Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

K of C eager for supreme knight's visit

Carl Anderson will make his first visit to Alberta for Nothing More Beautiful

CNS PHOTO | COURTSEY OF KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS Carl Anderson has been supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus since 2000.

Christians have the responsibility to transform culture by living a vocation of love in the day-to-day reality of their lives, says Carl Anderson, the supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus.

Anderson says this vocation must be grounded in Jesus Christ, who is "the perfect model of love."

The closest we get to Jesus, the closer we are to building a better society, "especially if we enter into his way of living," Anderson said in an interview from the Knights' headquarters in New Haven, Ct.

"We have so many false notions of love and what we see in Jesus Christ is the authentic meaning of love. And that can never be separated from the gift of oneself to the other, which Christ does perfectly."

Anderson, 59, will visit Edmonton May 27 to address the Nothing More Beautiful evangelization conference at St. Joseph's Basilica.

He will give the witness testimony following the major teaching address given by Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

Anderson will also be the guest of honour at a banquet put on by the Knights May 26 at the Mayfield Inn Hotel.

The Knights are so excited by the visit, the first visit by a supreme knight in 20 years, that all 500 tickets to the banquet were sold weeks in advance.

Anderson was slated to attend the Knights of Columbus convention in 2005, but had to cancel at the last moment to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

He said he is looking forward to coming to Alberta, where some of the Knights' biggest charitable activities are performed. "Alberta is one of our strongest growth jurisdictions so I'm very excited about coming up," he said.

Anderson is the author of the book A Civilization of Love, in which he surveys the exciting and history-changing ideas of Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

CIVILIZATION OF LOVE

In it, he challenges Christians to work toward creating a civilization of love, in which every person is a child of God.

By embracing the culture of life and standing with those most marginalized and deemed "useless" or a "burden" on society, Christians can change the tone and direction of our culture, he said.

The key to transforming society and achieving justice, Anderson said in the interview, is love and charity.

"If we have the idea that we are our brother's keeper and we run our businesses differently, we treat our employees differently, we treat our consumers differently and we treat our clients differently maybe we can transform the world," he says.

"Maybe if we have the disposition for charity we can achieve justice."

RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE

Anderson also thinks what the Christian is called to do is "to view our politics from a religious perspective and not view our religion from a political perspective."

"That doesn't mean trying to impose our religious standards on our politics but it means to bring our values, our fundamental values of charity, community and fraternity - the big three that the Knights of Columbus like a lot - and apply these Gospel values to our public discussion," he said.

Christians have two great commandments: love God and love our neighbour. "If we take these two commandments seriously, we are going to build a society based on love," Anderson said. "And so the responsibility of the Christian is to try and live in this way."

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