St. Mary's of Norton Council 11690 was chartered as a local council of the Knights of Columbus on January 11, 1996 with an initial membership of 30 Catholic men from Norton, Massachusetts and neighboring communities, including new Knights as well as Knights who transferred from nearby councils.  The current roster numbers over 120.  While many were instrumental to the formation of our Council, we owe special gratitude to the vision, hard work and support of our first Chaplain, Fr. Arnold Medeiros.

Since 1996 the Council has been very active in the community.  We support our Parish in many ways, sponsor and contribute to charitable events, and host activities for the Knights and their families.

The Knights of Columbus was founded in 1882, in the basement of St. Mary's Catholic Church in New Haven, Connecticut, by Father Michael J. McGivney and a handful of Catholic laymen. The aim of the founder and those first members was to set up a parish-based lay organization that offered insurance benefits. In an era when parish and fraternal societies were popular, Father McGivney felt there should be some way to strengthen the religious faith of his flock and provide financial support for families overwhelmed by illness or the death of the breadwinner.

Today the Knights of Columbus have grown from that one local unit, or council, to nearly 11,000 councils in the United States (including Puerto Rico and Guam), Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Guatemala, and Saipan.

Membership is nearly 1.6 million dues-paying members plus their families - approximately 4.5 million people total - many of whom are actively involved in volunteer service programs for the Catholic Church, their communities, their families, young people and one another.

The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest organization of Catholic men and their families, has been called "the strong right arm of the Church," and has been cited by popes, presidents and other world leaders for support of the Church, for programs of evangelization and Catholic education, for civic involvement and aid to those in need.

The above was excerpted from the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council home page.

Our meetings are held at 7:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month at the St. Mary's Parish Center, located at the intersection of Power Street and West Main Street (Route 123) in Norton, Massachusetts. We can be reached by calling the St. Mary's Rectory at (508) 285-4462, by sending e-mail to kofc11690@yahoo.com, or by sending correspondence to St. Mary's of Norton Knights of Columbus Council 11690, P.O. Box 430, Norton, MA 02766-0430.

Our business meeting is scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m.

The Planning Meeting is scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m.

Fourth Degree Knights of the Council are also members of the Cardinal O'Connell Assembly of Brockton, Massachusetts, which meets at the Sisters of Jesus Crucified, Thatcher Street, on the last Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m.  Meetings are held downstairs under the Chapel.

The current Faithful Navigator of the Assembly is Michael D. Hatch 

Chris Gilday is the Commander of the Honor Guard.

Any suggestions, comments, ideas, and criticism concerning this web page would be greatly appreciated.  Please feel free to direct them by e-mail to kofc11690@yahoo.com, the Newsletter Editors, or Grand Knight Paul Schleicher.

There are only two requirements for a man to join the Knights of Columbus: that he be a practical Catholic as understood by the Church, and that he be 18 years of age or older. For more information about the Knights of Columbus, visit the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council home page. If you are interested in joining the Knights of Columbus, please feel free to e-mail St. Mary's of Norton Council 11690 at kofc11690@yahoo.com, or leave a message at St. Mary's Rectory at (508) 285-4462.

Our current newsletter is available on-line.  From the newsletter index page, you can link to newsletters going back to August 1996.  If anyone has newsletters from before August 1996, or the May and August 1997 newsletters, please photocopy them or scan them and send them to the newsletter editor so they can be added to the archive.  If any brother Knight would like the newsletters emailed to him as they are being printed, please e-mail your request to kofc11690@yahoo.com.  The newsletters will be in Adobe Acrobat format.

A calendar of upcoming events is posted on a separate page.

The 2006 - 2007 Roster of our Council is available.

Deceased Members of our Council.

Links are available to the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council, the Massachusetts State Council, and to Massachusetts and Rhode Island Councils and Parishes online.

A series of Catholic links is also available.  These links include many (but not all) resources pertaining to our Faith and hopefully, you will find them enlightening.  Links to Pro-Life pages are also available.  If you have any suggestions for additional links, by all means, please let us know.

Please visit the Massachusetts Catholic Conference Home Page. The new web page is the "Public Policy Voice of the Roman Catholic Church in Massachusetts."

This Roman Catholic WebRing site owned by Council 11690.
Click for the [ Next Site | Skip Next | Next 5 Sites]
Want to join the ring? Click here for info.