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Knights of Peter Claver aims to promote faith among youth
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The event officially began with a July 31 blessing Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels with Archbishop José Gomez presiding. During the prior two days, members participated in community service projects led by the KPC Ladies Auxiliary and the Emerging (teenage) Leaders in support of Habitat for Humanity in Long Beach and the L.A. Food Bank.“What you do in your apostolic mission is very important for the life of the Catholic Church,” Archbishop Gomez told about 1,500 KPC members participating in the mid-afternoon Mass concelebrated by 10 bishops and three abbots with Gospel music performed by a choir from Holy Name of Jesus Church in L.A.
“You witness to our youth of what our Father wants us to be: una familia de Dios, one family of God,” he continued.
Every Catholic, he added, is able to have a “beautiful message for the common good; to positively change our country.” And he urged the assembly to “stay close to St. Peter Claver’s words: ‘We must speak to people with our hands before we speak to them with our lips.’
“Our best examples are our own lives,” the archbishop said, providing a list of names of African American saints who led by example.
That message is what the KPC leaders have tried to convey throughout the years to the membership, especially to youth who in recent years have left the Catholic Church mostly due to lack of role models in parishes, leaders said.
“Wanting to be a role model for somebody else” is what kept E. Desmond Taylor, 17, moving forward as the former head of the National Junior Knight Board (youth 7-18) during four years, the longest a youth leader has held that office.
Taylor said he already knew the difference between right and wrong at age 11 when he was first elected. It was “taught by my parents and mentors in school and in this organization,” said the student of St. Pius X High School in Houston.
He mentioned spiritual growth and a hands-on education as the priorities to lure youth into any activity within the Church.
Following in his steps is the recently elected Junior Supreme Knight, Creighton Guillory, 15, from Lake Charles, Louisiana. (The Emerging Leader National Convention was held two weeks ago in New Orleans.)
“We can take care of business and combine it with fun activities,” Guillory told The Tidings. “This is a family-oriented organization.” He said vocations are also encouraged through the KPC as well as laity involvement.
“We need to be more aggressive using the social media,” said Brandt Lewis, 26, a former president of the junior board.
A group of KPC Ladies said efforts are being made to get the organization “more nationally known.”
“We are getting the secret out of the box,” said Roxy Hall-Williamson, visiting from Georgia. “And we are open to all Catholics, not only African Americans.”
A chapter also operates in San Andres, off the coast of Colombia in South America, where Jesuit Father Peter Claver started his missionary work with slaves from Angola and Congo working in the gold and silver mines in the 1600s.
Headquartered in New Orleans, the Knights of Peter Claver was founded in 1909 in Mobile, Alabama, by Josephite Father Conrad F. Rebesher for African American men who were barred from other organizations in the Catholic Church. The Ladies Auxiliary was formed in Louisiana in 1922. Today, members of the organization serve in more than 400 parishes in 35 states and Colombia.
Aside from participating in Church and community activities, the organization promotes social justice and supports Catholic education through a scholarships and grant program.
For more information about the Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver visit www.kofpc.org.
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