(OSV News) -- The "days of easy faith are over," and a "new generation of Catholic men" are needed in the church, said the head of the Knights of Columbus at the global Catholic fraternal organization's annual gathering.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly of the Knights of Columbus addressed more than 2,500 fellow Knights -- along with their families, special guests and close to 60 bishops and cardinals from around the world, including Cuba, Korea, Nigeria, the Philippines and Ukraine -- at the fraternal organization's 142nd Supreme Convention, which took place Aug. 6-8 at the Quebec City Convention Center in Quebec City in the Canadian province of Quebec.

Founded in 1882 by Connecticut parish priest Blessed Michael McGivney, the Knights of Columbus now count more than 2.1 million members in over 16,800 local councils globally. In 2023, the Knights donated over 47 million service hours and more than $190 million to those in need.

In his opening address Aug. 6, Kelly surveyed the breadth of the Knights' work, which spans an array of humanitarian and spiritual initiatives designed to witness to the Gospel.

In his official greeting to attendees, conveyed in a July 24 letter from the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis commended the Knights for their convention theme of "On Mission," which the cardinal said "centers on the missionary dimension of Christian discipleship that the Holy Father has stressed from the earliest days of his pontificate."

That mission, which requires Knights to be "resolute, undaunted (and) zealous," has become more critical than ever, especially at a time when "in many places around the world, Catholic baptisms are declining and secularism is on the rise," said Kelly, adding, "Many of us are worried about the world our children will inherit."

Pointing to the example of Blessed McGivney and St. François de Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, Kelly said that "a new generation of Catholic men ... formed in faith and virtue ... (and) prepared to be missionary disciples" must be built up.

With more than 92,000 men joining the Knights last year, many of them Hispanic, the organization has experienced record growth, said Kelly, but stressed he envisions doubling the current membership.

"Imagine the impact, the communities we could help -- the parishes that we could serve and the lives that we could change," he said.

As a kick-start to that goal, Kelly challenged the Knights to double down on their annual Coats for Kids initiative by distributing 2 million coats to children in need by 2030.

The Knights' Global Wheelchair Mission, a partnership with both the American Wheelchair Mission and the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation, "gave the gift of mobility to more than 11,000 people" in 2023, while the Knights donated over $4 million to the Special Olympics and organized close to 4,000 competitions that same year, said Kelly.

In addition, the Knights "continue to serve those who are persecuted for their faith," said Kelly, noting that the organization has over the past decade "rebuilt churches and restored whole communities in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon."

Kelly said that the Knights are also "standing with the persecuted Christians of Nigeria."

The level of religious repression in the African nation has been ranked as "extreme" by the global watchdog group Open Doors International, which has assessed that "more believers are killed for their faith in Nigeria each year, than everywhere else in the world combined."

To "strengthen the faith of millions of Catholics in the heart of Africa," the Knights have sponsored a collaboration between Nigeria's Catholic bishops and the Franciscan University of Steubenville that will fund priestly and lay formation, with an eye to "the creation of a national catechetical institute in Nigeria," said Kelly, who also welcomed to the convention Bishop Matthew H. Kukah of Sokoto and Bishop Stephen D. Mamza of Yola, both in Nigeria.

Kelly also pointed to the Knights' work in Ukraine, where conditions are "especially dire for our brother Knights" amid Russia's full-scale war, launched in 2022 and continuing attacks that began in 2014.

"They are fighting for their lives and their country's survival," said Kelly, highlighting the Knights' work with the Minnesota-based Protez Foundation to provide prosthetics to war victims.

The Knights have also teamed up with the Knights of Malta to train Ukrainian civilians in first-aid responses, he said, while the Knights of Columbus' charity convoys "have now delivered more than 8.5 million pounds to relief supplies to shattered communities."

More than 1.6 million Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, have been helped by the Knights, who have provided more than $17 million in humanitarian relief, Kelly said.

And "the Russian authorities have taken notice," banning the Knights, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (and, as human rights observers have noted, Caritas, part of the Catholic Church's international humanitarian aid network) in occupied areas of Ukraine, said Kelly.

"Their ban is our badge of honor," he said. "Russian authorities are using faith as a weapon of war. And what they fear most is the church's message of human freedom. But Ukraine's bishops and priests will not be silenced."

Kelly acknowledged the presence of several Ukrainian clergy on hand at the convention: Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv, Bishop Mykhaylo Bubniy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Exarchate of Odesa and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Father Oleksandr Bohomaz, who was threatened with execution by Russian occupation officials for his pastoral ministry in Melitopol, Ukraine, and for recruiting men to become Knights. He was ultimately arrested and expelled from the occupied area.

In the Philippines, Knights are being trained to spot the signs of human trafficking as part of the organization's "Guardians of Dignity" in partnership with the anti-slavery NGO Arise Foundation, said Kelly.

In North America, the Knights "are resolved to stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples," said Kelly.

The organization has created a Native Solidarity Initiative and is involved in promoting awareness about Native Catholics and their traditions through their “Enduring Faith” documentary and support for the canonization of Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk, a Lakota holy man and Catholic catechist. The Knights’ Supreme Secretary Patrick T. Mason is a member of the Osage Nation, while Graydon Nicholas, a former Knights board member and former lieutenant governor of Canada's New Brunswick province, is a member of the Maliseet (Tobique) First Nation.

During the convention, the Knights planned to build more than 100 beds for First Nations children, with the first group to be delivered to the Huron-Wendat Nation in Wendake, near Quebec City, said Kelly. The Huron-Wendat Nation embraced the Catholic faith during the 17th-century ministry of St. Jean de Brebeuf and other Jesuit martyrs, in large part due to the evangelizing Huron-Wendat family of Joseph Chiwatenhwa and Marie Aonetta, who were praised by St. John Paul II in 1984 for having "lived and witnessed to their faith in a heroic manner."

The Knights also donated more than $1 million to rebuild communities devastated by natural disaster, such as Lahaina, Hawaii, which was ravaged by wildfire in August 2023, Kelly said.

He stressed that the Knights remain committed to upholding the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, countering abortion and assisted suicide while "fighting what (St.) John Paul II described as a culture of death, and what Pope Francis has called a throwaway culture."

Kelly cited the Knights' extensive pregnancy and post-natal support efforts, along with its advocacy against assisted suicide.

"Ultimately, this battle is spiritual," he said.

For that reason, the Knights are focusing on spiritual formation through their Cor (Latin for "heart") program, since "we know that to change the world, we must first be changed ourselves," said Kelly. "As Catholic men, we need to have a living faith."

The National Eucharistic Revival in the U.S., which recently drew more than 50,000 pilgrims to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, intensified the Knights' awareness that "God is actively renewing his church," said Kelly.

"This is our call, to be Knights of the Eucharist, to serve Our Lord in all we do," he said. "We answered that call in new and renewed ways over the last year. And as we look to the year ahead, we do so with great confidence and joy."

- - - Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.