Ask Raymond C. Sands, the new state deputy of the New Jersey Knights of Columbus, his plans for the upcoming fraternal year, and he’ll gladly explain his motto: “Pro Fide et Utilitate Hominum – For the Faith and Benefit of All.”
“I want to help bring like-minded Catholic men into the Knights where we strengthen each other’s faith and go out into the community with our families doing corporal works of mercy through our service programs,” said Sands, a parishioner of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, Northfield, and 30-year member of the Knights of Columbus.
PHOTO GALLERY: Mass and Installation of Knights of Columbus
Sands and five other officers were recognized during a Mass and installation July 15 in Our Lady of Hope Parish’s Saint Agnes Church, Blackwood. Bishop Dennis Sullivan served as principal celebrant and homilist; concelebrants included Father Ernest G. Rush, assistant to the Knights of Columbus state chaplain; Father Joseph T. Szolack, pastor, Our Lady of Hope Parish, and Father Adam Cichoski, rector, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Camden.
In his homily, Bishop Sullivan reminded the Knights that “the one thing that distinguishes the followers of Jesus Christ is not titles, but service – service that helps us to live out our Catholic faith.”
“Our Service Programs across the state span the gamut from defense of human life in all its stages and in every condition, to the family fully alive,” the bishop said. Addressing the new state officers, he added, “May their leadership and service direct, inspire and encourage more blessed things to come through the works of our New Jersey Knights.”
Sands was elected to the state’s highest office at the Knights’ convention in May. Two weeks before the July liturgy, he was formally installed by Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly during a Mass in Saint Mary Church, New Haven, the church where Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney had founded the Knights in 1882.
During the Mass with Bishop Sullivan, Sands bestowed the jewels of the office to his four fellow state officers: James P. Sweeney, state secretary, Diocese of Paterson; Russell D. Petrocelli, state treasurer, Archdiocese of Newark; Scott C. Williams, state advocate, Diocese of Metuchen, and Edward Michalak, state warden, Diocese of Trenton. Bishop Sullivan bestowed the jewel to Father Rush for his new role as assistant to the state chaplain.
“The large majority of these men have already demonstrated their ability to lead,” said Sands, revealing many had earned the Knights’ Star Council and Star District awards for achievement in membership, insurance and programming.
Sands’ fervor for his faith has grown over time; “In my 20s, I was a ‘CAPE’ Catholic [attending Masses solely for Christmas, Ashes, Palms and Easter], but my faith was strengthened later,” he admitted. He has achieved honorary membership in the Knights’ third and fourth degrees.
Sands earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and completed subsequent studies in the fields of electronics, computer hardware, networking and casino table games. He has been employed at the Tropicana Resort Casino, Atlantic City, for some 43 years and currently serves as its surveillance technical manager.
To fulfill the “benefit” portion of his motto, Sands will encourage the expansion of past successful programs by the N.J. Knights, especially their multi-pronged disaster relief outreach. In the past, they have come to aid storm victims in Texas, Kentucky, even the Ukraine; Sands has begun talks with the N.J. State Police to partner and coordinate future efforts, he said.
As for the “faith” side of the ledger, Sands will encourage the celebration of Knights-sponsored Masses during which they will pray to the intercession of two near-saints: their founder, Blessed Michael McGivney, and Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, a Sister of Charity from Bayonne, who is on track to be the first New Jersey-born saint.
Participation in Supreme’s COR program, which promotes evangelization and faith formation for the men of the parish, will also be encouraged.
Sands is especially forthcoming about the Knights’ love of life at all stages, maintaining, “The dominant media would like to make practical Catholic men feel they are the minority – the loner – they have it wrong in life, when in fact that is far from the truth.
“We are two million like-minded Catholic men worldwide.”
Sands is well-aware of the juggling needed to both be a good Knight and a good family man; he and his wife, Barbara, live in Ocean View and have two grown children and four grandchildren. Illustrating that faith runs deep: his son, Michael, and son-in-law, Aaron Johnson, are Knights in the Bluffton, S.C., council.
Without family support, he said, “it doesn’t happen, it’s as simple as that. I always tell my men, ‘The order should be faith, family and fraternity.’”
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