Knightly Chivalry and the Feminine Genius on display at the 2024 Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention

Mary Rose Bacani Valenti

Saturday, August 10, 2024

MCing the Ladies Program at the 142nd Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention, August 7, 2024. © Salt + Light Media, 2024.

It was exciting to be in Quebec City for the 142nd Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus from August 6-8. I was invited to MC the Ladies Program at the convention on Wednesday, August 7. So many things took place over those three days; funny enough, it was a chance encounter with the wife of a Knight before the Opening Mass that has really penetrated my heart. I’ll speak about that at the end.

I loved the theme for the Ladies Program: “the Feminine Genius and the Radiance of Woman.” Sr. Clare Hunter of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist in Connecticut and Dr. Sarah Maple of Mount Saint Mary College in New York were the main presenters.

Dr. Maple and I were sitting together at the States Dinner prior to the Ladies Program, and we shared with each other our love of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. She even told me of how she has loved to spend an incredibly long time with her students on the Genesis passage on the creation of man and woman. John Paul II didn’t create his own theology; he simply unearthed the truth that already existed in Genesis about the original relationship between man and woman, about our identity as men and women.

When Sr. Hunter spoke about this same passage during the Ladies Program, she took us back to that scene in the garden. Adam was there when God created all the creatures in the garden; he even named them. But Adam was alone, without any of his kind when he was created. He first saw other creatures, and other things. He lived in the garden alone, and God gave him this time to realize that he needed “another self.” And so a woman was made out of his own rib, close to his heart. And on seeing the woman, he gasped, “This, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23).

Now, imagine Eve being created out of Adam’s rib as he slept. The first creature she saw and loved was this man, her other self, and not other things. The woman is a person-oriented creature — she is made to care for persons first; hence, she loves raising children, she is sensitive to people’s needs, she loves taking care of people first. The man is oriented to manage and run things, to serve and protect. Adam was given charge of the garden and to protect and serve Eve.

It was a wonderfully ordered relationship, but then the devil entered the picture. What was Adam doing while the devil was tempting Eve? Was he asleep? It was his job to protect the garden and Eve, and yet the devil was able to enter and lure Eve. The first sin damaged the original relationship of trust. The woman now doubts that the man can protect her, that she can be safe. The man now doubts that he can trust the woman to be his partner and now seeks to dominate her.

This damaged relationship between man and woman can only be restored by grace, which we have to continually access through the Sacraments. The graces from the Sacrament of Marriage enable us to live a restored relationship, where we can trust each other and love each other as God originally planned.

I saw a glimpse of this ordered relationship at the convention. There were Knights holding their ladies closely by their side. There was pride in the ladies’ eyes and demeanour, pride to be there with their Knights. I saw videos of what the Knights were doing to protect and serve — how many were collecting wheelchairs and coats to give to those who needed them; how many were distributing beds to children who did not have any; how many were raising money for widowed spouses of Knights, supporting them and their children in need. The Knights live in service of their one true King, and they did act as our modern-day Knights, righting wrongs and taking care of “ladies in distress.” Knightly chivalry does exist today, in the Knights of Columbus.

My four daughters and I were half an hour early for the Opening Mass on Tuesday, August 6. My husband Knight was busy working for Salt + Light Media in the broadcast area. Confession was available before Mass, and my girls and I wanted to go. In order not to lose our seats (which were hard enough to find in the crowd of 2500 people), I asked one of the ladies in front of us if she could save them. She quickly replied, “Of course!” I then put down the four programs we had on the children’s seats as place-savers; on mine, I put down the one item I had in my purse that I could leave behind, a prayer book. The prayer book was lent to me by a friend, and I was reluctant to leave it.

I asked the lady if she thought my book would be safe unattended. She looked at me, surprised at my question. What she said next went straight to my heart, and her words have stayed there ever since: “I can think of no safer place than with the Knights.”

It was so wonderful to hear her speak with such confidence that the Knights will protect their ladies, that they will not wrong them. What a beautiful opportunity to get a glimpse of that original relationship that God intended for man and woman.

For more coverage of the 142nd Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in Quebec City, including videos of the Convention Masses, business sessions, speeches, and exclusive interviews, visit slmedia.org/kofc.

Mary Rose Bacani Valenti is a homeschooling mother of four girls. She worked full-time as a producer and host for Salt + Light Media from its foundation year in 2003 up to 2011, after giving birth to her first child. She agonized over and spent a long time on documentaries like Journey of Light (2005), Beloved: The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia (2009), and God’s Doorkeeper: St. André of Montreal (2010). Under the direction of Our Lady of Combermere, she was very happy (although at first reluctant) to have had a carefree production experience on the half-hour documentary Madonna House: A Song of Love (2022). Currently, Mary Rose freelances as a host for Salt + Light Media’s Historia Vitae.