Tennessee Knights of Columbus State Deputy Fred Laufenberg, a member of Msgr. Philip Thoni Council 16088 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Fairfield Glade, presents to Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding a check for $7,000 from the Knights' annual Bishop's Burse collection. The Knights collect money each year to donate to each of the bishops in Tennessee to use as they wish. Bishop Spalding announced he would donate the funds to the Bishop's Annual Appeal for Ministries, which helps fund a variety of ministries in the diocese. The check was presented on Wednesday, Aug. 4, after Mass at the Cathedral of the Incarnation. State officers and delegates from Tennessee were in Nashville to watch the Knights' Supreme Convention, which was livestreamed this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They watched the convention from the Frasatti House next to the Cathedral. The 2022 Supreme Convention, which is expected to draw 3,000 to 4,000 people, will be held in Nashville. Standing beside Bishop Spalding are Father Gervan Menezes, left, the Associate State Chaplain for the Knights and Chaplain of University Catholic in Nashville, and Father BartOkere, the Knights State Chaplain and pastor of St. Henry Church in Rogersville.

Erin Springstead, a school counselor, helps Andrew Knox, a seventh grader locate a class as middle school students begin their first day of school at Pope Prep in Hendersonville, TN on Thursday, 5 August 2021. Pope John Paul II High School opened as a high school for the 2002 academic year but adds grades 6-8 this year as the first grade 6-12 school in the diocese.