MADISON — It feels good to be a Catholic in 2021 as Father’s Day approaches. Especially if you live in the Diocese of Madison.
Why?
Because on Father’s Day, June 20, Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison will gather local Catholics and lead them in a Holy Hour, Rosary, and Eucharistic procession at Holy Name Heights, 702 S. High Point Rd., Madison, starting at 2 p.m.
After that’s done, we’re even having a picnic.
The event is open to all, so make sure to join us and bring your favorite picnic food, drinks, lawn chairs, and yard games.
Celebrating fathers
It’s all a celebration of Father’s Day. Actually, “Catholic Father’s Day,” to be exact — part of the nationwide Catholic Father’s Day movement.
And it will be “a prayerful, non-political, and family-friendly” event, according to a press release from local organizers.
“When we gather our families together to worship our Heavenly Father, we create a powerful witness for them of true fatherhood,” they explained.
And this is only the beginning. They also aim to “inspire Catholic men to their great and noble call as Catholic fathers by holding annual Father’s Day events in June each year.”
You can learn more about Catholic Father’s Day by visiting CatholicFathersDay.com
Importance of fathers
In a way, Catholic Father’s Day is nothing new. The Catholic Church is famous for sticking to its guns, remaining constant in its witness to the truth while others chronically get taken in by flattering falsehoods — rising and falling for the ever-new bad ideas of the world.
One such bad idea is really picking up steam lately: the idea that we don’t need fatherhood anymore.
Time Magazine published a piece recommending we “Cancel Father’s Day.” Huffington Post provided “Three Reasons Why Father’s Day Should Be Abolished.” A New York Times column once praised the “cleverness” of advertisers who produce “campaigns portraying men in general, and husbands and fathers in particular, as objects of ridicule, pity or even scorn.”
As any honest secular psychologist will tell you, the denigration of fatherhood is an indirect attack on children, who suffer what amounts to severe emotional trauma when deprived of a loving father.
But of course, the Catholic Church knows this too and has spent two millennia building up and encouraging husbands and fathers by reminding them that their role in the family is like that of Christ Himself in the Church: A great honor and responsibility. (Ephesians 5:25)
That’s why, as I mentioned, Catholic Father’s Day is nothing new in a way. But like the Catholic Church itself, the inspired actions of God’s people have a way of seeming new — and even urgent — without having to invent trends or gimmicks.
As it happens, Pope Francis pronounced 2021 The Year of St. Joseph.
That wasn’t lost on the organizers of Catholic Father’s Day. In fact, they believe it was a gift from Our Providential Father in Heaven.
And at 2 p.m. on June 20 at Holy Name Heights, you’ll hear them asking St. Joseph, Foster Father of Jesus, to intercede for fathers everywhere.