July 2026 Message from the Diocesan Chair

The Illinois Summer District Deputy Meeting in Mundelein, Illinois is set for July 10^th-12th, and we the State of Illinois has received the Circle of Honor for 2025-2026 from Supreme. We will learn about what we are doing well, what needs improvement and what’s new for this fraternal year.  I plan to report further to the Worthy Grand Knight, Financial Secretary, and Officers after the meeting.

Forms Due to Supreme

• Form 185-Report of Officer’s Chosen-Received
• Form 365-Service Program Personnel Report-Received
• Columbian Award Application SP-7-Approved
• Form 1295 Annual Council Audit- Due 8/15

Safe Environment Compliance

• Safe Environment Compliance is critical. 
• The four key Council Officers and Directors are Grand Knight, Program Director, Community Director and Family Director. 
• These positions are subject to background checks, and they must receive Safe Environment Training.  Your council was Safe Environment Compliant last year.  Let’s complete this important training as soon as possible.

Charity Spotlight for July – Newman Apostolate Fund

The Newman Fund donations are important as our college students prepare to go back to school for another academic year. Newman is our oldest charity in Illinois as we are in our 108^th year of supporting this great charity.  What is the Newman Fund?  The Newman Fund was named in honor of John Henry Cardinal Newman and was inspired by his writings encouraging societies for catholic students attending secular universities.  As a result of the Newman Apostolate Fund, there are Catholic residence and ministry centers at non-Catholic universities throughout the world, called Newman Centers.  They provide pastoral services and the sacraments to their community and become the students “parish away from home”.  This Newman Center support has yielded Religious Life, Seminarians and Priests for our Joliet Diocese, but also future Catholic Mothers and Fathers. Newman Centers are the Catholic voice in secular Universities and Colleges. The voice in the wilderness! How can you support Newman?  There are two ways:

• Become a Century Donor with a gift of $100 https://www.illinoisknights.org/charity/newman and be sure to include your council number so it gets credit toward it’s Newman goal. As a century donor you receive a cool label pin and a perpetual plaque with new name plates every year.

• Many councils add $5 to their dues that go directly to Newman, please participate.  Every year the State Council supports more than 800,000 college students enrolled in Illinois Colleges and Universities, please join us in our charitable outreach

• Your council’s goal for this fraternal year for the Newman Fund is about $600.00 ($5.50 per member)

Evangelization & Faith Formation, Cor

Objectives for Fraternal Year 2026-2027: COR: using the Holy Rosary for Veterans as a Rosary Program for Councils to use as part of their COR group & bring in new COR groups.

Using the whole day event format for the Silver Rose & Pilgrim Icon programs throughout the Fraternal Year to expand exposure of these programs around Feast days & other important Spiritual days.

April 30^th, 2026, Council 10926 at St Jude New Lenox hosted the Silver Rose all day. Had morning program with their School (the 5-8^th Grade)  & an evening Mass. Left the Rose for display guarded by Knights during the day. Result 400 participants.

Council 15168 at St Joan of Arc from 6/11-6/15/2026 had 6 Masses & allowed the Sacred Heart of Jesus Icon to be on display guarded by Knights. Results: 1070 participants.

Joliet Chapter

Save the date! The Bishop’s Burse for 2026 will be held on October 24^th at St. Mary Mokena. More  information about ticket sales will be available soon.

Fraternal Benefits – The Founders Award

Thank you worthy DD’s for your hard work in getting councils across the finish line with regard to the Founder’s Award. As of the last report I saw, we had only a few councils that were short of Star status due to Founder’s Award requirements. I hope they were able to attend the 06/22 webinar (postponed from 06/08 – thanks for your flexibility). We are just about a year from having lost +Jack Springmire, and I hope as new ADC of Fraternal Benefits in the past year I’ve helped stress the importance and opportunities presented to us for member benefits and the necessary process of communicating and coordinating with our councils and agents to achieve this pillar of Star council.

