The Knights of Columbus

The Knights of Columbus operates a Fortune 1000 insurance company with over $123 billion in life insurance in force, making it one of the largest Catholic financial institutions in the world. This financial powerhouse grew out of a very specific crisis in late 19th-century America. Catholic immigrants faced open discrimination and lacked access to the fraternal benefit systems that protected other working-class families. Mainstream insurers routinely denied them coverage, leaving widows and orphans destitute when a breadwinner died. A parish priest in Connecticut decided to fix that problem by building his own mutual aid society.

Father Michael J. McGivney founded the order on March 29, 1882, in the basement of St. Mary's Church in New Haven. He designed a mutual benefit society that combined life insurance with Catholic fraternal brotherhood. The organization expanded rapidly through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, offering financial security to families locked out of existing safety nets. The order tied this financial mission directly to the Catholic Church, funding parishes, dioceses, and Catholic education while pushing Catholic views on public policy issues. This political engagement defined the organization from its earliest days, not as an afterthought but as a core purpose.

Today the Knights report more than 2.2 million practicing Catholic men as members worldwide. The wholly owned insurance company underwrites over two million contracts, and the order's money management arm, Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors, invests strictly in accordance with Catholic social teachings. Patrick E. Kelly leads the global organization as the 14th Supreme Knight.