Dear Brother Knights

Our Council serves and supports the Parish of St. Andrew the Apostle/Good Shepherd Mission is so many important ways. I never tire of pointing out that anything of importance which occurs in this Parish has Knights of Columbus leadership and involvement! You are truly ‘the strong right arm of the Church’!

One of the most significant gifts of service and support which our Council provides is:  the Annual Catholic Appeal Dinner – also known as the “Bishop’s Appeal Dinner”! Every year for the past 22 years the Knights of Columbus have provided this “kick-off” Dinner for the Annual Catholic Appeal in our Parish – an evening of great food, great fellowship, great music, and great energy! One of the highlights of the whole year for our Parish – made possible by our Council!

How important is the Annual Catholic Appeal Dinner? Very important! Consider that, as the largest Parish in our Cochise County Vicariate, St. Andrew’s Appeal Goal represents 39% of the Appeal Goal for this Vicariate. Because St. Andrew’s is very successful in energizing the generosity of its parishioners – last year 108% of Goal -- our Vicariate has been very successful in meeting its Appeal Goal – last year 106% of Goal. 

But wait, there’s more! The Cochise Vicariate leads our Diocese in meeting its Appeal Goal – “as goes the Cochise Vicariate, so goes the Diocese!” – and so, because of this ripple effect, our Council, through the gift of this Appeal Dinner and the ‘energy of generosity’ it generates, is one of the keys to the success of the Annual Catholic Appeal of our Diocese! How’s that for a demonstration of the ‘strong right arm of the Church’?

Please plan on attending the Annual Catholic Appeal Dinner on Saturday, 11 February, at our Hall, following the 5:00PM Mass at St. Andrew’s.

Bishop Kicanas will be present with us for this year’s Dinner, and, we will be bidding ‘hale and farewell’ to Brother Knight, Chuck Fisher, who is stepping down after 12 years as the Executive Director of Catholic Community Services of Southeastern Arizona! It will be a “Knights’ Night” to remember!

Vivat JESUS! Fr. Greg Chaplain

Happy New Year’s Brothers!  I hope your Christmas and New Year’s were peaceful, filled with family and friends, and joyous.  (And, maybe a little of feasting, football, basketball, and enjoying the season.)

The New Year brings us more opportunities to serve our priests, our parish and our community! 

Here are your opportunities to serve:

19 January Saint Vincent de Paul Fundraiser Luncheon – Our Brother Frank Feraco, one of the hard workers at Saint Vincent de Paul will be selling tickets to the Saint Vincent de Paul luncheon at the Outback, Thursday, January 19 at 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM.  For a $20 donation, you will get a build Your Own “Chicken on the Barbie” sandwich, with French fries and ice cream with chocolate sauce.  The Outback is a wonderful partner to the community in these luncheon fundraisers with most of the money going directly to our local Saint Vincent de Paul operations.  If you can, join our Brother Knights who work at Saint Vincent de Paul’s in a multitude of jobs and help Saint Vincent de Paul help our community.  This would be a good opportunity to take your wife or family member(s) out for lunch and do something good for the community at the same time.

22 January Free-Throw Competition – we need four or five brothers to come out on Sunday, 22 January from 8:00 AM through noon, to help our brother Council, Our Lady of the Mountains Council #10799 run the annual Free-Throw Competition.  Our brother, the late Frank Benson, was the driving force behind this annual event.  Council #10799 is leading the sponsorship this year with our assistance.  Your assistance in this event would be a most worthy tribute to our brother Frank.  This is also a great opportunity to meet and enjoy the company of our brothers in Council #10799.  It is my hope we can find more and more ways to work together with our local brother councils and this is a great way to move that goal along.  So, come out and join me as we help Council #10799 provide this great youth oriented activity for the community.

29 January Community Wide Ecumenical Ministry Fair - The fair will be held on Sunday, January 29th between noon and 3:00 PM at the Apache Middle School.  Your Bishop Salpointe Council #4584 will be a major part of the event.  Father Greg, in his Chaplain’s Corner for January, on this website’s Home Page has described the event and our participation much better than I ever could.  Please read his comments and dedicate yourself to helping your Council and fellow brothers feed over 300 attendees using the Food Wagon.  We don’t get many chances to satisfy all the cornerstones of our charter (parish, community, charity, brotherhood) and set the example for the community.  This is our chance to shine!  We need brothers on Saturday, January 28th to move tables, chairs, grills, set up the food wagon, etc. and on the 29th to do the cooking, cleaning, and in general show what great guys we are.  We hope to be able to have our brochures and meet with the folks and explain what we do for the community.  Great times, great opportunity!  Feel free to call me or the DGK, Larry Powers to volunteer.

