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Bishop welcomes Pope Francis’ declaration of “The Year of St. Joseph”
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December 11, 2020Bishop Paul J. Bradley welcomes Pope Francis’ recent announcement, declaring the Catholic Church observe a “Year of St. Joseph”. In conjunction with the declaration, the Holy Father released an Apostolic Letter to the world, entitled Patris Corde/With a Father’s Heart. The Letter marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. This special “Year of St. Joseph” began on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2020 and lasts until December 8, 2021.
“Pope Francis has used the occasion of this challenging and distressing time of the worldwide COVID-19 Pandemic, to focus on what he refers to in Patris Corde as ‘the importance of ordinary people who, like St. Joseph, don’t seek the limelight, but just do what needs to be done for the good of others---such as the frontline workers, medical people, scientific researchers, and all those working so hard to defeat this virus and to protect all of us.’,” said Bishop Bradley.
“As Pope Francis reminds us, St. Joseph had the deep and strong faith to ‘courageously and firmly be proactive’ and to ‘accept life as it is, with all its contradictions, frustrations and disappointments.’ He also wrote toward the end of this Letter, this beautiful message: ‘As the Guardian of Jesus and Mary, Joseph cannot be other than the Guardian of the Church”, of her motherhood, and of the Body of Christ. Consequently, every poor, needy, suffering or dying person, every stranger, every prisoner, every infirm person is the child whom Joseph continues to protect.’”
The Diocese of Kalamazoo has five Parishes under the patronage of St. Joseph: St. Joseph, Kalamazoo; St. Joseph, Battle Creek; St. Joseph, St. Joseph; St. Joseph, White Pigeon and St. Joseph, Watervliet.