Pope Benedict reminds us to celebrate fatherhood
Fatherhood matters. Thank you Pope Benedict for the reminder.
Pope Benedict XVI passed away yesterday. May he rest in peace. In his honour, I spent time reading through some of his speeches. One in particular stood out, on the subject of fatherhood, from January 2013.
In this particular General Audience, Pope Benedict shared some concerns:
It is not always easy today to talk about fatherhood, especially in the Western world. Families are broken, the workplace is ever more absorbing, families worry and often struggle to make ends meet and the distracting invasion of the media invades our daily life: these are some of the many factors that can stand in the way of a calm and constructive relationship between father and child.
He went on to explain how the relationship between father and child impacts a child’s relationship with God:
At times communication becomes difficult, trust is lacking and the relationship with the father figure can become problematic; moreover, in this way even imagining God as a father becomes problematic without credible models of reference. It is not easy for those who have experienced an excessively authoritarian and inflexible father or one who was indifferent and lacking in affection, or even absent, to think serenely of God and to entrust themselves to him with confidence.
Ten years have passed since Pope Benedict delivered these remarks, and his concerns have only become more relevant with time. In some countries, it is becoming politically incorrect to recognize the importance of fathers. I wrote about this in my Father’s Day column for the National Post:
Fathers are a solution to many of the social ills plaguing our communities. We shouldn’t be afraid to say so, even if that means offending ivory tower sensibilities. There was a time — not too long ago — when people across the political spectrum would openly recognize these truths.
Recall, for instance, when Justin Trudeau was first running for prime minister in 2015. Journalist Francine Pelletier asked him about the prevalence of misogyny among young men. The Liberal leader included a dose of reality in his answer: “There’s a lot of communities in which fathers are less present than they have been, or might have been, in the past and there’s a need for engaged, positive role models.”
A lot has changed over the past seven years, and Trudeau is a helpful barometer for measuring just how abruptly our culture has shifted. His reasonable and accurate comments on fatherhood in 2015 received blowback from legacy and social media, and it appears as though the woke mob left him shook. Just three years later, in 2018, Trudeau had settled in among the social justice warriors, adding words like “peoplekind” to his vocabulary to replace “mankind.”
I am not a father. One day, God willing, I hope to be. But that doesn’t stop me, nor should it stop you, from celebrating fatherhood.
Fatherhood was a big theme in my my life last year. I reconnected with my dad after not seeing him for fifteen years (you can read about that here). I became godfather to a dear friend’s daughter (pictured above). And I joyfully witnessed a number of friends become fathers for the first time or add another child to their growing families.
The unique joy of fatherhood was also part of last night’s new year’s eve festivities. During ESPN’s brodcast of college football, analyst and former quarterback Robert Griffin III ran off the field after receiving a call that his wife was going into labour.
Seeing RGIII’s excitement affirms that the benefits of fatherhood aren’t just to children, but also to fathers themselves. Research recently published by Oxford University Press found that becoming a dad can change how a man’s brain works. In particular, researchers found that “fathers’ brain changes appeared in regions of the cortex that contribute to visual processing, attention and empathy toward the baby.”
Fatherhood matters. That’s an eternal truth that we should never be afraid to stand by. Thank you Pope Benedict for the reminder.
Thank you Jamil! What a wonderful message to start 2023 with. All the best!
Thank you for this important message and reminder 💜