CHARLOTTE — Two members of Ladies Auxiliary Council 411 of the Knights of Peter Claver from Our Lady of Consolation Parish traveled to Oklahoma City July 19-24 for the Catholic fraternal organization’s national convention.
Mary Adams, the organization’s area deputy for North Carolina, and Racquel Ward, grand lady for the auxiliary, represented Knights of Peter Claver Council 411 and the auxiliary at the convention. The council and auxiliary, established in October 2023, is the first in the Diocese of Charlotte.
“The trip was truly a lesson, blessing and reminder of sisterhood, brotherhood and charity,” Ward said. “It was dramatic to see all the different members of the order represented, especially at the opening Mass. The Mass was so spirit-filled and the reverence was amazing.”
At the convention, members elected new national leaders and focused on ways to further the organization’s charitable and spiritual initiatives.
Ward said she learned that the new council and auxiliary at Our Lady of Consolation was part of the fraternal organization’s overall expansion effort nationwide. In 2023 six councils were established, with 305 Knights, 500 ladies, 81 junior knights and 165 junior daughters initiated.
The organization now has 13,874 members across the U.S. and has launched an effort nationwide to attract more youth and young adults to the organization, with a special focus on increasing the presence on college campuses. Currently only 3% of members are between the ages of 18 and 30, according to numbers released at the convention. Most of the organization’s members are older than 50.
“The ongoing challenge is reducing the average age of membership,” Ward said. “This pushes us to form junior councils and courts and continue to expand and establish collegiate courts and councils.”
The Knights of Peter Claver was founded in 1909 by four Josephite priests and three laymen from the Diocese of Mobile, Ala., who wanted to form a Catholic fraternal order for the African American community because the Church’s other orders at the time did not accept Black members. It expanded in 1926 to include a ladies auxiliary. Named for a 17th-century Spanish Jesuit priest who ministered to enslaved people, the New Orleans-based order has more than 400 chapters in the U.S. and one in Colombia. One chapter is located in the Diocese of Raleigh.
— Christina Lee Knauss