. Have a blessed Lent and Easter! Connie Ramirez, President Connie7653@gmail.com ALL GRAND KNIGHTS: When a Brother Knight departs, please notify Larry Lackamp, State Chairman, Fraternal Recognition (llackamp@centurylink.net) FROM OUR CONTROLLER: 3 rd & FINAL DUES NOTICES for 2016 were sent out the week of February 15. By the March meeting, dues must be paid, or possible Suspensions will commence. If you are experiencing financial problems brought about by considerable sickness or unemployment and feel you cannot pay your dues at this time, please contact Neil Kelly at He can extend your deadline. Faithful Controller; neiljkelly@att.net;

4 Seminarians Support Missing Brother By Jack Smith, Catholic Key Editor When dozens of seminarians representing just a fraction of those local men studying for the priesthood climbed on stage, emcee Larry Moore marveled at the contrast with the first Support Our Seminarians Dinner 23 years ago when just two men stepped on stage. Today there are 108 enrolled at Conception Seminary and between the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City St. Joseph, 65 men are preparing for the priesthood. Moore presided over a hugely successful fundraiser Jan. 29 for the education of seminarians in both dioceses and Conception Seminary College, with 650 in attendance at a new venue for the dinner Union Station. But lingering over the festivity was a feeling of sadness and admiration for a missing seminarian. Wesley McKellar, seminarian for the Diocese of Kansas City St. Joseph, had died just four days earlier after a heroic two-year battle with brain cancer. Moore announced that the evening would be dedicated to the 22 year-old from St. Andrew the Apostle Parish. Chairs for the evening were Bill and Peggy Oades and speakers included Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, Bishop James V. Johnston, Jr. and Abbot Gregory Polan. Popular speaker, EWTN host and Rhodes Scholar, Monsignor Stuart Swetland, S.T.D. was keynote speaker. Msgr. Swetland is currently President of Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas. Many of those in attendance, including his fellow seminarians, had been at a Rosary for Wesley McKellar earlier in the day, and many more would attend his standing-room only funeral the next morning at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish. Bishop Emeritus Robert W. Finn celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial along with dozens of priests. St. Andrew Pastor Father Vince Rogers was homilist and Bishop James V. Johnston, Jr., gave the final commendation. As Mass began Bishop Finn recalled that it was a great grace to be able to receive Wes as a seminarian for Kansas City St. Joseph. We re grateful that God brought him to that step and a great sense of God s call in his life. He also expressed his gratitude to Wesley s parents Scott and Wendy for so selflessly giving of themselves to the life of this diocese... and the life of this parish. Wise and spiritually mature beyond his years, Wes understood his suffering in the context of this greatest act of love the world has ever known, Fr. Rogers referring to Christ s crucifixion for our redemption. He desired to return the great love that Jesus offered him by loving our Lord even more in return... He never missed opportunities to offer his suffering in union with Jesus on the cross. taking pictures and putting them on Facebook to call home, Francis admitted. As the hours went by, the party grew. The teens and adults spent the hours three ways. They would head out in the snow to play and build snow men and snow forts, they would search for people, particularly in nearby passenger cars who needed help, even offering them the use of their bus restrooms, as well as sharing food and water. Then an odd thing happened as they were stuck, as Francis put it, in the middle of nowhere. Both local and national media began calling by phone, Skype and Facetime for interviews. Francis said he gave his charges this simple advice: Remember why we are here. Don t miss this opportunity to talk about the witness for life. By Saturday evening, their story had been covered by every newspaper and television station in the Kansas City-St. Joseph market. Every single interview included two basic themes: We are here to defend the lives of unborn and This is awesome! Every year, the media ignores the March for Life. We can have 400,000, 500,000 and the media ignores us, he said. This year, it took a blizzard, but we were finally getting the word out, Francis said. Just show up and the Lord will do the rest, he said. At about 9 p.m. Jan 23, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation had cleared the wreck and plowed enough of the turnpike to get the passenger cars out first. The buses and the 18-wheelers were advised to double back to Bedford 15 miles east and spend the night there so that the turnpike could be completely cleared of snow. Francis said Heartland Trailways, in constant communication with the drivers, found an American Legion Hall for the Kansas City-St. Joseph pilgrimage to spend the night. Francis insisted that the drivers, who hadn t slept for 36 hours, check into a hotel with a proper bed and even offered to front the expense. A banquet honoring Vietnam veterans had been cancelled because of the blizzard, but the Pennsylvania American Legion volunteers showed up anyway to cook for their guests from the Midwest. It was the first hot meal the pilgrims had eaten in nearly two days. The next morning, Msgr. Ralph Kaiser, a veteran of March for Life pilgrimages, celebrated Mass in the Legion Hall for the group, and they were on the road again by 7 a.m. When they reached Blue Springs at about 2 a.m. Monday, a news crew from KCTV-5 met them. When the pilgrims from St. Joseph got back to St. James Parish a couple of hours later, they were met by a news crew from KQTV-2. And they seized the opportunity to witness for the lives of the unborn again. To a person, everyone said it was the best pilgrimage they had ever been on and they couldn t wait to do it again next year, Francis said. I didn t see anyone scared, he said. There was even a peace with the snow coming down because we were in God s hands.

