In each autumn since 1966, the Supreme Council has hosted a College Council Conference at their headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut. The first convention was held at Boston College. As of 2018, there are more than 300 college councils. As the Order and its charitable works grew, so did its prominence within the Church. The Supreme Board of Directors was invited to hold their April meeting at the Vatican in 1978, and the Board and their wives were received by Pope Paul VI. Pope John Paul I's first audience with a layman was with Supreme Knight Dechant, and Pope John Paul II met with Dechant three days after his installation. Pope John Paul II traveled to the Dominican Republic and Mexico in 1978, and Dechant was invited to attend and welcome the Pope to the Americas. It was also while there that Dechant was invited to establish the Order in the Dominican Republic. During the pope's 1979 visit to the United States, the Supreme Officers and Board were the only lay organization to receive an audience. In 1997, the cause for McGivney's canonization was opened in the Archdiocese of Hartford. It was placed before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 2000. The Father Michael J. McGivney Guild was formed in 1997 to promote his cause, and it currently has more than 140,000 members. Membership in the Knights of Columbus does not automatically make one a member of the guild, nor is membership restricted to Knights; members must elect to join. On March 15, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI approved a decree recognizing McGivney's "heroic virtue", significantly advancing the priest's process toward sainthood. McGivney may now be referred to as the "Venerable Servant of God". If the cause is successful, he would be the first priest born in the United States to be canonized as a saint. The Knights of Columbus were among the groups that welcomed Pope Benedict XVI on the South Lawn of the White House on April 16, 2008, the pontiff's 81st birthday, during his visit to the U.S. In March 2016 the Knights of Columbus delivered to Secretary of State John Kerry a 280-page report entitled "Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East", which led to the State Department's declaration that "ISIS's systematic massacre of Christians in the Middle East had reached genocidal proportions." A new Military Overseas Europe Special District for the Fourth Degree was established in 2013. More than a hundred Department of Defense civilian employees and active duty personnel based in Germany, Italy, and Britain took part in a special Fourth Degree Exemplification Ceremony at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany in 2013.