Catholic Dads

Following our first foray into the writings of Pope Leo XIII, we turn again this week to the venerable and long-serving pontiff to provide us with more insight into some of the duties and responsiblities of fatherhood.

Just after Christmas in 1878, Pope Leo released Quod Apostolici Muneris. This encyclical deals with socialism and its rapid growth across the European continent. (It had been only 30 years since Marx released his Communist Manifesto. In less than 50 years, Russia would fall to communism.)

As you might expect, the Holy Father roundly condemned socialism and those who espouse it, writing that “so great is the difference between their depraved teachings and the most pure doctrine of Christ that none greater could exist”.

In the course of his exposition of the true nature and effects of socialism, Pope Leo sought to teach that, rather than equality of all men without honor and respect due to majesty and obedience to laws (socialism), the Gospel indicates that equality of men is bound to their high dignity as sons of God. Yet, he cautions that dignity does not erase the fact that some men are called to a higher office:

…as even in the kingdom of heaven He hath willed that the choirs of angels be distinct and some subject to others, and also in the Church has instituted various orders and a diversity of offices, so that all are not apostles or doctors or pastors, so also has He appointed that there should be various orders in civil society, differing indignity, rights, and power, whereby the State, like the Church, should be one body, consisting of many members, some nobler than others, but all necessary to each other and solicitous for the common good.

As he progresses, Pope Leo continues with this understanding of a hierarchical society, instructing that men must be subject to their rulers (as the apostle also tells us, cf. Rom. 13:7) AND, most importantly for us fathers, he describes the family and authority exercised rightly therein as the “cornerstone of all society and government”.

In like manner does the Church temper the use of parental and domestic authority, that it may tend to hold children and servants to their duty, without going beyond bounds. For, according to Catholic teaching, the authority of our heavenly Father and Lord is imparted to parents and masters, whose authority, therefore, not only takes its origin and force from Him, but also borrows its nature and character. Hence, the Apostle exhorts children to ‘obey their parents in the Lord, and honor their father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise’;(Eph. 6:1-2) and he admonishes parents: ‘And you, fathers, provoke not your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord.’ (Eph. 6:4)

If only all these matters were faithfully observed according to the divine will by all on whom they are enjoined, most assuredly every family would be a figure of the heavenly home, and the wonderful blessings there begotten would not confine themselves to the households alone, but would scatter their riches abroad through the nations.

There are two challenges here for us:

1. Do we use the correct discipline – as the Lord instructs – and attempt not to provoke our children?
   All too often it is easy to let our anger overwhelm us as we seek to discipline the children, letting our foul mood run roughshod over our reason and, as a result, giving our children cause to oppose us. This is, of course, the explicit challenge noted above. For my part, I attempt, where possible, to imagine the Lord with me as I discipline. I am not always successful in mitigating my anger, though.
2. Do we teach our children to respect all manner of authority?
   This, for me, is the bigger issue. Pope Leo has outlined the truth of God’s creation: that a hierarchy exists and is meant, absence the explicit will of God, to be recognized and followed. Here, we see a great rejection, even in our own time: parents teach their children to disrespect teachers who do not give the “correct grades”; to disrespect coaches and referees who do not make the “correct call”; to disrespect politicians and leaders who do not vote in the “right way”; to disrespect other parents who try to “correct their aberrant behavior”. As we see, this ultimately undermines the authority of God, since all authority is a type of the Father’s authority. For my part, I give deference to all those in authority, even if I do not agree with their pronouncement, in the very least, in front of my children.

How do you react to these challenges?

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