The K of C at the 51st IEC

The members of the Knights of Columbus representing the four State jurisdictions of the Philippines were in full force during the recently-held 51st International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu City. Most noticeable were hundreds of honor guards that prominently led the grand procession of all the participants of the Congress coming from 71 countries and from over a million locals.
But more than this, it was the Supreme Office of the Knights of Columbus that made possible a good media coverage of this international event. These were the major media platforms assisted by KC Supreme: the satellite uplink that beamed the event to 4 local channels and 13 international TV networks; the daily publication of a special issue of the CBCP Monitor that was distributed to the participants at the start of the daily sessions; the fielding of 15 professional journalists that covered that event; the audio and video streaming of daily catecheses and reflections; and the superb social media content management that garnered 120 million impressions from the opening mass to the statio orbis using the #EucharistPH hashtag.
And still more than these was the active participation of the members of the Order with their families who intently listened to all the conferences of the International Eucharistic Congress. The theological reflections and pastoral directions in the conferences, catechesis and homilies threaded along the path of dialogue with culture, with the poor and even with the prevailing socio-political realities throughout the world. This perspective is so close to the very foundations of the Knights of Columbus where its founder, Fr. Michael J. McGivney, did not just settle to see the Eucharist as a mere religious devotion, but one that bears fruit in the concern for the needy.
After the Congress, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the PHilippines issued a statement, titled ‘Being Eucharistic in Life and Deeds’, that challenged everyone to make our love for the Eucharist manifest even in the way we conduct politics, such as in the forthcoming national elections. Together with KCFAPI, this is what the members of the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines are working on today: voters’ education, collaboration with election watchdogs such as PPCRV and social media reportage, among others.