The fame of the Knights of Columbus through their "Everybody Welcome - Everything Free" clubs or centers and their athletic contests during World War I brought about their first presence in Italy and in the Vatican.

His Holiness Benedict XV receives the Knights of Columbus delegation in 1920

After World War I, on August 28, 1920, a delegation of 235 Knights of Columbus headed by Supreme Knight James Flaherty was received in Private Audience in the Consistory Hall by His Holiness Benedict XV. The Holy Father welcomed the Knights with sentiments of "sweet comfort and good hope". He praised them for their support of the Catholic University of America; their assistance to the Bishops; their charitable work during the war; and, finally, urged the Knights to expand their work to Rome.
In response to the request made during the Audience, the Knights of Columbus decided to open playgrounds without charge for the benefit of the youth of Rome.
After the Italian Welfare Fund was established in 1922, former Supreme Knight Edward L. Hearn came to Rome in late April to establish a Knights of Columbus Rome office at Via delle Muratte, 25. Besides serving as headquarters for the welfare activities, the office would offer reception facilities and guides for English-speaking pilgrims visiting Rome.
Between 1922 and 1927, during Supreme Knight Flaherty’s term of office, the Knights of Columbus opened five athletic centers in Rome under the careful guidance of architect and engineer, later Count, Enrico Pietro Galeazzi, who also assisted in the complex legal negotiations for the purchase or lease and operations of the playgrounds.
Count Galeazzi designed each athletic center in harmony with the natural environment and the architectural style of the neighborhood within which it was located, giving each a unique character. Every facility had a clubhouse with shower, gymnastic facilities and soccer fields. Some had basketball, volleyball and tennis courts as well. Qualified Italian instructors led the children in their games. Senior citizens were also welcome to use the bocce courts.
In 1922, Pope Benedict XV was succeeded by Pius XI, who "expressed enthusiastic approval of the proposed work". He donated the original St. Peter’s Oratory site within the shadows of the Vatican. He said, "I can see for myself from my study window what progress they are making here in the heart of Rome." He also stated that the presence of the Knights of Columbus was "very fitting . . . for it is no less important than any other kind of relief work."
In 1923, St. Peter’s Oratory, named by Pius XI himself, was the first facility to begin its activities. It was constructed on an historical site, the center of the Circus of Nero and, therefore, the place where many early Christians suffered martyrdom for the faith.

Architect Enrico P.Galeazzi explains on-site to
Past Supreme Knight Edward L. Hearn, Msgr.
Borgongini-Duca and Caccia Dominioni

Entrance to St. Peter’s Oratory

To make room for the new structure, some buildings dating back to the time of Pope Innocent VIII were demolished, among which was a foundry that had been in use for centuries. The coat of arms of Pope Innocent VIII, who was reigning when Christopher Columbus discovered America, was found and preserved. This relic was saved to be used later as an adornment. Also found there was the wooden model of the world-renowned statue of St. Peter venerated in St. Peter’s Basilica. The refurbished statue is displayed today in the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven.
Among the buildings saved was the Church of San Salvatore in Ossibus, dating back to the Middle Ages, 750 A.D. The church - an historical and artistic monument - was completely restored by the Knights of Columbus and used as the chapel for the boys’ wing.
The new Oratory consisted of a two-story building, 600 feet in length, with one wing for girls, the other for boys. Each of the wings had its own chapel and its own facilities for outdoor activities. In the center of the building, a 1,000-seat theater was established; the girls were seated in the balcony and the boys on the parterre.
A separate building was erected for the gymnasium, supplied with modern sports and exercise equipment, to be used alternately by the boys and girls. Soon after, the Knights of Columbus purchased two adjoining areas in order to enlarge the girls’ section of the Oratory. These areas included small, old houses and two narrow streets. After demolishing the houses, the Knights erected a new building for the girls of the Oratory.
The Oratory was dedicated on April 9, 1924. It should have been dedicated and blessed by His Holiness Pius XI, who at the last minute was unable to attend due to diplomatic conditions. Ever since the Italian government assumed control of Rome in 1870, every Pope protested the loss of Papal sovereignty by proclaiming himself a prisoner within the walls of the Vatican. A small portion of the Oratory fell on Italian territory and, therefore, the Holy Father’s presence would have been considered as though he had stepped out of the Vatican onto the Italian State.
Pope Pius XI ordered a special medal to be designed and coined as a tribute to commemorate the establishment of the Oratory. Its Latin inscription is translated: "The Knights of Columbus at their own expense, founded this Oratory of St. Peter so that they may fulfill the wishes of Pius XI, PM., for the Christian instruction of Roman youth."
The Pius XI Playground, one of the largest and most beautiful in Rome, boasting 18 acres on the Gelsomino Hill, located between the Janiculum and the Vatican, the highest in the Eternal City with a spectacular view of the Holy See and the city, was dedicated and blessed by His Eminence Cardinal Gasparri, Secretary of State, in May 1926.

