Knights celebrate Catholic Day centennial at Lagoon

Intermountain Catholic

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Father James McHugh blesses a child during Communion at the traditional outdoor Mass at Knight of Columbus Council 602 Catholic Day at Lagoon July 13. IC photos by Christine Young

FARMINGTON — "We are gathering in the blessing of the family and the blessing of faith," said Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father James McHugh at the traditional outdoor Mass to open the centennial celebration of Catholic Day at Lagoon July 13.

Catholics numbering 5,906 came from throughout the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada to celebrate 100 years at Lagoon with Knights of Columbus Council 602. Council 602 is the oldest council this side of the Mississippi. The day also included games for children and adults and a pie eating contest. Lagoon offered free entrance into Lagoon and a discounted ride passport for $27.50.

The Mass was concelebrated by Fr. McHugh and Father Eleazar Silva. Fr. McHugh is the Knight of Columbus state chaplain and a science and chemistry teacher at Judge Memorial Catholic High School. Fr. Silva is the vicar of Saint George Parish. Seminarian Oscar Navarrete from Tijuana, Mexico, in his fourth year of college, was a special guest.

"Families starting arriving before we opened at 10:30 a.m.," said Dick Andrews, Lagoon director of marketing. "When we did open, there was a wave of people with coolers who came in to stake out a spot. This is one of the largest days we have at Lagoon. From our perspective, this is a wonderful tradition, and the participants feel the same way. Some of the members of Council 602 have been working with us for decades.

The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal charity organization founded by the late Father Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882 in the state of Connecticut. They were founded to help Catholic men remain steadfast in their faith through mutual encouragement; to promote closer ties to fraternity among them; and to set up an elementary system of insurance so that the widows and children of members, who at the time were miners and might die, would not find themselves in dire financial straits.

"One of the wonderful aspects of being a Knight is knowing we are an international organization," said George Stahla, past Grand Knight. "As of Dec. 31, 2007, there have been $144,911,781 contributed, and 68,695,768 hours volunteered internationally. We do things like painting houses, clearing weeds, and giving assistance."

"This year during the collection at Mass, we received $635, which is $400 more than last year," said Paul Yribar, Council 602 Grand Knight. "We sold out of Colosimo’s Italian sausage by 2 p.m., which we usually have until late in the evening. We have a much larger crowd this year, which is great. We had some people call from Elko and Ely, Nev., as well as Idaho who said they were coming because they saw it advertised in the Intermountain Catholic. We tried to make our 100th year celebration something special, so we added more prizes and better prizes and had more participation. Lagoon supplied us with a lot of the nails, hammers, and pies for the pie eating contest. They have been working with us hand and glove and it really makes a difference.

"This tradition provides a day for Catholics from all over to meet as a group," said Yribar. "It also allows us to raise money to help people who come to us in need throughout the year. We have several projects in which we are involved including the international rosary march and pro-life movement."