5 Pilgrimage to Capital Turns White (Knuckled) By Kevin Kelly, Catholic Key Associate Editor KANSAS CITY Bill Francis has a message for the parents of the teenagers who made the pilgrimage to 2016 March for Life. We were blessed to have these kids with us, said Francis, director of the Diocesan Respect Life Office. They are the pro-life generation. And that went double, triple and quadruple on the evening of January 23 when all four Heartland Trailways buses taking the pilgrims home became trapped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a blizzard of historic proportions descended upon them. There they would remain for the next 24 hours, at Mile Marker 133 about 15 miles west of Bedford, Pennsylvania. There could have been panic. There could have been tears. But instead, the teens of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph made the absolute best of an absolutely terrible situation and seized yet another opportunity to proclaim their Christian witness, in action as well as words. They took leadership. They got out helping to distribute their food and help people around us in need, Francis said. Francis had been keeping an eye on the weather for days, and knew well before the pilgrimage even assembled and left January 20 from St. John LaLande Parish in Blue Springs that Winter Storm Jonas was forming with a bulls-eye on the nation s capital and points north. He even made a concession to the weather and cut short the pilgrimage. He had all pilgrims and buses ready to roll as soon as the January 22 March for Life was over, marking the 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court s Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton abortion decisions. I didn t see anyone scared, he said. There was even a peace with the snow coming down because we were in God s hands. They got out of D.C. just fine, and were rolling along western Pennsylvania that evening, approaching the Alleghany Tunnel, when an 18-wheeler lost control and jackknifed, blocking all westbound lanes. Not knowing how long they would be stuck there with the blizzard now bearing down, Francis learned something new from the bus drivers that put everyone s mind at ease. A Heartland Trailways coach bus, on a full tank of fuel, can idle for a full week. Fortunately, the drivers stopped to top off the fuel tanks less than an hour earlier. The pilgrims would at least be warm, and, as with every trip, all the buses were loaded with non-perishable snack foods such as fruit and chips and cases of bottled water to ward off youthful hunger between stops on the long trip to and from Washington, D.C. And, the buses also had plenty of pro-life movies to watch such as Bella, Amazing Grace plus the teens of course had their own laptops, tablets and cell phones with plugs on the bus to keep them charged. They were too busy His entrance into the seminary was one of the happiest days of his life and when his headaches sent him home after one semester, he was devastated, Fr. Rogers said. Wes then moved into the rectory at St. Andrews to continue his studies and to be close to the church, Fr. Rogers explained. Fr. Rogers said he would often find him reading the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas, which I later learned was light recreational reading for him. Kansas City s Larry Moore emcees the Support Our Seminarians Dinner Even though Wes was never to be ordained a priest, the results of his evangelization was almost sacramental, Fr. Rogers said. As he suffered, he offered his prayers for the intentions of others, he said. Fr. Rogers said Wes was an example of what it means to take up your cross daily. And if you asked him how he was doing, he always had a smile and a positive answer. He never complained. The way he bravely fought this terrible disease has produced a myriad of spiritual benefits. People who previously did not pray are now praying. People who previously had not gone to Confession in years, went to confession. Some who had never known Catholicism were introduced to it through Wesley McKellar, Father said. Wesley was born June 3, 1993 in Abbotsford, B.C., Canada. He is survived by his parents Scott and Wendy McKellar, and his siblings Mark, Clare, Brendan and Anna, his grandmothers Irene McKellar and Barbara McLoughlin, his Uncle Stuart, Auntie Ilse, and cousin Alanna McKellar, and his Aunt Lorna and Uncle Mark Paterson. Memorial donations may be made to St. Andrew s Seminarian Fund

