Controversy in

Catholic-Chivalric Organizations
Charlie J. Brusco
Ethics In Business
Monday

March 30, 2020

Professor Morillo
Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

Chivalry, deriving from the French word for horse, cheval, at one point related to the

culture of knights, the mounted warriors of medieval Europe (D’Assemani, 1944, p. 249). While

the age of shining armor, jousting, and other cliché depictions of knights have been labeled

anachronistic for centuries, the concept and existence of chivalry, while unnoticed, is quite alive.

The nostalgic image of a medieval knight has been replicated in popular entertainment, such as

Game of Thrones and the New York Renaissance Fair, but there are actual orders of chivalry, or

charitable organizations who style themselves as knights, which exist for the purpose of granting

titular recognition, charitable contribution, or both. It should be noted, a knight, by definition, is

anybody who awarded a membership into an order of chivalry by an official head of state in for

service to a nation or royal family, or if it is a religious head of state like the pope, to the church

(Almarez, 1999,p. 202). Again, knighthood no longer explicitly implies military service as it had

in the Middle Ages. Today, most titles of knighthood, whether legitimate or not, can be awarded

for a yearly fee. The ethics surrounding funds towards honorific titles and the inflation of

statistics and social status of participating in knightly pursuits has erupted tremendous

controversy in recent decades. Such controversy stems from both the Knights of Columbus

(KoC), a fraternal charity non-profit organization—they are not to be confused with an order of

chivalry—and the Sacred Constantinian Military Order of Saint George (COSG), a dynastic

order of chivalry awarded by the disputing pretender princes of the Royal House of Bourbon,

who have been questioned and even doubted of the legitimacy of their respective royal and

financial endeavors. In contrast to organizations with ambiguous claims to their history, and or

suspicions in their financial transparency, there exists one order which is historically confirmed

as the oldest surviving orders of knighthood, officially recognized by the Holy See (which is

considered an active royal sovereign), and engages frequently in transparent charitable works.

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Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

Such are none other than the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (OESSH)

OESSH, which enjoys the pope as their sovereign, and exists for the purpose of preserving the

Christian presence in the Near East, especially the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic

diocese which includes Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus. The three aforementioned orders,

regarding the non-royal and non-profit KoC’s claims of engaged charitable service,

COSG’s evidence of disputed royal affiliation with scarce reports of charitable

contribution, and the papally active and recognized OESSH, can all be ethically diagnosed

through comparing teleological utilitarianism and deontological Kantian theory, to analyze

their morality and credibility in social status and activism for anybody discerning

contributing to them. To add, the three organizations to be mainly mentioned in this paper

require their members to be a practicing members of the Catholic Church, in other words, show

proof of baptism, first communion, confirmation and, if necessary, a valid Catholic marriage.

Nomination for membership is also requested by all of the orders mentioned except for the KoC,

which allows admission by application. Of course, there are hundreds of national, religious,

secular, or unrecognized fraternal and chivalric orders which do not demand its members to be

Catholic, especially referring to thos recognized by the British Honors System like the Order of

the British Empire, and unrecognized self-styled orders like Freemasons, which will be excluded

from this study. I have acquired information regarding dubious affairs I noticed in these Catholic

organizations which claim to be knights, either in charitable practice (KoC) or name (COSG).

The Knights of Columbus, while they do not identify as an order of chivalry, declare to

be the largest lay Catholic organization in the world. Filed as a non-profit organization, they also

claim to have donated $1.55 billion to charitable causes in the past decade, including the Special

Olympics and Coats for Kids (KoC FAQ, 2015). Recently, in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic,

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Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

the KoC has declared to fund over “$100 million short-term financing fund for the dioceses”

(Bell, ThinkAdvisor, 2020). The KoC, with less than two million members, are apparently able

to provide such largesse by operating both a life insurance agency, which surpassed $100 billion

in the life insurance force, and an investment advisory service which claims to have managed

