Launched in December with modest fanfare, the Church’s observance of 2021 as a year to honor the fatherhood of St. Joseph seems to have dropped largely out of sight. True, a plenary indulgence (under the usual conditions) is available to those who practice a devotion to St. Joseph on Wednesdays during the year, but otherwise not much seems to be happening.
And that’s too bad. For although Jesus’ foster father doesn’t need the attention, a rousing defense of fatherhood just now would come in handy.
Why? Because in the United States, as in many other countries, the role of father is in crisis today. And the resulting upsurge of essentially fatherless children is a social calamity. The apostolic letter Patris Corde—With a Father’s Heart—that Pope Francis issued to mark the start of the year of Joseph is largely devotional, but it does speak, briefly but pointedly, of the fatherhood crisis.
“Fathers are not born, but made,” the Pope wrote. “A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child.” And then this punch line: “Children today often seem orphans, lacking fathers.”
There are of course some genuine orphans. But the orphans of whom the Pope spoke are those comprising the growing number of kids whose fathers, although alive and well, simply aren’t doing the job.
Numbers suggest the dimensions of the problem in the U.S. As of 2019, there were roughly 16 million American children—about one out of every four—without a father in the home. And while that can happen for a number of reasons, by far the largest reason is family breakdown and the huge rise births out of wedlock.
The nation was first alerted to that problem in 1965 when Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant secretary of labor and later a U.S. senator, published The Negro Family: The Case for National Action—better known as the Moynihan Report—examining family breakdown among African Americans. Then the rate of out-of-wedlock births among blacks was 25%. Now it is 70%. And now, too, it has shot up among Hispanics (52%) and whites (over 28%).
Nor are Catholics exempt. Years ago, I was surprised to learn that the parochial school two of my grandsons attended (in a well-to-do suburb) had a support group for kids from single-parent homes. I don’t know how many schools offer that today, but surely the need hasn’t diminished.
The consequences of all this are disastrous not just for individuals but for society. How disastrous is suggested by social critic Mary Eberstadt in a disturbing essay in First Things. Citing social science data, she argues that a deadly triad including loss of faith in God (the Father in heaven), declining patriotism (love for the fatherland), and the rising incidence of missing fathers has created a “crisis of paternity” that threatens the nation.
“Life without father, Father, and filial piety toward country,” she writes, aren’t the socially neutral phenomena liberal conventional wisdom would make them out to be, but are instead “depriving many young people—especially young men—of reasons to live as rational and productive citizens” with results visible in an upsurge of social unrest and violence.
A year honoring the fatherhood of St. Joseph won’t solve these problems. But it might at least serve to focus attention on them. And surely we can ask the Lord’s foster father to lend us a badly needed hand in seeking solutions.
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Vatican City, Mar 19, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Friday that St. Joseph is a model for all vocations and he prays the saint will help young people discern the vocation God is calling them to.
Alfred Magero, Matthew Njogu, and Edward Chaleh Nkamanyi are three Catholic fathers from Africa who recently shared insights about being a present dad, protecting their families amid threats to the African family, and being a model of family values for their children with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa. / Credit: Photos courtesy of ACI Africa
ACI Africa, Jun 17, 2024 / 12:37 pm (CNA).
On the occasion of Father’s Day 2024, a day focused on the celebration of fatherhood, four Catholic men from different African countries recently shared their experiences of impacting the lives of their children.
The Catholic fathers — who hail from Cameroon, Kenya, and Nigeria — talk about the importance of “being present,” of protecting their families amid threats to the African family, and of being a model of family values for their children, who they believe someday will become parents as well.
Tony Nnachetta, 68: Fatherhood is a full-time enterprise
Tony Nnachetta shares a moment with Pope Francis. The married father of four is a parishioner in the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha. Credit: Photo courtesy of ACI Africa
Tony Nnachetta is a married father of four who attends the Church of the Assumption Parish in Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Lagos. Nnachettahas been a parishioner there for 40 years, and he was wed there 38 years ago. A member of the Grand Knights of St. Mulumba, he originally hails from the Archdiocese of Onitsha.
