Fathers You are the image of Father God. Stop giving excuses. Don't dispair but accept responsibility!
(See also Lay Men) Sites for Fathers: FathersOf StJoseph Dads.org -Covenant Keepers Its-my-fault Checklist-for-Catholic-Dads Four Critical Rules for Catholic Fathers Absent Fathers integratedcatholiclife.org
Fellowship Fathersforgood.org
A great TV program for men: crossingthegoal.com St. John Bosco's Advise for Fathers Men Need to be Spiritual Bastions of their family
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — future Pope Benedict XVI: “The crisis of
fatherhood we are experiencing today is an element, perhaps the most
important element, threatening man in his humanity.” The crisis, he
clarified, is a “dissolution of fatherhood,” flowing from reducing paternity
to a biological phenomenon without its human and spiritual dimensions.
(March 2000, Palermo, Sicily)
Priests are fathers
Fr Landry: This crisis of fatherhood likewise extends to the clergy. Priests
and bishops are called “fathers” for a reason. God uses them to give his
children a deeper form of life through baptism and the other sacraments.
Their fatherhood, however, cannot be reduced just to spiritually generative
sacramental actions, but is meant to flow into fatherly identity and
behavior, particular in the commitment they make spiritually to protect,
provide for, rear and mentor, to teach, sanctify and shepherd — in short, to
love with the love of God — the spiritual children entrusted to them.
The dissolution of spiritual fatherhood happens when these spiritual bonds
break down, when priests are reduced to ecclesiastical functionaries who
never form authentic fatherly bonds with the individuals and families whose
baptisms, weddings and funerals they celebrate.
We see this breakdown of spiritual fatherhood in every form of clerical
sexual abuse. When a priest looks at the world with the eyes of a spiritual
dad, any sexual activity — with minors, those his own age, those much older,
with women or with men — is a form of spiritual incest. And incest, even the
thought of it, sickens all but the most perverted.
In preaching retreats for seminarians and priests, I stress that if we
maintain a healthy sense of spiritual paternity such that we view everyone
we serve, of whatever age, as a spiritual son or daughter, then the
temptation to regard others with lust, or engage in unchaste activity, or
pretend that such spiritually incestuous behavior is “love,” basically
disappears. Sexual infidelity in priests begins with this
dissolution of spiritual fatherhood.
This is one reason why, if we sincerely want to reform the Church, we can
never limit the focus just to the eradication of the molestation of minors.
Sexual sins against minors, who are unable to give true consent, are
obviously the most execrable. But while spiritually incestuous relations
with a 15-year-old are worse in degree than with an 18-, 30- or 90-year-old,
we’re still dealing with priests sexually abusing their spiritual children.
Without addressing these gross violations of priestly paternity with older
spiritual children, we will never really address the roots of the abuse of
their younger children.
The second failure in spiritual fatherhood is with regard to
protecting children from those who would use them for their
gratification. This negligence is what most shocks parents: that proven
abusers would continue to be placed in positions where they can exploit
their collar to harm others.
Good fathers risk and give their lives to protect their children from harm.
They would never risk inviting their brother whom they know is an abuser to
sleep at their home where he might have access to their children. This basic
fatherly solicitude, however, was absent among various bishops and chancery
officials, who behaved more like businessmen and lawyers than dads. Such
clericalism is a blatant defect in loving spiritual paternity.
The third failure is in the notorious cover-ups and lying with
regard to abuse in order to protect bishops’ personal reputations or the
reputation and material goods of the Church. This basic failure to
take responsibility is a spiritual immaturity reminiscent of teenage dads
trying to evade their paternal duties.
It’s been said that the supreme test of any civilization is whether it can
socialize men by teaching them to be fathers and truly take responsibility
to defend, equip, raise and guide their children.
One of the supreme tests for the reform of the Church is to form priests to
be spiritual fathers not just in name, but in truth.
-Father Roger Landry is a priest, of the Diocese of Fall River,
Massachusetts.
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/renewing-spiritual-fatherhood
Pope Francis on Fatherhood Jan 28, 2015, Excerpts of Audience. >>>
The word “Father” is particularly dear to Christians because Jesus taught us to use it in our prayer. The blessed mystery of the intimacy of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the heart of our Christian faith.
Fathers often so concentrate on themselves and on their work and sometimes on their individual accomplishments, that they forget even their family.
The deviances of children and adolescents can be largely attributed to this lack (of fathers).
Fathers also fall short when they forget they are fathers and instead strive to be companions who are “on par” with their children, he continued. Fathers are called to fulfill an educational task: by word and example, they should offer principles, values, and rules of life that children need, just as they need food.
Civil society, too, has a fatherly task, but it has left children orphans who dream of entertainment and pleasures, who “are deluded by the god of money and denied true riches.”
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