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Assembly Visit

Rev. Archibong Cosmas celebrates Mass for patients and visitors Oct. 16, in the chapel at the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Haven.  Members of the Right Rev. Monsignor Jean C. Mathieu Fourth Degree Assembly 114, based in Putnam, drove over 180 miles round-trip to take their turn helping the veterans. Photo by John D. Ryan.

 

WEST HAVEN — Nobody wants to be a hospital patient. You’re sick or injured, isolated from your family, your friends and your life in general. But thanks in part to Connecticut’s Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, the Catholic patients at the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Haven don’t have to be isolated from their faith.

For the past decade, several of the state’s K of C fourth degree assemblies have taken turns driving to West Haven on Sunday mornings, to escort patients to Mass at the hospital’s chapel. The hospital’s orderlies don’t work on Sundays, so the Knights pick up the slack. Oct. 16, members of the Right Rev. Monsignor Jean C. Mathieu Fourth Degree Assembly 114, based in Putnam, drove over 180 miles round-trip to take their turn helping the veterans. Mathieu Assembly members have made the same trek every three months, since the statewide program started almost ten years ago. 1

Rev. Archibong Cosmas, one of the hospital’s two Catholic chaplains and himself a Fourth Degree Knight, said what the Knights of Columbus are doing for these hospitalized veterans epitomizes Christian service to others. “It’s a real contribution to make sure the patients get to Mass, but it’s just as important that the Knights are there with them, visiting them and sharing the celebration of the Mass with them, showing our veterans that they care for them, the people who sacrificed themselves for us.”

The Fourth Degree, also known as the Patriotic Degree, is part of the worldwide Knights of Columbus organization, a fraternal benefit society made up of Catholic men and their families. Many people have seen Fourth Degree Knights at a parade, funeral or other event, wearing their black tuxedos and colorful knee-length silk capes and ostrich-plumed hats.

What is not generally known, however, is that the Fourth Degree supports patriotism and the Catholic Church in the 13 countries around the world where the Knights of Columbus exists. Every Fourth Degree Knight is at the same time a member of a local K of C council, but fewer than one out of five of the world’s 1.9 million Knights of Columbus have taken on the optional, extra commitment of joining the Fourth Degree. Nearly all of the members of Mathieu Assembly 114 are also members of a local council in northern Windham County, with a few participating in local councils elsewhere.

Mathieu Assembly Knight of Columbus David J. Meunier Jr., of Killingly, said he wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else last Sunday morning.

“These hospitalized veterans have served our country and now we’re serving them,” Meunier said. “The Fourth Degree exists to support patriotism and the Catholic Church, so it’s a privilege for our assembly to come down here four times a year and go to Mass .