6 MINUTES JANUARY MEETING Edited to meet space requirements. For a complete report, contact Rob Colombatto at colombatto32@comcast.net Opening prayer, pledge of allegiance, opening ode. The regular scheduled business meeting of the Fr. Bernard Donnelly Assembly #566 was called to order January 21, 2016 by Faithful Navigator Mike Murtha at 7:38 PM. Communications: St Thomas More sent a thank you for the memorial gift donated on behalf of a deceased member Leo O Brian. Faithful Friar Report: Rev Rocha thanked everyone for their continued support and generosity we show towards our priests, the Bishop and the seminarians. He has had several meetings with Bishop Johnston who was a little overwhelmed by the number of seminarians we have in the diocese. Serra Group organized a meeting of all the seminarians and their parents during Christmas break. Rocha mentioned that the Future Priests Fund donations have gone up over the last three years from $50,000 to $65,000. This year it exceeded $100,000. This year there will be 1 man ordained to the priesthood and there are about 12 new men considering the priesthood. We are asked to pray for seminarian Wesley McKeller who [has died] from brain cancer. Bishop Finn s a new assignment is Chaplain at the School of the Sisters of Christ the King in Lincoln Nebraska which is about 15 miles away from St. Gregory the Great Seminary where many of our diocese seminarians are studying. Navigator Report: Mike thanked all the new men in the assembly who attended the meeting for the first time or who haven t been here in a while. Mike asked Fr. Rocha to invite Bishop Johnston to an Assembly meeting. If you want to join the honor guard and want to spread out the payments, the assembly will finance the regalia up to 5 members at any one time. Upcoming events: March 12 is the Lee s Summit and Brookside St. Pat s Parades; March 16 is the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral at 7 PM, and March 17 is the Kansas City St. Pat s Parade. Vocations: David Knight reported that the 3 seminarians we re supporting through the RSVP program are Pius Nsoh-Awasom, Benjamin Reinhart and Jayson Becker. Chalice Fund: Veryl Klein reported that 2 chalices went to Mexico with Fr. Bolderson. There are new Chalice Fund forms available on the website. Please fill out the form and get it to Neil Kelly. Tom Day will chair a committee to address the deficit we have in the Chalice Fund Account. Veterans: Bob La Due has volunteered to chair the Veteran s Committee. He said that St. Michael s Veteran s Center has more than just monetary needs. Volunteers are needed to help serve meals and do some other physical labor. Patriotic: We need a chairman and committee members. The committee is charged to foster programs that promote patriotism. Float: Frank Ramirez is the committee Chair. There will be a permanent, telescoping mast installed. It should be completed prior to the St. Pat s parades. 100 Year Anniversary: Mass will be held on Sunday June 5 at St. Bernadette s Church, and the reception will be at Council 4962 s hall. Fr. Rocha will celebrate the Mass, and invitations will go out to 28 priests in our diocese. To help with set-up and decorations, call Mike Murtha. Set-up will be the morning of June 5 th. Unfinished Business: The 4 th Degree Exemplification is April 9 at the Airport Hilton. Forms are available on the website. Proposers should print their names on the form instead of signing it. Each Council FS must sign the application. Candidates and 4 th Degree members must wear a formal tuxedo style shirt with social baldric. Our financial responsibility for the hospitality room is the same as last year. Costs will be prorated to each Assembly based on membership. There will not be any music after the banquet. New Business: We made a $50 Donation to the 5 th Grade Vocation Awareness programheld on Feb 24 and 25 at O Hara High School to pay for the food students and speakers. Dean Heimes is going to chair the elections. The proposed slate of officers so far is: Navigator: John Salanky, Captain: Dave Chapman, Admiral: Mike Murtha, Pilot: David Knight, Comptroller: Neil Kelly, Purser: Bob La Due, Scribe: OPEN, Inner Sentinel: Felipe Rangel, Outer Sentinel: John Dill, 3-Year Trustee: George Owen. If you wish to run for office, notify Dean prior to the March 17 th meeting. There will also be an opportunity to nominate from the floor at that meeting. 3 rd Degree Reports: Supreme Council has started an initiative to eliminate duplication of services. For example: if the Council and Parish each have a vocation committee, the Council committee members should join the parish committee and eliminate the Council committee. Supreme would like to see Council halls eliminated and have the Council work closer with the parish they are associated with. There was a question about whether or not we should add 3 rd Degree events to the website. The 4 th Degree website should be used for 4 th Degree news and events. Each Council should start using the UKnight website and update their calendar. The info will populate calendars of Councils within a 25 to 100 mile radius. Closing prayer, closing ode. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM.