Fatherhood Fast Forward

The landscape of family roles is challenged by contemporary shifts in our culture and society. Fatherhood is not exempt from the impact of these changes. However, there are promising trends in the lives of faithful men who are called to the vocation of marriage and family.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) affirms the vital role of the father in the family, “The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; this is the foundation of the honor owed to parents.” (CCC, 2214)  I want to encourage fathers who in striving to be authentic examples for their children live this important calling in our present culture.
 
Statistics Canada reports that there are about 8.5 million fathers in Canada and that in contrast to previous generations, they are beginning to assume a more engaged role in the family. I have witnessed a growing number of fathers becoming more active in their faith life through gatherings such as our annual God Squad Men’s Conference and programs that support men's spiritual growth and fraternity like That Man is You, Exodus 90, and others. Additionally, they are assuming a greater share of the household tasks which reflects the loving, caring face of fatherhood that we see in Scripture.  
 
Inspired by these changes, some fathers are also beginning to reshape the relationship between family and work.  Data from Statistics Canada reveals that in 1976, 1 out of every 70 families with a stay-at-home parent was the father.  By 2015, that number grew to about 1 in 10 fathers representing a significant increase over those years.  For the majority of fathers employed outside of the home, they are striving to balance home and work commitments as a priority. This change in focus is reflected in being more present to their family, supporting the relationships that are essential to its growth and maturity while forging a true masculine identity in their midst.
 
With a deeper focus on prayer, living and witnessing to the Faith, building the strength of the marriage covenant and taking on more day-to-day responsibilities, our fathers are walking in the shadow of St. Joseph.  In 1989, Saint John Paul II issued the Apostolic Exhortation, Guardian of the Redeemer: On the Person and Mission of St. Joseph in the Life of Christ and the Church.  This apostolic exhortation articulates the Catholic understanding of fatherhood and reflects these current promising trends. 

St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church's Liturgy teaches, he "cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation" and is truly a "minister of salvation." His fatherhood is expressed concretely "in his having made his life a service, a sacrifice to the mystery of the Incarnation and to the redemptive mission connected with it; in having used the legal authority which was his over the Holy Family in order to make a total gift of self, of his life and work; in having turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of self, an oblation of his heart and all his abilities into love placed at the service of the Messiah growing up in his house." (Redemptoris Custos, 1989, No. 8.)

Pope Francis reemphasized the link between fatherhood and St. Joseph during a papal audience in 2015 saying, “For the younger generations, fathers are the irreplaceable guardians and mediators of faith in the goodness, of faith in the justice, and faith in the protection of God, like Saint Joseph.” In the same year during a series of talks on the family, His Holiness speculated that a wise and mature father would be able to say to his adult children, "I taught you things that you didn't know, I corrected errors that you did not see. I let you feel an affection that was both deep and discreet that perhaps you did not fully recognize when you were young and unsure. I gave you witness of rigor and willpower that perhaps you did not understand when you just wanted complicity and protection."
 
There have been and are many challenges in fulfilling the role of a father in the past, today, and foreseeably, into the future. As I have come to see in my own life, the gift of a father’s presence is both formative and an instrument of blessing.  Let us pray with gratitude for the men of faith in our lives who are loving husbands and fathers, leaders in parishes, wise stewards in communities and above all, humble disciples of Jesus Christ.

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Written by Bishop William McGrattan, June 2019

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Most Rev. William McGrattan, Bishop of Calgary