The Catholic News Service (Daily Report, June 1) began the month of June with this observation: “The image of the American family is changing and increasingly that means a family doesn’t include a father figure.” The writers point out that in 1960 only 11 percent of children lived apart from their fathers, but now that number is 27 percent, according to a Pew research study.
It is pointed out, too, that “The changes seen in fatherhood and the role of fathers in many ways are related to a cultural trend that says men are not needed in a family.” In vitro fertilization, abortion, divorce, gay marriage, civil unions and all such nonsense send a message to men: they are not needed, they are not wanted — stay away.
Against this we have the Christian tradition that the sacramental marriage is a sort of icon of the Most Blessed Trinity. Father, mother, child “represent” in a certain sense the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is moreover, the abundant testimony of virtuous life which suggests parental love is “ma paternal.” This means the personality of the child develops traits from both parents. There are certain habits, or ways of thinking and acting, that both boys and girls get from their mothers and that both boys and girls get from their fathers, and that a balanced adult personality will be what develops in a child who has a good relationship with both mother and father.
Father’s Day is a good time, after we have thanked God for our good fathers whether they are here or in the hereafter, to see how we might strengthen the role of fathers in the family and in the community. We should object to situation comedies and the electronic media which often portray fathers as disconnected, “out of it,” dense, or idiots.
St. Paul wrote: “For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named” (Eph 3:14-15). We should do whatever we can, in a kindly fashion, to overcome the negativity with which fathers and fatherhood are portrayed, for if this trend continues, great harm will be done to future generations.
Our Holy Father, visiting in Milan last week for the seventh World Meeting of Families, told the citizens of Milan, “Now it is up to you, the heirs to a glorious past and to a priceless spiritual heritage, to ensure you hand on the torch of this lustrous tradition to future generations. Well you know how vital it is to introduce evangelical leaven into modern culture. Faith in Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for us, who is alive among us, must animate the entire fabric of individual and community life, of private and public affairs, so as to create a stable and authentic ‘well being’ on the basis of the family.”
The Holy Father further stated that it is the duty of the just state, “to recognize the specific identity of the family, founded on marriage and open to life, and the right of parents freely to choose the education and formation of their children … The State fails to do justice to families if it does not support freedom of education for the good of all society.”