$22 billion in assets (KoC, Born Beneath Altar, 2015). Unfortunately, the KoC do not

transparently display updated statistics past the 2017 fiscal year, which can raise questioning into

their charitable works. The most probable reason why the KoC have not publicized their

statistics is because of a massive lawsuit inflicted by List Interactive, a Colorado-based tech

agency, lasting from 2017 to 2019:

“Experts testifying in a fraud lawsuit against the Knights of Columbus allege the group is

inflating its membership. The testimony comes in a federal civil lawsuit filed in Denver

by a computer company that had hoped to become the Catholic group's designated

provider of online services. It alleges that the group makes it hard or impossible for its

10,000-plus local councils to remove inactive members. An analysis by the plaintiffs

showed the Knights' own internal records demonstrate it overstates membership by

28%.” (Riccardi, Knights Inflate Membership, 2019)

The lawsuit verdict was for the KoC to pay a $500,000 to List Interactive, even though the

organization was sued for over $100 million in damages (Hoffman, KoC must pay $500,000 in

contract dispute, 2019). In addition to this scandal, according to th KoC’s Form 990 for the 2017

fiscal year, reports Carl A. Anderson, the President of the KoC, receiving a compensation of

$1,476,961; along with eight other trustees, including Archbishop William Lori, were reported to

receive a six-figure salary ranging from $125,000 to $857,000 (Getson, Form 990, 2017). Such

leaders are recognized with respect as the “Supreme District” by the members who pride

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Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

themselves to be in a religious order of men, when in reality they are more likened to an

executive board of a business. The KoC, while reluctantly, do not claim to be chivalric in nature,

and make a variety of contributions, contradict their proclaimed charitable non-profit

organization with their absent transparency in their finances.

The Sacred Constantinian Military Order of Saint George is a dynastic and honorific

order of knighthood awarded by the Royal House of Bourbon of Two Sicilies; while there are

numerous members who make philanthropic contributions on their own accord, the order does

not identify as a non-profit, and have no established charitable purpose outside the “propagation

of the Christian faith and the glorification of the Holy Cross”, whatever that means (Ulrich,

Legal Opinion, 2018). The Order’s Grandmaster is not specifically one prince, but rather three

Princes of House Bourbon of Two-Sicilies who continue to quarrel over who the rightful head of

the Order, Prince Carlo, the Duke of Castro, Prince Pedro, the Duke of Calabria, and Prince

Carlos Hugos, the Duke of Parma; it should be understood the duchy-titles refer to entirely

ceremonial names, and they do not have any active sovereignty since the late 19th century

(Ulrich, Legal Opinion, 2018). Because COSG identifies as a dynastic institution, the knights of

COSG are allowed to decide for themselves who they believe the heir is (Ulrich, Legal Opinion,

2018). It is not uncommon to see members who have membership in other orders, such as the

Order of Lazarus given by House Savoy, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and other

knighthoods, for whatever reason. The COSG is divided into several delegations, one of them

being the Royal Delegation of the United States of America. Not unlike the KoC, the U.S.

Delegation of the COSG report scarce and outdated statistics from 2015, themselves displaying a

one page list of activities, which mostly relate to attendance of certain masses and galas; few, if

any, acts of charity or fundraising exist in the report (Menna, 2015 report, 2016). Information

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Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

regarding membership fees is given upon email inquiry; regarding membership into the order,

which can be made at one’s personal discretion, was said to cost several thousand dollars for

admission, with a yearly fee of the same price range. COSG claims to have rebuked and received

apologies from certain news agencies who made “false accusations” against the Order, claiming

their title of knighthoods were being purchased (Legal Notices, 2016). To blend the

aforementioned absurd information, (Donald M. Nicol) provides evidence about the intentions

of the COSG’s members:

“The Constantinian Order of St George was believed by its members to have been

founded as the first [knighthood] of its kind by Constantine the Great in 312. Its history,

conceived, born and nurtured entirely in the realm of fantasy, has given employment to

countless forgers and title-seekers from the seventeenth century to the present day.”