I got married to my friend after we dated for four years. I was looking forward to fatherhood and I was mentally prepared for it. Here are the lessons I have learned along my fatherhood journey.
First, being a father means you watch your children grow and become independent. You watch them get to a point in their lives where they can engage in a debate with you and even disagree with you.
Fatherhood is a long process. You would be fortunate to go through the entire process and maybe see your children’s children. I have seen mine achieve excellence in school and even leave home and go across the world as they sought to become independent.
Wherever your children go, what is important for them is what they take away from home — what they take from mommy and daddy. I have always told mine to “remember the child of who you are.” This means that they are not allowed to break the Christian values in our family.
I taught them to always stand for the truth and never to flow with the tide. We have encouraged them to always say what they mean. These days, they have jokingly turned around the statement and they tell me, “Remember the dad of who you are,” and we laugh about it.
You can’t always be there to take the bullet for them, but you can support them through prayers. Our family relies a lot on the intercession of the saints. We call ourselves a family of Jesuits because the school my children went to is under the patronage of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Fatherhood is a full-time engagement. It is not like you can be a father in the morning and take a break in the evening. You worry about your children even when they are grown and have left your home. They preoccupy you everywhere. You wonder whether they are warm and if they have had their meal. But all this brings a father immense joy.
Young fathers in Africa are overburdened by poverty. Because of poverty they don’t have a way to help their families. Others are scared to enter the marriage institution. Poverty has made young men weak and helpless. Some are leaving their young families and going to faraway places outside the continent to make a living.
Poverty is eroding family values because some fathers do what they do, including stealing, for their children to survive. In doing so, they are setting a bad example for their children …
It is important for our leaders to confront this situation. They must accept that they have let us down.
Matthew Njogu, 75: Tips on being a present dad
Matthew Njogu is the moderator of the Catholic Men Association at St. Austin’s Msongari Parish of Kenya’s Archdiocese of Nairobi. His children are now adults. Credit: Photo courtesy of ACI Africa
Fathers need to be present in the lives of their children. For a long time, it was assumed that it was the mother’s responsibility to take care of the young children; fathers kept off. But being absent in the lives of your children hurts your relationship with them. They end up growing up without you having any impact on their lives.
Unfortunately, some fathers assume that fatherhood ends at providing material things… They don’t pay attention to their children’s growth milestones. And when they eventually try to establish a connection, they find that the children are already all grown without knowing anything about their fathers.
Simple things like dropping your children off at school help you connect with them. While stuck in traffic on the way to school, you can talk about things that will help you understand your child and for him to know you.
Always try as much as possible to have dinner with your children and help them with schoolwork. And always try to make up for the time you don’t spend with them.
Edward Chaleh Nkamanyi, 53: Raising a Christ-like family
Edward Chaleh Nkamanyia runs a medical college in Doula, Cameroon. He is a father of two, though he tells ACI Africa that he is “a father of many” as he takes care of several orphans and other vulnerable children. Credit: Photo courtesy of ACI Africa
Nkamanyi runs a medical college in Doula, Cameroon. He is a father of two children ages 16 and 20. He tells ACI Africa that he is “a father of many,” as he takes care of several orphans and other vulnerable children. Here are his insights into nurturing a Christ-like family.
It is the joy of every responsible young man to be called “daddy” or “papa.” Having a Christ-like family is the greatest gift for a father; a family like that of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.
My appeal for Catholic fathers is to hold their families firmly, to provide for them, and to protect them from all dangers in the contemporary society, where values are being eroded.
I don’t believe that being a father is a challenging task. God already gave us the innate potential to be fathers. I believe that God can’t give you a role that you can’t perform.
It is unfortunate that many young men are choosing to be absentee fathers. From what I have seen, many children raised by a single parent end up adopting wayward behaviors.
