The Knights of Columbus began in 1882, when Father Michael J. McGivney and a small group of pioneering Catholics founded a society designed to provide much needed security for widows and orphans of Catholic parishioners.

The original idea grew quickly, becoming an order of Catholic men and their families, dedicated to promoting the concepts of charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism.

Today, the Knights of Columbus has grown to more than 12,000 councils and 1.7 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Guatemala, Guam and Poland.

We believe in miracles, don’t you? A few years ago, at the Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention in Nashville, Tenn., it was decided that a “Culture of Life Fund” was needed to protect life from conception until natural death.

Now just a few years later, the K of C were able to finalize the purchase of the third ultra-sound established in the State of Michigan since July 2009, with up to nine more in various stages of being placed in pro-life clinics.

This past July, the Michigan Knights of Columbus State Council asked K of C councils in each diocese to seek out pro-life clinics within our diocese and raise funds to place ultrasound machines in them.

They met Krista Brown last year at the Cass County Fair and began to talk to her about working with the diocesan program director to find such a place for an ultrasound machine.

She told them to stop looking, as she runs the Women’s Care Center in Niles.

The rest is history.

As Brother Francis Boylan of Holy Cross Children’s Services reminds often, the mission of the Knights of Columbus, given by its founder, Father Michael J. McGivney, is to protect widows and orphans.

Each year at this center they are helping to save up to and above 520 women from the heartache of knowing that they were responsible for taking the life of an Angel of Jesus, an unprotected life.

They are also helping to save 520 Angels as to allow happiness in someone’s life.

By doing so, they are fulfilling they duty to Brother Francis, and fulfilling their duty to Knights of Columbus leaders in the Culture of Life.

From the original core concept of their mission, charity, they dedicated an ultrasound machine for the Women’s Care Center in Niles on May 8.