St. Joseph's Men

St. Joseph's Men
Nec laudibus, Nec timore

As many of us are acutely aware, the health and even survival of western society is in grave peril with the constant, unrelenting, and vicious attacks on the family and our Christian heritage. Pope Benedict has certainly recognized this real and immediate threat during this past Christmas season when he said:

“To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake.”

These are hardly words which lull us into a false sense of security. They are a wake-up call to action. That is why Benedict is calling us to conversion and a radical transformation of how we respond to the Gospel as Catholics. For this conversion to take affect and impact future generations, we must address the crisis of fatherhood. We live in a culture today that is bearing the consequences of fatherless families. The poisonous fruits of this destructive reality are plain for everyone to see, and it has impacted all the roles which fatherhood has traditionally played.

We have permitted rabid feminism and homosexualism to emasculate manhood and fatherhood to the point where our culture is on the edge of moral, social, and economic collapse. As Catholics, many of us have forgotten what it is to be a man or a father, and this sad condition has impacted not just lay men, but priests and bishops as well, as current events tragically demonstrate.

We must therefore reclaim our rightful place as head of our families by restoring a sense of service and sacrifice to our wives, children and to society at large. And we must restore the virtue of courage to the image and role of the Father. For too long, we've permitted our opponents to walk all over us. This needs to change in a big way, if society is going to turn around.

Alone we can do nothing. But together, united in faith and fortitude, as a group of determined men who are willing to fight the good fight, we can make a big difference. And send the devil back to hell.

Practically, this can be done in three ways:

1) Prayer and Fasting
2) Fellowship and Manly Brotherhood and
3) Engagement with the Culture

The following are proposed areas of activity which St. Joseph's Men would consider part of its mandate....

- meet together at least once a month for prayer and fellowship in your diocese;
- fast periodically on appointed days for your wife, children and the Church;
- use your abilities and/or donate money to fight particular causes that the leadership wants to engage;
- encourage vocations among your children to the priesthood and religious life;
- make the necessary sacrifice to keep the culture of death out of your homes;
- make a concerted effort to regularly learn more about the Faith and its history.

If you are interested in this idea of such a group, please add your name to this "heavenly petition", and say a prayer that God will bless this movement and form its direction in the coming weeks and months.

In Jesus Our Sovereign King,

John Pacheco
Catholic Father and Activist
Interim Director