A recent documentary highlights the Order’s role in the development of religious liberty in the United States
The Knights of Columbus and Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly are featured in a new documentary that chronicles the inspiring, often contentious and sometimes violent evolution of religious liberty in the United States.
Free Exercise: America’s Story of Religious Liberty, directed by John Paulson, premiered on PBS stations around the U.S. last fall and is now available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, the Google Play Store and Vimeo on Demand.
In addition to Supreme Knight Kelly, the documentary features more than 40 experts, historians, professors and religious leaders, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York; John Garvey, former president of The Catholic University of America; Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; and Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
Free Exercise explores the development of religious freedom primarily through the eyes of six American faith communities — Quakers, Baptists, Black Protestants, Catholics, Mormons and Jews — before widening its focus and turning to the 20th century and more contemporary challenges.
“This film presents a history of the greatest experiment in religious liberty the world has ever known,” said Thomas Lehrman, the film’s executive producer. “Among the blessings of liberty endowed by our Creator and secured by our Constitution, none surpass the free exercise of religion.”
He continued, “As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation [in 2026], let us recall that America remains a shining city upon a hill and the hope of our posterity, because our Constitution guarantees each of us the free exercise of religion — peaceably to assemble, worship, educate, work and serve, according to the dictates of conscience and religious obligations.”
The film examines in detail how Catholic immigrants were often discriminated against in the 19th century, leading to riots in Philadelphia. It further looks at how the Knights of Columbus fought back against the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century, leading an effort to permit Catholic education in Oregon by financially supporting the Supreme Court case Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which remains a cornerstone of legal arguments for educational and religious freedom in the U.S. to this day.
“The network of Catholic schools across America was so important because it gave Catholic parents a way to educate their children in accord with their faith,” Supreme Knight Kelly explains in the film. “When the Knights heard the plea for help coming from the Society of Sisters, they donated $25,000, a great deal of money at the time, to challenge the law in court.”
Free Exercise also looks at more contemporary challenges, as the American people continue to grapple with the fundamental question: What does our Constitution’s commitment to the free exercise of religion mean?
“Free exercise is an epochal principle,” said historian and columnist Richard Brookhiser, who hosts the film. “But even the greatest principles are not self-enacting, they need to be understood and upheld in every generation.”
The film has been screened at prestigious locations around the country, including Notre Dame University, Princeton University, the Museum of the Bible and the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C.
Past panel discussions and more information about the film can be found at freeexercisemovie.com.