A Catholic Face to Our Community

In the year 1882, when Irish Catholic immigrants were an unwelcome minority in the northeastern Unisted States, Fr Michael J McGivney saw first hand the devastating effects on a Catholic family when a husband and father was injured or died on the job.  He formed the Knights of Columbus first and foremost as a mutual aid society to ensure no Catholic family would be left destitute by the loss of their breadwinner.

Today the Knights of Columbus are a worldwide Catholic fraternity dedicated to protecting and strengthening Catholic families, supporting Catholic parishes and dioceses, and promoting the Catholic faith within our secular society.  Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has also cooperated with other Christian communities in those areas where we share common cause such as protecting innocent life, feeding the hungry, and welcoming strangers.

Our own Council here at Ascension Catholic Church is no exception.  Here we work joyfully with those who share our faith in Christ even as they remain separated from us 500 years after the Protestant Reformation began in Western Europe.  These local evangelical Christian partners include the prolife Bastrop Pregnancy Resource Center and Primera Baptist Church with its amazing program of distributing vast amounts of food to needy families in our community.

At the same time, we are aware that our non-Catholic brothers and sisters do not share with us the fullness of our Catholic Faith.  Consequently, even as we work together with our separated brothers and sisters to put our common faith into practice, we maintain our distinctive Catholic witness to our community and the world!

Vivat Jesus!

Introducing Our New Prayer Request App

We now have a great new Prayer Request app on our Council Website!  (See the screenshots below.)  It is there for you to let us know what you would like the Council to pray for.  The Council will offer up your requests on a regular basis, and Espee and I will remember your requests each day in our prayers.  To open the app, just click the "Council Prayer Requests" link on the right-hand side of the screen.

Some of the app's great features:

• Displays the 5 most recent prayer requests by default, the latest ones first. But you can easily display more by changing the number of prayer requests to show and pressing the Go button.
• Shows both a summary and the details of each prayer request, who posted the request (if they identified themselves), and the date.
• You can easily enter a new request and it will immediately appear at the top of the list of requests.
• You can enter as many requests as you like.
• You can choose to identify yourself or remain anonymous.  It is up to you!

I hope you like the new app.  But I would also love to hear your suggestions for improvement!  Just enter them as a comment below.

Vivat Jesus!

New Officers Elected for the 2020 Fraternal Year

On Thursday, May 2, our Council elected thirteen officers to serve for the upcoming Fraternal Year, which begins July 1, 2019 and runs through June 30, 2020. Following the required three calls for nominations from the floor, the Council voted by acclamation to accept the slate of candidates presented by the Nominating Committee.

Office	Nominee
Grand Knight	Lee Fracker*
Deputy Grand Knight	Benny Drozd*
Chancellor	Jeff Kirk
Treasurer	Raymond Tatum*
Recorder	Edward Ruvalcaba
Warden	Paul Vinklarek*
Outside Guard	Robert D’Antonio*
Inside Guard	Gilbert Zamora
Financial Secretary	Karl Arunski**
Advocate	Ronnie Eberts*
3 Year Trustee	Larry Young
2 Year Trustee	Steve Venzon
1 Year Trustee	Gary Young
* Elected to continue in the same office for another year ** Submitted to the K of C Supreme Council for approval

Be sure to congratulate these worthy Knights on their selection to serve our Council for the next Fraternal Year!

Vivat Jesus!

Two Ultrasound Machines Donated for Life!

The Ascension Bastrop Knights of Columbus and the Ascension K of C Ladies Auxillary recently donated two Ultrasound machines to the Bastrop Pregnancy Resource Center to support their prolife mission of counseling pregnant women and supporting them following the birth of their children.

Pictured left-to right in the above photo:

• BPRC Staff: Toni Reese, Judith Purdy, Dana Thornton, Linda Quiroz
• K of C Ladies Auxillary: Mary Beltran, Kathy Kirk, Esperanza Fracker
• K of C Council Members: Jim Jochetz (Recorder), Angel Beltran (Member), Lee Fracker (Grand Knight)

Working with the BPRC, our Council located the two Ultrasound Machines on eBay where a retiring OBGYN physician had advertised them for a remarkably -- dare I say miraculously! -- low price.  Although the Council had voted to purchase the machines from existing funds, two generous members of the Knights and Ladies contributed the total amount needed for purchase and delivery!

Linda Quiroz, the lead BPRC ultrasound technician (standing immediately to the left of the machines), related how one expectant mother began to cry when she saw her baby just seven weeks into her pregnancy and heard its tiny heart beat.  She had been considering whether to have an abortion, but upon seeing her baby resolved to carry her child to term!

Council Recorder Jim Jochetz is pictured in the above photo holding the BPRC's Certificate of Appreciation presented to the Council (enlarged in the photo below) on Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

The Bastrop Pregnancy Resource Center has two offices, one in Bastrop and the other in nearby Elgin, Texas.  Both Ultrasound machines are currently located in the Bastrop office.  One of the machines will be transferred to BPRC's new Smithville location scheduled to open in the near future.