The Knights of Columbus 1882

Conspiracy Encyclopedia. 2005. Chamberlain Bros. various contributing authors: Thom Burnett, Nigel Cawthorne, Richard Emerson, Mick Farren, Alex Games, John Hill, Sandy Gort, Rod Green, Emma Hooley, Esther Selsdon, Kenn Thomas.

Word for word pg. 290
Charitable organization swears bloody oath against enemies.

[I get the impression that Dick Cheney is a leader in this group or something. Maybe it has something to do with ‘Star Wars’, but I really don’t know.]

The encyclopedia says the organization was founded by a Catholic priest in Connecticut in the US in 1882, by Father Michael J McGivney (later spelled as McGinley). Supposedly Catholics were excluded from many unions and fraternal organizations and, McGinley envisioned a society that would provide a support network based on the teachings of the Church. He initiated an ethical insurance scheme, for example, which is still in operation today.

The KOC is usually associated with right-wing policies. In the 1950’s they threw their support behind senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist witch-hunts. It is also anti-abortionist, and against the same-sex marriages. The organization is world renowned for its charitable work, particularly in the fields of disaster relief , and assisting those who have been injured by land mines.

At the turn of the 20^th century, allegations emerged that the KOC were part of a conspiracy to overthrow the Protestant faith. A booklet was circulated purporting to be the secret KOC “Bloody Oath” which included the promise:

“I will… wage relentless war secretly or openly against all heretics, Protestants, and Liberals… I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up their stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants heads against the wall, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race.”

KOC members brought successful libel actions against publishers of the oath, which they claimed was a forgery. Many courts found in their favour after hearing, in secret, the “real” KOC oath. For some theorists, particularly those who belong to Protestant extremist groups, it is “Rome’s Bloody Oath” that remains the genuine article.