(Nicol, Immortal Emperor, p. 120)

After researching COSG, with whatever information is available, it is not difficult to accuse the

heads of this chivalric order of reaping funds from naïve and insecure members, who are titled as

“royal delegates” for House Bourbon of Two-Sicilies, even though outside of financial dues,

they see to no other obligations. The value of membership relies on the individual knights

opinion and agreement of the destination of their financial contribution, the legitimacy of the

history and claiming princes, and the credibility of any honorific status given by the Order

(Ulrich, Legal Opinion, 2018).

In response to the dubious, and often scarce, information presented by both the KoC and

the COSG, one would naturally question the ethical principles of such organizations, mainly

through the perspective of consequentialism, a sub-theory of classical utilitarianism (Boatright,

p.52), and Immanuel Kant’s universality principle (Boatright, p. 56). Consequentialism measures

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Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

the results of actions to decide if the output of an action either positively or poorly effects the

majority (Boatright, p. 53). The activity of most members typically relies in their parish

community, and to donate to charitable functions and projects they deem fit. Any lawsuit against

the directors of the organization, while it may poorly scandalize the Supreme District and

membership, will have little effect on any individuals status or inclination of charitable duties.

As for COSG, the knights of the Order, out of complete naivety, seek membership to elevate

their status to a royal delegation with no incumbent sovereign power, so the members who

articulate those titles, even if they are not recognized by legal address like in the United

Kingdom, is purchased by members, patronizing the heads of the order. Kant’s universality

principle employs rules “that ought to be followed without regard for consequences” (Boatright,

p.56). Whether or not the slanders of both the KoC and COSG are correct, it may behoove

members, or people considering membership, of such organizations to scrutinize their leaders for

discrepancies in their leadership. In spite of the business-functioning KoC who inflate numbers,

and the royalty-disputing COSG who inflate the importance of their membership, the Equestrian

Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (OESSH) provides a straightforward, unblemished,

and necessary purpose; OESSH also enjoys a rare status of papal recognition and sovereignty

over their organization (Holy See Statement, 2012). Cardinal Fernando Filloni, the current

Grandmaster of the papal order, provides an excellent statement to summarize their works:

“I think the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem develops two dimensions, which

remain largely unknown even to the media …the first is related to the Christians who live

there; in this sense, the donations of the Members of the Order go to support poor

families, primary and secondary schools, Bethlehem University, health care institutions,

and today refugees. The second is to encourage pilgrims from all over the world to visit

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the most sacred places on pilgrimage … In short, to speak of "honorific order" is

misleading.” -Cardinal Fernando Filloni (Vayne, To speak of Honorific, 2020)

OESSH exists for the purpose of preserving and supporting Christianity in the Holy Land. The

Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem credits OESSH for providing them nearly 90% of their funds per

year (Vayne, 2019). On OESSH’s website, a the main news outlet for the order, provided by the

patronage of the Vatican, is updated frequently. Per year, OESSH provides about $15 million

dollars in funds towards the Latin Patriarchate (Vayne, 2018); while it is ten times less than the

KoC’s proclaimed funds, it is purely generated from donation, and is available for members to

see upon immediate request. Because the Order’s members have a valid knighthood from an

incumbent sovereign, and engage in active financial and, by individual decision, committee

duties to support Palestinian Christians—as well as non-Christians, because most students at the

schools they endow are enrolled by Palestinian Muslims—scandals for the organization are not

only hard to trace, but are virtually non-existent. The ethical theories of both utilitarian

consequentialism and Kantian universality are satisfied. The members are required to pay a fee

of about $1000 per year which directly supports projects in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem,

especially the building of schools and renovation of holy places, the Palestinians are given

support in their swiftly declining territories of the West Bank; members meanwhile appreciates

the fruits of their charitable efforts while also enjoying spiritual privileges from the Church, such

as plenary indulgences and a yearly mass celebrated for each individual member (Constitution,

1978). The results of OESSH’s activities fulfill the requirements of consequential utilitarianism.

The frequently recognized legitimacy, credibility, and surveillance of the Order’s activities can

also satisfy the Universality rule on an organizational basis.