Please note I have confirmed on a high-level basis that the Founder’s Award will in fact be changing its requirements starting in this coming Fraternal year 2026-27.

The new Founder’s Award requirements will go something like this: of members listed on your roster to begin the fraternal year, a number equal to 10% of our Associate members listed on the July 1 council roster must each meet individually with a field agent for a financial review. That number will max out at 15, even if 10% of your roster is greater than 15.

To qualify, these meetings must be conducted with new or Associate members. It is also strongly recommended that all new members meet with our field agent.

We will hear more about this at the summer meeting, so stay tuned as we form a plan with our general and field agents to help councils learn more about member benefits, insurance opportunities, and subsequent Founder’s Awards.

Council 18889, given limited time to complete their Founder’s Award, had one member attend the May 19 webinar, and invited new field agent Mark Sambor (who was accompanied by general agent Paul Kehoe) to a meeting with over 80 men present for their second Fraternal Benefit Presentation. Even in a short amount of time, councils can indeed reach their FBE quota, and our insurance agents are in fact ready and willing to help us.

Council 4053 was short one FBE event to qualify for the Founder’s Award. They too invited their field agent in to a council meeting for a 15 minute presentation to begin their meeting and qualified after hearing a high-level presentation on insurance opportunities as well as benefits all Knights get simply by joining the Order. One phone call made all the difference, proving what that a little coordination can go a long way.

Takeaway: It’s never too late to achieve your goals, especially the Founder’s Award! Be proactive and communicate with your Field Agents regularly/in times of need.

Programming – Faith in Action: The Columbian Award

1. START! Your SP-7 Now……and you’re ILSP7.  Start from your last fraternal year’s success and carry it forward into this fraternal year.
2. The Charitable Assistance Fund-There have been several flood and weather disasters, and our State Deputy requested our Councils to contribute as early as possible this year.  The need is substantial. Your council goal is about $150 for this fraternal year ($1.25 per member).
3. Intellectual Disabilities Drive (Tootsie Roll)-It’s time to plan and get organized for this charitable fund raiser in September.  Your council goal is about $750 for this fraternal year.
4. Coats for Kids Program – there are three easy steps to a successful Coats for Kids Drive. PLAN, ORDER, DISTRIBUTE.  There are 12 coats per case at about $247.38 for Toddler, Child, and Youth.  About $304.24 for Teen and Adult sizes, price includes shipping.  These are last year’s prices from KnightsGear.com and maybe a bit more for this fraternal year.  We hope to get the State Council orders completed in October so that the coats arrive quickly and can be DISTRIBUTED in November.  No kid should go to school without a winter coat!

Membership – The McGivney Award

By effectively stressing the importance of increased participation in the recruitment process can have a significant impact on the numbers of new members bright into a council. The more concentrated effort on these aspects the better the outcome on recruitment:

• Recruiting at more masses
• More members assisting with the membership drives.
• 2 on 1 follow up with interested men.
• Increase literature on hand at recruitment initiatives.
• On-Line Application completed on site of recruitment event
• Next day follow

St Matthew acquired three times as many prospects this year using the above strategies than in the previous total five years. They also increased the number of applicants which resulted in an increased number of members to their council.  They met their membership quota in November and ended the year by quadrupling their membership status.  Their membership quota for the 2025 / 2026 fraternal year was 5. The new Knights brought into their council during this fraternal year were 20 new members.

Effectively stress the importance of increased engaging participation in the recruitment process such as:

• Recruiting at more masses
• More members assisting with the membership drives.
• 2 on 1 follow up with interested men.
• Increase literature on hand at recruitment initiatives.
• On-Line Application completed on site of recruitment event

Father Boecker operating under the same guideline as above demonstrated the identical level of success:

• Council met their state prescribed quota of 9 new members by November of the
• fraternal year.
• Council 6090 earned triple star status by May of the fraternal year.