Alfred Magero, 48: Being a present dad in a low-income setting
Alfred Magero belongs to the Catholic Men’s Association group of St. Joseph the Worker Kangemi Catholic Parish of in the Nairobi Archdiocese. The father of three has been married for 29 years. Credit: Photo courtesy of ACI Africa
Magero belongs to the Catholic Men’s Association group of St. Joseph the Worker Kangemi Parish of the Archdiocese of Nairobi. The father of three has been married for 29 years and shares his experience and that of other Catholic dads raising their children in a low-income neighborhood.
I am raising my children to become God-fearing adults. This is not an easy task in the community in which we live, where there is a lot of poverty, drunkenness, and other characteristics typical of a low-income [neighborhood].
Many fathers rarely interact with their children since their main focus is to provide for their families. They leave for work before their children wake up and come back at night when the children have already gone to bed.
The young men and boys we are raising are experiencing a different environment from ours when we were growing up. With the whole world brought to them on the palm of their hand by a simple tap on the phone, this generation is dangerously exposed. They need us, their fathers, to constantly give them direction. They need us to be their role models.
They need us to constantly remind them that they are in Africa and that they should not adopt alien cultures, especially those bound to destroy the family.
As fathers, we must remind our young ones to uphold African values that kept the family unit and the society glued together. Africans knew the importance of loving and caring for each other. Unfortunately, this value is being eroded, and in its place, now we have individualism. Older men in families would educate young men to be responsible adults. Unfortunately, we no longer have this kind of education.
St. Joseph carrying the Child Jesus on the left arm by Pieter van Lint. / Public Domain.
Vatican City, May 1, 2021 / 07:50 am (CNA).
The Vatican’s divine worship office announced Saturday the addition of seven new invocations to the Litany of St… […]
6 Comments
There is a ton of stuff happening! Dioceses throughout the world have been setting up special events, pilgrimages, conferences, consecrations, crownings, etc. The entire episcopate of the Philippines is consecrating the Philippines to St. Joseph on May 1. In the USA, diocese after diocese have established designated shrines and websites for the year. In fact, the National Shrine of St. Joseph in DePere, WI will have a rededication and crowning of their statue on March 19 with an online conference and wonderful speakers. The Archconfraternity of St. Joseph in the USA is relaunching. EWTN is airing lots of things about St. Joseph. Books are coming out on him, new artwork being done, men’s conference across the country are primarily focused on St. Joseph this year. My book Consecration to St. Joseph has been taken up by countless bishops to be used for their diocese. Indeed, Marian Press has been contacted by no less than 20 countries in order to make immediate translations of the book. Spain, Italy, Poland, Croatia, India, etc, etc, etc, are all doing incredible events for the Year of St. Joseph. The list of all that is happening could go on and on. God bless!
Thank you, Fr. Calloway, for your Consecration book and all the work that went into it. We agree that a St. Joseph movement is underway. Husband and I first did it last year since our anniversary is March 19. I was able to inspire several others this year to do this Consecration ending on January 23. While it did not visibly “help” with national crisis so far, we know it will now be our support shield as the Terror of Demons does his thing. The catechesis about St. Joseph was worth everything. Onward!
Fr.Calloway,
At the Parish of the Resurrection in Nashua, NH our Men’s group will be starting our 33 Days in February for our Consecration on the Solemnity of St,. Joseph on March 19th. Our Parrish Book Club will start on a date to be determined and we are working with our pastor Fr. John Grace to offer the program for the Parrish at large sometime during the year. I started my consecration journey on January 1st. Over ten years ago Fr. John’s predecessor, Fr. Steve Marcoux gave me a statue of St. Joseph with the baby Jesus in his arms. They have been welcoming my family and friends and deliver folks every day since. I had never figured out why Fr. Steve gave that statue to me but now it is becoming clear. God has been preparing me for this time. God certainly has patience. Thank you for helping my brothers and sisters at the Parish of the Resurrection and me on our journey to Heaven.
