TOLERANCE 915some that Catholicism was irreconcilable with American citizenship.
They pointed to the fact that the Vatican had issued encyclicals against
freedom of speech, the press, and religion, and that the pope had pro-
claimed against the separation of church and state. They claimed that
true Catholics subject to papal decree were not free, but were in fact
under the control of a foreign power.
The Knights of Columbus is a fraternal organization (again, some say
a secret society) that was originated by an Irish Catholic priest, Father
Michael J. McGivney, in 1881 in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded
as a temperance society that also embraced the goal of providing insurance
for widows and orphans. At the time, American insurance societies required
secrecy from their members, so the organization devised secret rituals and
rites that blended Catholic symbolism with American patriotism, and named
itself in honor of Christopher Columbus. The Knights of Columbus were in
the forefront of those Catholics referred to as Americanists, who proclaimed
that in their view there was no conflict between Catholic faith and American
freedom. The organization flourished and by the early twentieth century
there were more than 300, 000 members.
During the election year of 1912 there was a resurgence of anti-
Catholicism in America and much of it was directed at the Knights of
Columbus. It was claimed by some, and believed by many Freemasons,
that the Knights of Columbus was a sham organization whose real goal
was to undermine American institutions and that they were secretly acting
on the orders of the pope.
Such was the political and religious climate of the America in which
Napoleon Hill was raised.All the remainder of that day I kept thinking of the incident,
because it bothered me. I had always taken considerable pride in the
thought that I was tolerant with everyone, but here was a spontaneous
outburst of intolerance that proved there was something in my sub-
conscious mind that was creating narrow-mindedness.