Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010
April 28, 2008
Knights help Newman, St. Mary's colleges
By WCR Staff
Edmonton
The Alberta-Northwest Territories Knights of Columbus are committed to helping Catholic higher education, especially when it's aimed at helping future priests.
The Knights in northern Alberta have donated money to St. Joseph Seminary and Newman Theological College while those in the south are helping St. Mary's University College.
Individual councils and the province-wide K of C charitable foundation have recently contributed $150,000 to the Edmonton-based seminary. The international supreme council of the Knights threw in another $100,000 and then a local anonymous donor matched that total by contributing another $250,000.
The $500,000 will go to funding seminary operations.
"We have been contributing to the seminary for many, many years and will continue to do so," said state deputy Wally Streit. "We'll watch with interest the construction of the new seminary and will help as we can."
Meanwhile, the Knights in southern Alberta, along with the charitable foundation, have pledged to raise $150,000 for St. Mary's College in Calgary and are asking the supreme council to contribute another $100,000.
The money will be used to renovate an existing building at a cost of roughly $1 million to provide space for an education faculty to train future Catholic teachers. It will be named Father Michael J. McGivney Hall after the priest who founded the Knights of Columbus in the 19th century.
The college currently offers a bachelor of arts degree and plans to begin offering courses leading to a bachelor of education in September.
The Alberta Knights also run the Pennies from Heaven program, which annually raises $35,000 or more to be divided among the province's six dioceses for discretionary spending on their seminarians.
Individual knights contribute their spare change at council meetings for Pennies from Heaven.
Also, in the Knights' RSVP program, councils support individual seminarians. If the council gives $500 to a seminarian, the supreme council gives $100 back to the local council.
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