The Bishop of Portsmouth has urged fathers to pray to St Joseph and be inspired by him. In a letter to “Christian Dads” to mark the feast of St Joseph, Bishop Philip Egan said: “It’s not an exaggeration to say fatherhood is in crisis.” He pointed to the rate of divorce, which ends over four in 10 marriages, and to the fact that “over a million children in Britain grow up without contact with their fathers”.
Bishop Egan said St Joseph played “a crucial part” in the Holy Family: he held Jesus as a newborn, played with him in childhood, and supported him in adolescence. St Joseph also helped Jesus take his place in society and learn the value of work. “He gave him an inspiring example of being a man. Above all, the self-sacrificing father-son relationship would have run so deep that in this profoundly good man, Jesus would have recognised a beautiful and resplendent icon of his heavenly Father.”
The bishop said all men were “called to become fatherly”, whether or not they had children. But he said that a “revolution” had brought an end to the traditional family – “a loving, monogamous, covenantal relationship of one man and one woman with the procreative purpose of raising children”. Bishop Egan said a battle was being fought over “what it means to be a human being”. “Are we merely higher animals, biological machines, objects to be manipulated for pleasure, gain, power? Or are we … people with a dignity and a vocation?”
The bishop suggested that, as well as praying to St Joseph, families might keep a picture of the saint in their home, organise a “St Joseph’s Table” for “the poor or housebound, or invoke him – “St Joseph, protect us” – while travelling.
Notes shed light on Reformation
A researcher has discovered hidden annotations in a copy of England’s first printed Bible. The 1535 Bible, which carries a preface by Henry VIII, is in Latin, but the annotations quote from the English Bible published four years later by Thomas Cromwell.
Dr Eyal Poleg, a historian from Queen Mary University of London who made the discovery, said the combination supports the idea that the Reformation was a “complex and gradual” process rather than a “complete break”.
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