We Need a Nation of Josephs to Rise from the Ruins of Roe

O ver the past few weeks, Pope Francis has been pointing to Saint Joseph as a model. It’s the way he’s wrapping up a year with an emphasis on the foster father of Jesus. To have an adoptive father in the news who is good — just — is no small thing at a time when we have some 440,000 children stuck in the foster-care system. It’s also timely with the Mississippi abortion case about to be heard at the Supreme Court. We talk about women when it comes to abortion, as we obviously should, because she is the one who is physically pregnant, tied to the unborn baby within her like no one else on earth. But what about the man? What are his responsibilities? What should we expect of him? What should he be living up to? Saint Joseph helps as a model of guardian who protects mother and child.

The day before thanksgiving, Pope Francis noted how “liquid” our society seems to be:

It seems not to have consistency. . . . I will correct the philosopher who coined this definition and say: more than liquid, gaseous, a properly gaseous society. This liquid, gaseous society finds in the story of Joseph a very clear indication of the importance of human bonds. Indeed, the Gospel tells us the genealogy of Jesus, not only for a theological reason, but also to remind each one of us that our lives are made up of bonds that precede and accompany us. The Son of God chose to come into the world by way of such bonds, the way of history: He did not come down into the world by magic, no. He took the historic route we all take.

There’s a rallying cry letter to men: Into the Breach, by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, of Phoenix. He explains it as “a clarion call and clear charge.” He writes: “Men, do not hesitate to engage in the battle that is raging around you, the battle that is wounding our children and families, the battle that is distorting the dignity of both women and men. This battle is often hidden, but the battle is real.”

He points to Joseph in emphasizing that fatherhood does nothing short of changing history. In the Gospel according to Matthew, he notes that where “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,” there were (42) fathers who lead up to Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus. He quotes John Paul II about the essential nature of fatherhood:

In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God (cf. Eph 3:15), a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family: he will perform this task by exercising generous responsibility for the life conceived under the heart of the mother, by a more solicitous commitment to education, a task he shares with his wife, by work which is never a cause of division in the family but promotes its unity and stability.

(He also adds that in a Christian context, he is a primary witness of what the Christian life looks like.)

It’s safe to say that the young men I see outside abortion clinics have not been told this.

Omsted writes on the attack on fatherhood throughout society and observes that, today, all too often, “the child is forced to ask the question: ‘Where is my Daddy?’ What then is the impact on a child’s heart, on his or her understanding of the world, of love, and of the Heavenly Father, when the answer to this question is ‘He left us,’ or ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘From the sperm bank, and he left no contact address’?”

Mary Eberstadt notes in How the West Really Lost God that the Christmas story of the Holy Family is foreign to so many today because having a father is foreign. Fatherlessness is not a mere plague to regret. It is something we need to change. Eberstadt elsewhere worries that all the violence we see in society — and the streets — has to do with the lack of fathers.

Those of us who pray may invoke Saint Joseph’s intercession. We must tell the stories of good men. The Knights of Columbus took up Olmsted’s call with an Into the Breach video series, which is more than a wee bit of a how-to that should be required viewing for humans — and especially fathers and sons — today. We need people in our lives. We need mentors. We need fathers. And in this particular fundamental instance, the Internet can help if we heed the call.

This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.