More than 100 years after Fátima, New Jersey Knights of Columbus promotes similar message

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 13, 2024 / 06:00 am

During the apparitions that took place between May and October of 1917 in Fátima, Portugal, Our Lady revealed to three shepherd children the importance of penance, praying the rosary, and devotion to her Immaculate Heart, among other things.

Now, more than 100 years later, a local Knights of Columbus group from New Jersey hopes to spread a similar message across the United States.

The Living Our Faith to Restore Our Nation (LOFRON) resolution was officially approved this past March by the Knights of Columbus Order of the Fourth Degree. Now, the group is looking to expand outside of New Jersey and across the nation.

LOFRON first began in 2020, when members of the Knights of Columbus St. Elizabeth Council No. 2393 in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, held Zoom sessions to discuss the state of the country.

“We were terribly frustrated with what was going on in the country and a growing secular culture,” said Matt Porraro, a Knight and founding member of the resolution.

Citing the inclusion of God throughout the Declaration of Independence and several of the Founding Fathers’ practice of Christianity, Porraro shared the group’s desire to combat secularism by putting “God back into everyday society, everyday language, and everyday messaging. He has been put off to the side in today’s society, and we have to bring him back.”

Calling themselves a nonpolitical “spiritual militia,” members of this resolution aim to “bring our nation closer to God and his holy mother Mary” by pushing for a yearly rosary procession and consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In hopes of gaining more momentum beyond a state level, the LOFRON movement — which currently consists of about a dozen members — has partnered with the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Asbury, New Jersey.

Founded in 1947 and decreed as the World Apostolate of Fátima in 2005, this shrine’s mission is to “help people learn, live, and spread the message of Our Lady of Fátima in communion with the Church and in concert with the new evangelization.”

To recognize the anniversaries of each Fátima apparition, the Blue Army Shrine hosts annual “Mary-thon” events on the 13th of the month from May through October. For its July 13 event, the shrine will host Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke and Father Joshua Caswell for a rosary, Mass, and Eucharistic procession, among other things — and LOFRON will play a significant role.

Following the noon rosary procession with a pilgrim Virgin statue of Our Lady of Fátima, Burke will bless the LOFRON resolution as group members place a crucifix, American flag, and U.S. Hopkinson flag into stands around the shrine’s pavilion.

Burke will then recite the Prayer of Consecration of America to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which dates back to Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States and archbishop of Baltimore.

Carroll, whose cousin was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also known for his regular correspondence with President George Washington and efforts to further advance the Catholic Church throughout the United States.

“We’re just so tremendously honored to have [Burke] read this prayer,” said David Carollo, a member of the LOFRON resolution and executive director of the World Apostolate of Fátima.

Carollo expressed the significance of this prayer and movement today, telling CNA that “we’re at a point in this country and beyond even in the world, and in our Church, where we’re afraid to live out our faith.”

“Secularism has become more prominent, similar to Our Lady’s warning of the errors of communist Russia,” he said. “The essence of communism is atheism, or taking God out of the equation. So that’s what we’re dealing with today, having put aside a Catholic basis and accepting a secular vision for the country and world.”

Carollo continued: “St. John Paul II said in the 1980s that Fátima ‘is more important now than in 1917.’ Well, I contend that the Fátima message is even more relevant today than it was when he said that 40 years ago.”

“Our resolution and initiative with the Knights of Columbus matches our apostolate. We are here to spread the message of Fátima, which is to live in accord with the Gospel,” Carollo continued. “[The Knights] serve as Our Lady’s Blue Army, as the Church’s soldiers who help to save souls. That’s what the whole Fátima message is. Are you willing to offer your lives, Our Lady told the shepherd children, in prayer and reparation for the conversion of sinners?”

Echoing this sentiment was Sgt. Robert Bartlett, whose family’s military service dates back to the Battle of Valley Forge and who began practicing his Catholic faith following a near-death experience in Iraq in 2005.

As a member of the LOFRON movement, he cited the resolution as being a means to “restore the nation back to the reverence of God.”

“We need to push politics aside. Our message is clear in bringing attention to praying the rosary and consecrating ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” Bartlett told CNA. “This can’t be a one-off instance. [LOFRON] would like to see an annual consecration bring about true conversion, with people in this country turning their lives back to Christ. That’s all that matters.”

Crediting their efforts to “God and the Holy Spirit,” members of the LOFRON resolution also expressed hope in turning their New Jersey initiative into a nationwide one.

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“We want to make separate chapters and committees in different states,” said Tim Bradshaw, one of the resolution’s founding members. “We’d like to see the Knights, under the Order of the Fourth Degree, go to their states’ organizations and do what we’ve done here in New Jersey.”

Carollo mirrored this desire ahead of the Blue Army Shrine’s “Mary-thon” event: “This needs to be a national movement, something that needs to reach everybody. [LOFRON] wants to save this country by bringing it back to God — we have an obligation to do so.”

Those who wish to view the “Mary-thon” events can either access the Blue Army Shrine’s livestream or tune into EWTN’s television coverage of the Mass on July 13 at 6:30 p.m. ET.