Is Aquinas College in Grand Rapids a Catholic College?

Jim Vote, my nephew, is the Grand Knight at Aquinas College Council #13501. All of the Brother Knights at Council #13501 worked hard to get the group going. A short time ago, Jim received a notice that the College Senate at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids Michigan was going to vote on whether or not the K of C Council was going to be recognized by the Senate.

Now…I want to remind everyone that the Knights of Columbus is the LARGEST CATHOLIC FAMILY FRATERNAL SERVICE ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD! I want to also remind everyone that according to ‘their mission’, it is a college ‘…rooted in the Catholic Dominican tradition…’ that was ‘…founded by the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids in 1886…’. Also, ‘…Aquinas has a Catholic heritage and a Christian tradition.’ Okay, with all of this in mind, you would think that this is a match made in heaven.

Last night, the Student Senate met to decide on the council’s status with the college. THEY WERE DENIED RECOGNITION!!! Can you believe it? The young men were told that because the K of C membership does not permit women, it was discriminatory (my words, not theirs). All of the council’s activities were for the entire community, not just the men. Also, I was told by a reliable source that while the meeting was going on, there was a member of the council that was trying to get a group of young women together to become the council’s ‘ladies auxiliary’…and succeeded in getting 10 women to join their cause. It was to no avail because they could not find the meeting location.

As a member of the Knights of Columbus and staunch supporter of the Dioceses of Michigan, I feel that any funds coming from the Catholic Church to Aquinas College should be CUT until they realize WHO THEIR FRIENDS ARE! The Knights of Columbus was designed as a service organization to support Catholic widows and orphans. Does that sound discriminatory to you? Okay, maybe not cut the funds, but at least talk to…oh, I don’t know…how about Adam Cardinal Maida, who is A PROUD MEMBER OF THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS! (In case you didn’t know, my friend, Bishop Kevin Britt, was the Bishop of Grand Rapids and had passed away earlier this year, so Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Maida (another friend) as ‘…apostolic administrator [of Grand Rapids] until such time as a successor is named and installed.’)

This is a personal plea to THE STUDENT SENATE OF AQUINAS COLLEGE IN GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN: PLEASE RECONSIDER YOUR DECISION AND RECOGNIZE THIS COUNCIL! WE DO!!!