These ceremonials of the order were kept under a pledge of secrecy limited to the membership. New members would be encouraged to go through their second and third degree ceremonies at a later date. Usually when new members joined the knights, councils would run a first degree initiation ceremony for them or take them to a nearby council with a trained degree team. The Knights of Columbus now claim about 1.9 million members in 15,900 local councils in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Poland, Ukraine, South Korea and several other countries. The rituals of the Knights, sometimes called ceremonies or exemplifications, have for decades been separated into first, second and third degrees focused respectively on the principles of Charity, Unity and Fraternity, the first three principles of the Catholic men's fraternity founded in Connecticut in 1882 by Father Michael J. Anderson said in the January 2020 issue of Columbia magazine. 'Today, we need an exemplification of our principles that presents, in a clear and convincing way, how charity, unity and fraternity can come together to form a Catholic way of life for today's man and his family,' Supreme Knight Carl A. The Knights of Columbus has announced a major revision to its longtime initiation ceremonies and for the first time will open them to the public, saying the changes are needed to become more appealing to prospective members and to respond to a 'crisis' in church membership.

Knights of columbus 4th degree