As the United States celebrated Independence Day last week, Pope Leo XIV received Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore in a private audience at the Vatican. The July 4 audience was the first meeting of the U.S.-born pope with the leader of the Knights of Columbus and the chief shepherd of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which in 1789 became the first diocese in the United States.
During their visit, the supreme knight and supreme chaplain pledged the Order’s loyalty to Pope Leo and promised ongoing prayers and support for his pontificate. They also provided the Holy Father with an overview of the Knights of Columbus, highlighting the Order’s charitable activity and men’s faith formation programs.
Archbishop Lori, speaking afterward with the Catholic Review in Baltimore, described the meeting as “an opportunity to present kind of a comprehensive picture of who the Knights are and what the Knights do and what some of its current initiatives are.”
“He asked some good questions about aspects of the work of the Knights,” the supreme chaplain continued, “particularly the Cor program.”
Supreme Knight Kelly and Archbishop Lori presented the Holy Father with special gifts on behalf of the Order related to the patriotic occasion of the visit and Pope Leo’s Augustinian background. One of the gifts was a framed archival photo of the launching of LST-286, the tank-landing ship on which the pope’s father, Louis Prevost, served during the D-Day landings in Normandy, France. The gift held special significance, given the supreme knight’s own service in the Navy and that Archbishop Lori’s father, Francis, served on a similar tank-landing ship during World War II.
They also gave the pope two early English editions of works by St. Augustine of Hippo — his famous autobiographical Confessions (printed in 1660) and Meditations (printed in 1728), the latter comprising selections from three Augustinian works of piety: De meditatione, Soliloquies and Enchiridion.