11 February The 22nd Annual Catholic Appeal Dinner.  This year’s theme is “Be Co-Worker’s in His Vineyard.  You are encouraged to be both co-workers in His vineyard and co-workers in your Knights of Columbus Hall as your assistance is needed to serve, bus, clean, and otherwise make this a memorable occasion for the parish.  Remember, brothers, this is our signature event, our gift to the parish, and a key to a successful ACA campaign.  Over 40% of the money pledged and contributed to the ACA comes from this one event.  This year we will be blessed with Bishop Kicanas’ presence for Mass and the Dinner.  So, while your wives and family enjoy the social time and dinner, you have the opportunity to serve your fellow parishioners and ensure everyone has a most memorable time.  If you don’t help serve, you can certainly attend and contribute.   Please attend the 5:00 PM Mass, grab your check book, and head over to the Knights of Columbus Hall.  You will see your Grand Knight and a bunch of your officers and brother Knights in their black aprons ready to make this event the best ever.  And, when you hear someone say the dinner is free, you could remind them, “The dinner is no-cost to the parish, it is not free!”  Thanks for your support of the ACA Dinner, brothers.

20 April. 26th Annual Cornerstone Gala.  The Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Tucson, Stewardship and Charitable Giving is honoring the Diocese Knights of Columbus this year at their Gala.  It will be held at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort on Friday, April 20th, beginning at 6:00 PM.  I hope we can assemble a significant number of Knights from Council 4584 to attend and represent our Council and Saint Andrew the Apostle parish community.  I will be passing on more information as it becomes known.  This is a great way to do some back patting for all your work and effort. 

In that light, I want to thank everyone who turns out for the meetings and the work.  Unfortunately, we see much the same faces for all the meetings, events and programs.  It would be great if more of the brothers who are able would turn up for the meetings, volunteer for the work parties and events, and participate in the programs.  An occasional meeting, a work event when you have some free time, help with a program, all are appreciated.  If you need help getting to an event, call one of the officers.  If you have a suggestion, let an officer know.  After all, it’s your Council and your parish, too.   Take part!  If this is too much trouble, you may want to re-examine the reasons for the Knights of Columbus and why you joined.  We are a great bunch of Catholic gentlemen and would like to welcome you back into the active Council, its great fun and very fulfilling.    To all those Brothers who are always there for every reason, thanks!  You are appreciated and your brotherhood is enjoyed.  You are what makes the Knights of Columbus a success, locally and world-wide and the “strong right arm” of the Church.

Dear Brother Knights,

While our Order is always "the strong right arm of the Catholic Church", the Knights have been in the forefront of ecumenical activities, especially those benefiting the marginalized (the Good Neighbor Alliance Dinner, for example) and the unborn (CareNet Dinner and the January and October special collections, for example).

This month our Council is being asked to give our own special brand of leadership -- serving others -- at a first-ever "ecumenical event" here in Sierra Vista! On Sunday, 29 January, from 12:00 Noon to 3:00 PM, at the Apache Middle School on Fry Blvd. we will be helping to make the first Sierra Vista "Community Ministry Fair" a success. It is modeled on the Ministry Fair we have for the Parish every year in September, at which the various ministries in the Parish "display" their projects and look for new 'recruits' for those ministries. The purpose of our Parish Ministry Fair is not only to look for people interested in becoming involved, but it also provides an opportunity to meet those active in the various ministries and put "names and faces" on those ministries. It is always a lot of fun and we have recruited some very fine Brother Knights over the years! Using that model, a number of Christian Churches in the Sierra Vista area are coming together to present their "outreach" ministries -- those ministries which serve the wider community, and especially those in need. Such ministries include our own St. Vincent de Paul Society, as well as the Parish Nurses' Association, ViCap, Good Neighbor Alliance, Stephen Ministry, the Community Food Bank, and another 30 "out-reach" ministries. This will give the wider Christian community of Sierra Vista an opportunity to experience all of the various ministries reaching out to folks in need here in our own community -- connecting "names and faces" with these ministries, and perhaps becoming moved to volunteer!

One of the planned highlights of the Community Ministry Fair will be the refurbished Community Food Bank Wagon -- (donated by our Council #4584 to the Community Food Bank!) -- from which hot dogs and hamburgers will be served to those attending. Here is where the Knights will be participating, doing what we know how to do very well: feeding and serving! Please consider this your personal invitation to participate in the first-ever Community Ministry Fair and show our Order at its very best!
Thank you for being the best "advertisement" that the Knights of Columbus can have!

Vivat JESUS!
Fr. Greg