<P> John Paul traveled to the Dominican Republic and Mexico in 1978 and Dechant was invited to attend and welcome the Pope to the Americas . During the pope's 1979 visit to the United States, the Supreme Officers and Board were the only lay organization to receive an audience . </P> <P> In 1997, the cause for McGivney's canonization was opened in the Archdiocese of Hartford . It was placed before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 2000 . The Father Michael J. McGivney Guild was formed in 1997 to promote his cause, and it currently has more than 140,000 members . Membership in the Knights of Columbus does not automatically make one a member of the guild, nor is membership restricted to Knights; members must elect to join . On March 15, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI approved a decree recognizing McGivney's "heroic virtue," significantly advancing the priest's process toward sainthood . McGivney may now be referred to as the "Venerable Servant of God ." If the cause is successful, he would be the first priest born in the United States to be canonized as a saint . </P> <P> The order is dedicated to the principles of charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism . A First Degree exemplification ceremony, by which a man joins the order, explicates the virtue of charity . He is said to be a First - Degree Knight of Columbus; after participating in the subsequent degrees, each of which focuses on another virtue, he rises to that status . Upon reaching the Third Degree, a gentleman is a full member . Priests do not participate directly in Degree exemplifications as laymen do, but rather take the degree by observation . </P> <P> The first ritual handbook, printed in 1885, contained only sections teaching unity and charity . Supreme Knight Mullen, along with primary ritual author Daniel Colwell, believed that the initiation ceremony should be held in three sections "in accord with the' Trinity of Virtues, Charity, Unity, and Brotherly love ."' The third section, expounding fraternity, was officially adopted in 1891 . </P>

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