Opus Dei and the Knights of Columbus: Anatomy of a Takeover – Part Two

 

The Dark Side of Virgil Dechant’s Legacy

Under Virgil Dechant’s leadership, the Knights of Columbus – that is, its local members – continued to raise millions of dollars in charitable funds for worthwhile projects, including refugee relief programs, especially in the Middle East; assistance to victims of natural disasters in the U.S. and abroad; the restoration of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and other Vatican antiquities; support for prolife emergency pregnancy services, and financial assistance to special needs groups.   

These efforts, made possible thanks to funds raised by local rank-and-file Knights, are not in dispute. They are fully acknowledged by this writer with the attached caveat included in the end notes.

What is in dispute are the financial and moral misadventures of Supreme Knight, Virgil C. Dechant, along with members of the Knights of Columbus ruling Supreme Council, which paved the way for further misadventures under Dechant’s Opus Dei successor, Carl Anderson. 

Following is just a sampling of the Knights’ deadly ill-advised grants, programs and policies that took place under the Dechant administration, including the sexual abuse cases of minor boys by Knights that occurred during Dechant’s rule, but which were later ruthlessly litigated under the Anderson administration. 

Its purpose is to provide further background on the Knights of Columbus prior to the take-over of the corporation by Opus, and to document the growth of the ever-widening chasm that exists between the worldview of rank-and-file member Knights and that of the National Officers who make up the ruling and spending class of the Knights of Columbus corporate structure.  (more...)

Opus Dei and the Knights of Columbus: Anatomy of a Takeover – Part Two