July
4, 2017
Brothers,
Thank you for all your
efforts during the 2016-17 Fraternal year.
I trust that you completed the year with a feeling of fulfillment that
you have served you Pastor, Parish, Community and membership in a manner that will
make you proud.
As a State, we made a great effort in May and June to return Arizona to the Ranks of Circle of Honor. At this time, it looks like we came up 28 new members short of the Goal set by Supreme for Arizona of 950. Although coming so close was a big disappointment we can hold our heads up with the knowledge that we did a turn around and got back on track. Early in the year and at mid-year, finishing this well was a far-off dream. One of the pearls of Wisdom that members of the Supreme Membership staff reminds us is that States don’t make Circle of Honor the first 4 months of the year, but they can miss it if those months are not productive.
With that wisdom in mind we want to begin our 2017-2018 Fraternal Year with renewed energy, as we all work to grow our order to better serve our Bishops, Priests and Parish Communities. As we grow and move forward we need to also look at getting younger. If you look around you will notice that the brothers who you have been with for many years are no longer young like they once were. Not only did we age, but so did our friends.
Last year our State Theme was “Be the Leader of Your Domestic Church”. I asked each of you to fill the void that has been created over the years in our families and be the one that leads the faith and formation of your families.
This year our State Theme is
“Supporting Life at Every Stage”.
We need to remember that not only do we stand for the teachings of our Catholic Church and provide the voice for the unborn that are not able to speak for themselves; we also need to support those that are already alive. We need to continue to participate in 40 Days for Life campaigns, pray outside abortion facilities, and support our Church and Order as we fight for the rights of the unborn and new born.
As we support the family as the foundation of our society we will continue to promote and participate in the Building the Domestic Church programs begun by Supreme a few years ago. We need to work harder to offer programs and activities aimed at families and supporting the parents as they form our youth in the faith.
Finally, we cannot turn our backs on or not be there as our family, friends and neighbors move toward the end of our lives in this world. We will be introducing activities and provide information for
Councils to become involved in learning about and assisting those that begin to have physical and mental limitations.
We will be conducting our State Organizational meeting July 14-16 in Tucson. At this meeting, your District Deputies will get more detailed information about our Membership Incentive plans and goals, our Supreme and State Programs, and training to allow the DD’s to better assist you and your Council with meeting your Program and Membership Goals.
This year Supreme plans to send the Fraternal Leader Success Planner directly to the Councils. You can begin using this as soon as you receive your supply. You will not need to wait for your District Organization meeting or for a DD visit to get your copies. Use this as your planning tool as soon as it arrives to begin now to outline your Council Programs, Membership recruitment, and social events.
For those that have not received this yet, the July message from our Supreme Knight Carl Anderson is “Let us all as Knights redouble our efforts as men of faith – and men of action based on that faith”. The program spotlight is Bishop Olmsted’s Into the Breach. This apostolic exhortation was originally written as a message to the men of the Phoenix Diocese but Supreme has adopted this and it is now being sent Order wide and has been translated into most if not all the languages where we have Knights.
If your Council needs copies, do not order them from Supreme. As part of the agreement to use his work, Bishop Olmsted and the Phoenix Diocese received a shipment of many thousand copies. We have been asked to assist in getting these distributed to our Councils. They cannot ship for us but we can make appointments to pick these up ourselves in Phoenix.
Soon your District Deputies will be contacting you about your Admission Degree schedules for this year, or at least for the first 3 or 4 months. They are required to bring this information to the Organizational Meeting in a couple of weeks. Go ahead and schedule your degrees now, to the extent possible.
As we go forward with this new year I pray that you will experience the joy of service and be humbly grateful of the thanks we receive from our Pastors and Parish community for taking the lead as the Catholic, Family, Fraternal, Service organization that we are.
Vivat Jesus,
Sean E. Halpain
Arizona State Deputy
