Although he was not the one who initiated the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines, he is regarded as the “Father McGivney of the Philippines” principally because he held firmly the vision and courage of the founder of the Order of the Knights of Columbus.

He was responsible for propagating the Knights of Columbus in the country. When Fr. Willmann was appointed the first District Deputy for the Philippines in 1947, the Knights of Columbus consisted only of Manila Council 1000 with a couple of units in some parts of the country that numbered about 257 members. But most of these, if not all, belong to the elite of Philippine society whose families had their roots in the “ilustrados’ of the Spanish period. When he was given the go signal by Supreme Knight Luke Hart “to expand the Order” in the Pacific” he expanded it throughout the country not only in quantity but especially in quality by encouraging even the poorer ones to join in.

Inspired with the social teachings of the Church, Fr. Willmann made the poor both the justification and objective for organizing the Columbian Farmers’ Aid Association in 1951 and Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association of the Philippines, Inc., (KCFAPI) in 1958. This way he went very close to the ideals of Fr. McGivney who organized the first council in New Haven, Connecticut among the poor immigrant laborers.

Driven by his obsession to help the poor, he caused the change of name and objectives of the Columbian Farmers’ Aid Association (CFAA) to Knights of Columbus Community Services (KCCS) in 1962. This time, the focus was to handle projects intended for the social and economic improvement of both rural and urban communities. The most outstanding work of KCCS was the establishment of community-based Cooperative Credit Unions in many dioceses throughout the country. By around 1964 the cooperative credit unions established by the Knights of Columbus numbered 135.

Fr. George J. Willmann is an American Jesuit Priest from Brooklyn, New York who first came to the Philippines in 1922 to fulfill a teaching stint at the Ateneo de Manila. After completing his studies and being ordained in United States in 1928, he was sent back to Manila (1936) where he spent all his years.

During the war, he led a group of Knights in providing relief and recreation centers in Manila for released prisoners from Japanese concentration camps in Capas, Tarlac. He himself was imprisoned, tortured and had his life threatened many times by the Japanese invaders, but he still carried out his priestly mission to provide solace and assistance to those in need.

Fr. Willmann’s work with the press was noteworthy. With a group of Filipino priests, he published the defunct “Filipinas,” a Tagalog magazine from 1941 to 1958. Together with a group of laymen, he also assumed in 1964 the publication of the financially distressed “Cross,” which became the Knights of Columbus in-house magazine.

While chaplain of Mania Council 1000, he was appointed the first District Deputy for the Philippines in 1947. In 1954, he was made Territorial Deputy for the whole Philippines. This title was changed to Philippine Deputy in 1962.      

In December 1959, then President Carlos P. Garcia conveyed to Fr. Willman a presidential award of recognition for his “devoted service as one of the founders of the Community Chest of Greater Manila and for serving in its board of directors for ten consecutive years from 1949 to 1959.”

He was well recognized for his service to the Church, academe and the society that, in 1975, he was declared a citizen of the Philippines through Presidential Decree No. 740.

  On September 14, 1977, Fr. Willmann died of heart failure and old age at the age of 80. Even after his death, Fr. Willmann inspired and guided the expansion of the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines and the growth of the Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association, Inc. (KCFAPI) and its subsidiaries. Notable among his many accomplishments are the establishment of the following:

• Catholic Youth Organization in the Philippines (1938)
• Catholics Press that published “Filipina” and “Cross” Magazines (1946)
• Columbian Squires in the Philippines (1950)
• Daughters of Isabella in the Philippines (1951) which was later reorganized
• under the name Daughters of Mary Immaculate (DMI)
• Columbian Farmers Aid Association (1951), later reorganized under the name of Knights of Columbus Community Service, Inc. (1962)
• KC Fraternal Association of the Philippines, Inc. (1958)
• Knights of Columbus Philippines Foundation, Inc. (1971)

Fr. Willmann was an embodiment of a favorite theme of the Knights of Columbus—“Faith in Action”. He was a man of prayer and holiness. But he could not just contain his sanctity within the confines and comfort of the sacristy. He went out to people and seek the fruits of the Gospel right in their midst—listening to them, consoling them, binding their wounds, sharing both their joys and sorrows—where he saw the triumph of the cross in the daily crucifixions of his flock.