Onward
Your brother in Christ,
Mark Boegel
A Year of Commemoration Overshadows the Year of St. Joseph – Amoris Laetitia Anniversary
The orthodox traditional Catholic enjoyed a few days of astonished awe at this pontiff’s declaring a year to St. Joseph, beginning and ending on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In a time of rare blessings from the Vatican corner, orthodox traditional Catholics wondered: Could times be a’changin’? Had there been a conversion? Had a miracle happened?
A few weeks passed. Then came Dec. 27, the feast of the Holy Family. With his usual flair for ambiguity perceived as intended to topple tradition, this pontiff arose with more to say.
Recalling that March 19 was the anniversary of Amoris laetitia’s signing, this pontiff intoned, “… a year of reflection on Amoris laetitia…an opportunity to focus more closely on the contents of the document.” All this according to the ‘magisterium of Francis.’
The traditional, orthodox Catholic enjoyed a hope for focus on the justice and the silence of the protector of the family and of the Church. Instead this pontiff chose to honor the memory of Amoris Laetitia’s with a year dedicated to that.
That’s what happened. Amoris Laetitia will ice the cake of the year of St. Joseph.
The apt title of St.Joseph as ‘terror of demons’ – possibly has roots in him having carried the blessing in the line of David of not falling into self pity , instead being like David in his days as the shepherd who battled the lions and bears , in fidelity to his role .
Our own Holy Father too , as a devotee to St.Joseph , in trying to lead The Church , armed with the weapons of Love that flows from The Wounds with the power to transform deep wounds in families and nations to become occasions to love The Father , in praise and gratitude and with the love and The Will with which He loves us , as Adam too would have if not for The Fall and being restored to us in The New Adam and Bl.Mother .
May the Rivers of Love that flowed in the Holy Family reach into the farthest corners to thus help bring forth The Reign of the Will of The Father all around , as would be the desire and prayers of beloved St.Joseph as well .
I just completed a video of my one man play about the life of St. Joseph entitled God’s Son, my son. Father Calloway (author of Consecration to St. Joseph) put it on his fb blog on January 19. 2021. Since it is the year of St. Joseph and his feat day is fast approaching I wanted to share this video with you. I wrote, edited, acted, and composed this and I pray it leads many to a closer love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Father Calloway gave me a review which he also gave permission to distribute. See below.
“Great job! Very impressive. Reverent, pious, and theologically accurate. I pray that this reaches many people and brings them to a greater love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” (Father Donald Calloway’s review of the one man play, God’s Son, my son.)
Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, a prominent Marian priest, and author of Consecration to Saint Joseph: The Wonders of our Spiritual Father. In this book Father Calloway brings to life the wonders, the power, and the ceaseless love of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and the Terror of Demons.
Mike Sacilowski
716-893-7885
There is a ton of stuff happening! Dioceses throughout the world have been setting up special events, pilgrimages, conferences, consecrations, crownings, etc. The entire episcopate of the Philippines is consecrating the Philippines to St. Joseph on May 1. In the USA, diocese after diocese have established designated shrines and websites for the year. In fact, the National Shrine of St. Joseph in DePere, WI will have a rededication and crowning of their statue on March 19 with an online conference and wonderful speakers. The Archconfraternity of St. Joseph in the USA is relaunching. EWTN is airing lots of things about St. Joseph. Books are coming out on him, new artwork being done, men’s conference across the country are primarily focused on St. Joseph this year. My book Consecration to St. Joseph has been taken up by countless bishops to be used for their diocese. Indeed, Marian Press has been contacted by no less than 20 countries in order to make immediate translations of the book. Spain, Italy, Poland, Croatia, India, etc, etc, etc, are all doing incredible events for the Year of St. Joseph. The list of all that is happening could go on and on. God bless!
