Knights of Columbus East European Dinner and Appreciation Night at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington.

August 09, 2025

Over 140 delegates and family attending the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in Washington DC attended a fun-filled and entertaining dinner and appreciation night honoring the delegates from Eastern Europe. The event was held at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington.

Among attendees were His Grace, Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak; Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, Archbishop of Lviv for the Latins; Archbishop Donald Bolen of Regina, Saskatchewan; Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy, Exarch of Odesa and State Chaplain of the country's Ukrainian Greek Catholic Knights; Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, postulator of the cause of canonization of Saint (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta; Knights of Columbus Supreme Treasurer, Ron Schwarz; and many Knights of Columbus departmental directors; directors and state deputies.

Attendees included the delegates and families from nine Knights of Columbus State Councils including Ukraine, Poland, Florida and Cuba with 30 representatives, Saskatchewan with 12, Oklahoma with 21, as well as delegates from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Washington DC Knights of Columbus.

The evening started with a tour of the upper Shrine church conducted by Holy Family parishioner and Knights of Columbus Washington DC State Council Treasurer, Ryan Mulvey.

The evening included a presentation on the work of the Knights of Columbus Ukraine State Council. Ukraine State Deputy Mykola Mostovyak discussed the humanitarian efforts of the council: delivering over 300,000 food and hygiene care packages made possible by efforts of the Knights Supreme Headquarters, rosaries, over 9,000 coats to orphan children through the Coats for Kids program, over 400 wheelchairs made possible through the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation in cooperation with the Knights, prosthetic devices made possible through the Protez Foundation, and many, many other spiritual, psychological and humanitarian projects. He thanked the brother knights in Poland for their help and support especially with convoys, care packages, soup kitchens, and for support to the relocated Ukrainians in Poland. There are currently about 350 Knights of Columbus serving in the Ukrainian military and sadly, six have paid the ultimate price defending the freedom of Ukraine.

Metropolitan Gudziak addressed the assembled and thanked them for their support for Ukraine during the last three years and asked for their continued support. Archbishop Mokrzycki closed the evening thanking everyone for being present and supporting the Knights in Ukraine and bestowed blessings.

The event was made possible through the efforts of Archpriest Robert Hitchens, administrator of the Holy Family Shrine; parochial vicar, Rev Mykola and Uliana Dziurakh; and a team of Knights of Columbus from St Josaphat Council 7530; the first Ukrainian Greek council in the United States, celebrating its 45^th anniversary this year. Szymon Czyszek, Director of International Growth-Europe for the Knights of Columbus was instrumental in coordinating efforts on the part of the Knights headquarters and the various state delegations.

The East European dinner/appreciation night, in the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, during the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus stems back to 2015 with the first such night held in Philadelphia at the Cathedral Hall under the auspices of Metropolitan Archbishop Stefan Soroka. The second night was held in 2018, with the attendance of His Beatitude, +Sviatoslav Shevcuk, and was hosted at St Michael the Archangel parish in Baltimore, Maryland.