Without machines or trucks, workers used hand tools to level the Playground’s terrain

Forty years later, this playground was chosen to become the new location for St. Peter’s Oratory. In another expression of loyalty to the Holy See, the Knights of Columbus donated the original St. Peter’s Oratory location to allow for the construction of a new and much larger Audience Hall in 1965. This fulfilled the desire of Pope Paul VI for a new facility to receive the ever-increasing numbers of pilgrims.
Nevertheless, the Holy Father wanted the Oratory’s activities to continue. Therefore, the Oratory was rebuilt, under the care of the Holy See, on the premises of the Knights of Columbus Gelsomino Hill Playgroun.

Interior view of San Salvatore
in Ossibus

On June 29, 1968, the New St. Peter’s Oratory was inaugurated and blessed by His Holiness Pope Paul VI.
All that remains of the original St. Peter’s Oratory is the Church of San Salvatore in Ossibus where the emblem of the Knights of Columbus was placed in two of the stained-glass windows - the only non-ecclesiastical coat-of-arms displayed within Vatican City State.
The Benedict XV Playground, dedicated to the Pope who had first requested the playground project, was inaugurated and blessed in 1926 by His Eminence Cardinal Vannutelli, Dean of the Sacred College in one of the most densely populated districts of Rome - San Lorenzo. During World War II, the area was heavily bombed by the Allied Forces. The Knights of Columbus clubhouse was damaged, ironically, by a bomb and, now, fragments of the bomb are on display in the Order’s museum in New Haven.
During its first year of activity, the Benedict XV facility set an attendance record in excess of 100,000. It has been considered one of the most useful of its kind in one of the neediest neighborhoods of Rome. According to municipal authorities, the San Lorenzo playground has both directly and indirectly improved the conditions of the district.
In 1927, the Tiber River "Polverini" Playground began operations on government-owned land on the banks of the Tiber. It is the only playground which was not developed on Knights of Columbus property. The charitable work of the Knights of Columbus was already well known to the Italian Government; therefore, the Order was able to secure an agreement to lease the site. His Eminence Cardinal Pompilj, Vicar of Rome, dedicated and blessed this playground in May 1927.
In 1934, the Tiber River Playground was relocated upstream, near the Duca D’Aosta Bridge. It was dedicated and blessed by His Eminence Cardinal Eugene Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII), Secretary of State. On October 24, 1944, it was renamed "Pastor Angelicus" in honor of Pope Pius XI. Historically, this playground was very popular for its swimming and rowing facilities.
The Valle Giulia Playground was, also, officially blessed by His Eminence Cardinal Pompilj, Vicar of Rome, in May 1927. Situated in the vicinity of the largest and most famous park in Rome, Villa Borghese, its convenient location enables it to serve a large number of educational and religious institutions.
To mark the 25th anniversary in 1942 of Pope Pius XII’s episcopacy, the Catholics of the World wished to offer him a new parish church in honor of the Pope’s name saint, San Eugenio. The Knights of Columbus offered a section of the Valle Giulia playground upon which the church was to be built. Count Galeazzi was entrusted with the project. In gratitude for the church, Pope Pius XII granted San Eugenio church the title of Basilica.
In 1996, to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the birth of Count Galeazzi, called home to God on September 25, 1986, the Valle Giulia Playground was renamed in his honor. His lifetime dedication and loyalty to the Knights of Columbus, first as architect, later as representative of the Order in Rome for 66 years, and also as its liason with the Holy See was recognized with gratitude.