Thank you, Fr. Calloway, for your Consecration book and all the work that went into it. We agree that a St. Joseph movement is underway. Husband and I first did it last year since our anniversary is March 19. I was able to inspire several others this year to do this Consecration ending on January 23. While it did not visibly “help” with national crisis so far, we know it will now be our support shield as the Terror of Demons does his thing. The catechesis about St. Joseph was worth everything. Onward!
Fr.Calloway,
At the Parish of the Resurrection in Nashua, NH our Men’s group will be starting our 33 Days in February for our Consecration on the Solemnity of St,. Joseph on March 19th. Our Parrish Book Club will start on a date to be determined and we are working with our pastor Fr. John Grace to offer the program for the Parrish at large sometime during the year. I started my consecration journey on January 1st. Over ten years ago Fr. John’s predecessor, Fr. Steve Marcoux gave me a statue of St. Joseph with the baby Jesus in his arms. They have been welcoming my family and friends and deliver folks every day since. I had never figured out why Fr. Steve gave that statue to me but now it is becoming clear. God has been preparing me for this time. God certainly has patience. Thank you for helping my brothers and sisters at the Parish of the Resurrection and me on our journey to Heaven.
Onward
Your brother in Christ,
Mark Boegel
A Year of Commemoration Overshadows the Year of St. Joseph – Amoris Laetitia Anniversary
The orthodox traditional Catholic enjoyed a few days of astonished awe at this pontiff’s declaring a year to St. Joseph, beginning and ending on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In a time of rare blessings from the Vatican corner, orthodox traditional Catholics wondered: Could times be a’changin’? Had there been a conversion? Had a miracle happened?
A few weeks passed. Then came Dec. 27, the feast of the Holy Family. With his usual flair for ambiguity perceived as intended to topple tradition, this pontiff arose with more to say.
Recalling that March 19 was the anniversary of Amoris laetitia’s signing, this pontiff intoned, “… a year of reflection on Amoris laetitia…an opportunity to focus more closely on the contents of the document.” All this according to the ‘magisterium of Francis.’
The traditional, orthodox Catholic enjoyed a hope for focus on the justice and the silence of the protector of the family and of the Church. Instead this pontiff chose to honor the memory of Amoris Laetitia’s with a year dedicated to that.
That’s what happened. Amoris Laetitia will ice the cake of the year of St. Joseph.
The apt title of St.Joseph as ‘terror of demons’ – possibly has roots in him having carried the blessing in the line of David of not falling into self pity , instead being like David in his days as the shepherd who battled the lions and bears , in fidelity to his role .
Our own Holy Father too , as a devotee to St.Joseph , in trying to lead The Church , armed with the weapons of Love that flows from The Wounds with the power to transform deep wounds in families and nations to become occasions to love The Father , in praise and gratitude and with the love and The Will with which He loves us , as Adam too would have if not for The Fall and being restored to us in The New Adam and Bl.Mother .
May the Rivers of Love that flowed in the Holy Family reach into the farthest corners to thus help bring forth The Reign of the Will of The Father all around , as would be the desire and prayers of beloved St.Joseph as well .
Hello,
I just completed a video of my one man play about the life of St. Joseph entitled God’s Son, my son. Father Calloway (author of Consecration to St. Joseph) put it on his fb blog on January 19. 2021. Since it is the year of St. Joseph and his feat day is fast approaching I wanted to share this video with you. I wrote, edited, acted, and composed this and I pray it leads many to a closer love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Here is the link if you want a look.
https://youtu.be/v7MH_3TTJV0
Father Calloway gave me a review which he also gave permission to distribute. See below.
“Great job! Very impressive. Reverent, pious, and theologically accurate. I pray that this reaches many people and brings them to a greater love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” (Father Donald Calloway’s review of the one man play, God’s Son, my son.)
Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, a prominent Marian priest, and author of Consecration to Saint Joseph: The Wonders of our Spiritual Father. In this book Father Calloway brings to life the wonders, the power, and the ceaseless love of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and the Terror of Demons.
Mike Sacilowski
716-893-7885