Knights Greet Cathedral Guests with Parking and Hospitality

Story and Photos by Shelley Wolf

Parking isn’t easy to find in Hartford, especially for big events. However, on the day of Coadjutor Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne’s Welcome Mass in October, the driver of his bus, which was filled with out-of-state guests, had no problem finding parking directly in front of the Cathedral of St. Joseph.

Volunteer parking attendants from the Knights of Columbus were there in bright yellow vests, flagging buses to the curb. They greeted Archbishop Coyne as he stepped off the bus, welcoming him to the Cathedral.

“People like seeing a whole line of Knights up and down Asylum and Farmington Avenue, waving them into lots, directing them,” says Mike McGarry, Grand Knight of the Cathedral council, who helped form the volunteer parking team.

“Some of them are coming from pretty far away,” says Bob Colangelo, the parking coordinator, who succeeded McGarry as the parking team’s leader.

Thanks to the Knights of Columbus, parking at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Hartford, runs like the mechanisms of a Swiss clock.

For the third year in a row, the Cathedral Knights, along with the Knights’ Connecticut State Council and Knights from local councils, have taken turns volunteering on weekends for major liturgies and events.

Events included the Welcome Mass, the St. Joseph Medal of Appreciation ceremony and the confirmations that have taken place for nearly 3,500 young people a year, drawing Catholic families from around the archdiocese.

Coadjutor Archbishop Coyne’s Welcome Mass attracted people from out of state, Colangelo notes, and parishioners from all corners of Connecticut. “So we wanted to make it a nice experience for them,” Colangelo says.

Since half of visitors have never been to the Cathedral before, the Knights assist out-of-town guests by directing them to various parking lots, to the convenient drop-off area behind the Cathedral with its handicapped entrance, and to the elevator, water fountains and restrooms.

“Some people are afraid of the city, so we spread our guys around,” McGarry says.

The Knights have proven invaluable for the confirmations that can fill the Cathedral, which seats about 2,000 people. Some events result in 800 cars, but there are only 180 parking spaces in the Cathedral parking lot. Sometimes there are multiple events in a single weekend. So the Knights get creative.

A week before each major event, Colangelo contacts the owners of nearby parking lots – at Protestant churches, a funeral home, a bank, a nonprofit, an insurance company – and asks for permission to use their lots.

To recruit additional parking attendants, Matt McGrath, the Knights’ former state deputy, contacts local Knights at various parishes in the archdiocese that are sending confirmation candidates and asks them to send a few men.

“They’re usually willing to send two or three Knights,” Colangelo says. The Knights try to have at least 10 men at each event.

On the day of a big event, the Knights arrive two hours early with their walkie-talkies and signage and, as the cars arrive, they begin communicating with one another to fill up lots. And they volunteer in all kinds of weather.

“We’ve had snowstorms, blistering heat and pouring rain,” McGarry says. “If it rains, we bring umbrellas. If it’s hot, we wear cool clothes. There are a lot of small details, but we don’t lose our cool. We have people in wheelchairs. We had to call an ambulance once.”

On Dec. 7, Archbishop Leonard P. Blair will be joining the Knights at their end-of-season gathering in Hartford to thank them for their extraordinary service to the Cathedral as well as for their successful Coats for Kids drive.