Count Galeazzi, right, escorts from the
left, Supreme Advocate Luke E. Hart,
Supreme Chaplain Msgr. Leo M. Finn,
and Supreme Knight John E. Swift
on a visit to San Eugenio

During the Holy Year 1950, after a Special Audience with Pope Pius XII, Supreme Knight John E. Swift instituted a fund for the purchase and construction of the last playground in Rome. The district of Primavalle, a newly populated area, was chosen for the site. This playground was named Pius XII in honor of Pope Eugenio Pacelli and dedicated and blessed by His Eminence Cardinal Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York, on June 7, 1952.
As was the case with the earlier athletic facilities, the realization of the Primavalle Playground was entrusted to Count Enrico Galeazzi. At that time he was completing another noteworthy project, the Pontifical North American College. In 1947, construction of the College had begun in collaboration with the Archdiocese of New York. In 1982, the Order established the Count Enrico Galeazzi Fund for the Pontifical North American College for the benefit of the college and its students in perpetuity.
Throughout the last 80 years, the Order’s playgrounds have operated steadily, if not always smoothly due to historical events. At one point, they were closed down by the Italian government. Through diplomatic negotiations between the Vatican, Italian government and the Knights of Columbus representative in Rome, Count Galeazzi, a solution was found.

The North American College, Rome, designed by Count
Enrico P. Galeazzi

These facilities have served and continue to serve parochial and school institutions, institutes for the disabled, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, needy children, the Vatican employees and seminarians. Today, numerous institutes use these centers for their sports activities, among these: ANAFIM, institute for the disabled; the local Aziende Sanitarie and Apostolato della Preghiera, institutes for persons with mental illness; San Giuseppe Cottolengo, a rehabilitation hospital; Opera S. Pio X for needy children; San Alfonso and Agostiniani Scalzi, seminarians; students of the Pontifical Lateran University; and Vatican City State employees.
The contribution of the Knights of Columbus to the Holy See also extends to the area of communications. In 1966, the Order donated a new short-wave transmitter to the Vatican radio station. Supreme Knight John McDevitt attended the ceremony. In 1975, under Virgil C. Dechant’s administration, the Knights of Columbus agreed to pay the cost for every "uplink" signal for major worldwide satellite telecasts from the Vatican.
Shortly after the Satellite Uplink program, the Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library, a collection of extant movie-film footage of the Popes, was established. This led to the subsidizing of a mobile television production studio van and trailer for the Vatican Television (CTV).
Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechant also expanded the Order’s activities to Vatican projects. In 1981, the Knights of Columbus aided in the funding for an international colloquium held in Rome - The Common Christian Roots of the European Nations, co-sponsored by the Gregorian University in Rome and the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland.
In the same year the Order funded the construction of a new chapel in the Vatican Grottoes; a chapel dedicated to Saints Benedict, Cyril and Methodius, co-patrons of Europe.
Another project was the enlargement of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
In 1983, the Knights of Columbus established the "Vicarius Christi Fund"; the earnings from this endowment are presented to the Holy Father for his personal charities every year.
Among other activities of the Knights of Columbus in Rome is their frequent assistance for the restoration of many major architectural works and works of art in St. Peter’s Basilica.
One of the major projects was the immense two-year restoration of the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica (an area greater than three football fields). For more than 350 years no restoration work had been done on the facade.
In addition to the facade project, the repair and restoration of the two heroic-sized statues of St. Peter and St. Paul located on the two sides of the entrance to the Basilica were also completed.
During restoration, two ancient rooms were discovered in the upper left side of the Basilica which were subsequently subdivided into the six stanze (rooms to be used for the display of religious and liturgical collections of the Fabbrica di San Pietro).
Another major undertaking was the repair of the roof of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica including the restoration of mosaics damaged by infiltrating water. This was an outstanding example of restoration work in that the chapel had never been repaired and each and every mosaic piece had to be removed to repair the cracked ceiling and, then, placed again in its original position.
Yet another important project was the restoration of the Maderno Atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica and its massive bronze doors for the Holy Year 2000.
Recently, under the neo-administration of Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, the Order has funded restoration in the Vatican Grottoes - two ancient chapels, the Madonna della Bocciata and Madonna delle Partorienti; the Gallery (Peribolo) leading to St. Peter’s Tomb; and the Chapel with Pius XII’s Tomb.
Another contribution was for the reconstruction of the choir at the Monastery of Santa Chiara in Assisi which had been damaged by an earthquake in 1997.
In January 2004, the Knights of Columbus sponsored the "Concert for Reconciliation" between faiths - Christian, Jewish and Muslim - which was held in the Vatican in the presence of the Holy Father John Paul II.
More than eighty years have passed since the Knights of Columbus began activities at St. Peter’s Oratory. Since that time, the commitment of the Knights of Columbus to the Successor of Peter and to the Holy See has grown stronger. What began with a verbal promise has grown to a large variety of projects as the pastoral concern and mission of evangelization of the Church have evolved. However, one thing has remained ever constant - the steadfast devotion of the Knights of Columbus to be of service.