Group Tells Knights Leader:  "Act Now or Resign"

Contact: Kenneth M. Fisher, Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.,  714-491-2284, crcoa@dslextreme.com

ANAHEIM, July 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- As the Knights of Columbus hold their annual convention in Orlando, August 1-3, we fellow Catholics are holding them accountable,” said Kenneth M. Fisher, founder and chairman of Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc. (CRCOA). “We ask the Knights, especially Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, to live up to their Catholic foundational principles by expelling all pro-abortion politicians from their ranks.”

“It’s long past time,” Fisher continued, “for the Knights to end the scandal of allowing membership in good standing to pro-abortion politicians who blatantly defy Catholic morality and teaching, such as Massachusetts Senator Teddy Kennedy (Inactvie), New York former Governor Mario Cuomo and many others.”

Fisher said his Concerned Roman Catholics group will start using its www.crcoa.com Website to spotlight pro-abortion politicians at the national, state and local levels who belong to the Knights. He said the Knights have failed to enforce a resolution they adopted at their 2003 convention that banned pro-abortion politicians from their organization, facilities and functions.

“We in Concerned Roman Catholics,” Fisher said, “are a lay organization with many religious members. We defend orthodox Catholic teaching and we seek to expose false teaching, corruption and scandals and bring them to an end. That is why we want the Knights to clean up their membership and restore their Order’s good name.”

Fisher said, “The Knights of Columbus can be a major force for good in the Church and society in general. But how can they call themselves ‘the strong right arm of the Church’ when they harbor pro-abortion politicians – enemies of the Church -- as members?”

The Knights of Columbus have more than 1.7 million members in 14,000 councils in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Pacific and now Poland. They were founded in 1882 in New Haven, Connecticut, by Father Michael McGivney, a parish priest whose cause for sainthood is now underway, to give Catholic men a fraternal order of their own, to provide financial aid for Catholic families and to combat the rampant anti-Catholic prejudice of the day.

Fisher said, “Sadly, the Knights’ leadership in recent decades has fallen far short of Father McGivney’s ideals. Supreme Knight Carl Anderson has been at the helm of the Knights for more than five years now. He needs to do his duty and expel the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual politicians – or resign immediately.”