The Knights of Columbus are encouraging members and all Catholics to join in a novena for Pope Benedict XVI, beginning Divine Mercy Sunday, April 11, and concluding Monday, April 19, the fifth anniversary of the Holy Father's election in 2005. "We pray for the pope and for his pastoral mission, asking God to protect, strengthen and uplift our beloved Holy Father at this time of considerable challenge," according to an announcement on the Knights' website.
An initial supply of prayer cards has been sent to state officers, district deputies, grand knights and council chaplains in the United States.
The prayer cards also can be found on the website, www.kofc.org.
John Kolisch, Missouri state program director, noted that "it goes without question" that the Knights support the pope.
Kolisch said that in the Year for Priests especially, "the Knights of Columbus stands behind their priests 1,000 percent and pray for the priests every day."
He noted that those who are opposed to the Catholic Church "always want to target the pope when it's to their advantage. He's a big target."
The Knights' website has detailed reports refuting New York Times articles accusing the Holy Father of being complicit in what the Times calls "the widening sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church" due to the Church's inaction in the past on sex-abuse cases.
Bishop William E. Lori, supreme chaplain of the Knights, wrote that "the truth is that there is no widening problem of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, at least not in our country."
Bishop Lori pointed to a study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice that showed by the early 1990s the problem was largely corrected because of safe environment programs and zero-tolerance policies put in place by bishops.
In 2002, the U.S. bishops took additional steps to reach out to victims and to ensure the safety of children and young people.
In 2009, in a Church serving 70 million Catholics, there were six allegations of childhood sexual abuse by priests, Bishop Lori said, and "no other institution working with children gets close to this level of safe environment."
Bishop Lori noted that since 1992 in Connecticut alone, 112 public school teachers and coaches have lost their license to teach because of sexual contact with students; and since 2006, 19 foster parents paid by the state of Connecticut have been disciplined for sexually abusing the children in their care.
"Where's the outrage and the calls for resignations?" he asked.
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