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Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

The KoC, COSG, and OESSH satisfy individual aspirations. The KoC, being for local

parish and community service, the COSG, for royal delegation of a exiled noble family, while

surviving their status as a Catholic order, and the OESSH, for the preservation and support of

Christian families, schools, and shrines in the Middle-East. Information about the activity of

KoC and COSG have scarce evidence to support the validity and potentially the morality of their

supposed efforts. The OESSH, under the scrutiny and attention they receive for a controversial

stance to protect the smallest minority within the Middle-East (Oborne, 2019), in comparison to

the aforementioned orders, can prove not only the soundness in the information they present, but

also in the moral intentions they presume as well.

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Controversy in Catholic-Chivalric Organizations

BIBLIOGRPAHY

GENERAL
 Almarez, Felix D. (1999). Knight Without Armor: Carlos Eduardo Castañeda,
Texas A&M University Press.
 Boatright, J. R., Smith, J. D., & Patra, B. P. (2018). Ethics and the conduct of
business. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India: Pearson India Education Services Pvt. Ltd.
 Holy See Statement on Recognition of Chivalric Orders. (2012, October 16).
Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/note-of-clarification-2583
 Oborne, P. (2019, December 24). 'The last generation': How occupation is driving
Christians out of Palestine. Retrieved from https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-
story/last-generation-occupation-palestinian-christians

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
 Bell, A. (2020, March 28). Catholic Fraternal to Provide Emergency Financing for
U.S. Dioceses. Retrieved from https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2020/03/28/catholic-
fraternal-to-provide-emergency-financing-for-u-s-dioceses/?
slreturn=20200230145849
 Getson, B. (Ed.). (2017, December). Knights Of Columbus Charities Inc, Form 990 -
Nonprofit Explorer. Retrieved from
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237227608/20180318934930
1215/IRS990
 Hoffman, C. (2019, September 13). Knights of Columbus must pay $500,000 in
contract dispute. Retrieved from https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Knights-of-
Columbus-must-pay-500-000-in-contract-14438512.php
 KoC FAQ. (2015) (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.kofc.org/en/join/faq.html
 KoC Insurance, A FORTUNE 1000 COMPANY BORN BENEATH AN ALTAR.
(2015) (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.kofc.org/en/insurance/our-strength.html
 Riccardi, N. (2019, September 4). Expert: Knights of Columbus Inflates
Membership Numbers. Retrieved from
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2019-09-04/expert-knights-of-columbus-
inflates-membership-numbers

CONSTANTIAN ORDER OF SAINT GEORGE

 Legal Notices. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.constantinian.org.uk/legal-
notices/
 Menna, P. (2016, January 31). 2015 Report. Retrieved from
http://constantinianorderusa.org/2015-report
 Nicol, D. M. G. (1992). The Immortal Emperor: the Life and Legend of Constantine
Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Ulrich, R. A. (2018, December 23). Legal opinion: the legitimacy of the
Constantinian Orders. Retrieved from
https://freiherrvonquast.wordpress.com/tag/sacred-military-constantinian-order-of-
saint-george/

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EQUESTRIAN ORDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE

 Constitution of the Equestrian Order. (1978). Retrieved from
http://www.sleohs.com/publications/constitution.pdf
 D'Assemani, A. (1944). The Cross on the Sword: a History of the Equestrian Order
of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. [Chicago: Lithographed by Photopress, inc.].
 Vayne, F. (2020, February 7). "To speak of an 'Honorific Order' is misleading".
Retrieved from http://www.oessh.va/content/ordineequestresantosepolcro/en/gran-
magistero/il-gran-maestro/lista-news-gran-maestro/incontro-con-il-cardinale-
fernando-filoni--nuovo-gran-maestro-de.html
 Vayne, F. (2019, May 3). Grand Magisterium Spring meeting takes place in Rome.
Retrieved from https://www.lpj.org/posts/grand-magisterium-spring-meeting-takes-
place-in-rome.html
 Vayne, F. (2018, May 4). Grand Magisterium Spring meeting held in Rome.
Retrieved from https://www.lpj.org/posts/grand-magisterium-spring-meeting-held-
in-rome-5e47366b7412a.html

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