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Exhibition to Celebrate Knights of Columbus Opens in Rome. To celebrate 90 years of work in the eternal city, Rome's Capitoline Museum has dedicated a special exhibit to the Knights of Columbus. During …More
Exhibition to Celebrate Knights of Columbus Opens in Rome.

To celebrate 90 years of work in the eternal city, Rome's Capitoline Museum has dedicated a special exhibit to the Knights of Columbus.

During World War One, the Knights ran Army Huts throughout Europe, providing various services to American soldiers, as well as aid to Europeans left injured and devastated in the war.

One of those huts was in Rome, inside the Hotel Minerva. After the war Pope Benedict XV invited the Knights to keep a presence in Rome. The Knights built youth centres around the city, several of which are still in use today, including the field used for the Clericus Cup tournament, a soccer tournament for seminarians in Rome.

“So, to be here is wonderful for us. I'd like everyone who visits this, especially tourists from the United States and Canada, to see that for nearly a century, the Knights of Columbus in the best spirit of our countries, but also in the best spirit of our faith, our religious faith, have bridged borders, economic hardship, wars even, to have a people-to-people relationship.”

Carl Anderson: “One of the things about being the first Italian-American Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus is that of course this is a very proud moment for me and I couldn't help think of my grandparents who came from northern Italy, the area around Turin, just a few years before the Knights of Columbus began its work here in Italy in the 1920's - really, before the First World War, so it's a great day for me.”

The Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and Cardinal John Foley were on hand to open the exhibit, which runs at the Capitoline Museum until October 31st.