June 19, 2021 Column Father De Celles
Fathers. Today America celebrates Father’s Day. A day to thank and praise good Fathers who love, care for and make huge sacrifices for their families. Every child needs and, in a certain sense, has a God-given right to a loving father, especially a father married to and loving his/her mother. Our very bodies and brains tell us this, as does all of human history: children are happiest and flourish in the home of a loving father and mother committed to each other in a loving marriage. And Scripture and Sacred Tradition teach this with absolute clarity.
But this is not what many in society are preaching today. The woke-marxist movement, as well as many of their less radical fellow travelers, are trying to transform society for the worse, beginning with tearing down the family.
For example, as the website of Black Lives Matter tells us: “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”
What we need is a stronger “nuclear family” not a “disrupted..nuclear family”—mom, dad and kids. And that means strengthening the roles of mothers and fathers, not making “mothers, parents… comfortable.” Without that our culture will crumble—and with it our country and the world.
I know that not all families have dads, for a variety of sad reasons. And families can survive and even flourish thanks to the grace of God and the dedication of self-sacrificing mothers, and perhaps grandparents or aunts and uncle.
But that is not how God designed things to work. That is not how human beings are made. That is not the best way to raise a family. So we, as Catholics and Americans, must do our utmost to support and promote marriage, and motherhood and fatherhood.
Dads, you are so key, so important, to the family and society. You know the statistics: if there is no father in the home kids are exponentially more likely to go to prison, get hooked on drugs or booze, be unemployed, commit suicide, on and on. And so with fatherless homes and families, society at large suffers more and more.
So, fathers, do what God made you to do and gives you the grace to do, and be a man and be the very best father—and husband—you can be. And THANK YOU for doing your best at that!
And all you boys and men who are not yet fathers, think of all this. Think of the great gift and responsibility of being a father that may lie ahead of you, and prepare. And don’t do stupid things to ruin your chances to be the best father possible. This involves many possible “stupid things”, but first and foremost, don’t engage in pre-marital sex: every child has a right to be born into a family of a loving and committed (i.e., married) mother and father who love and want that child, and it is abuse of children, mothers and fatherhood itself to recklessly and unlovingly act in a way so contrary to that right.
Again, thanks Dads for all you do for your families and our society. God bless you.
The Jihad of the Fairfax County School Board. Last week I wrote that we need to stop the abuse of our children being planned by our government schools, as they increase their efforts to indoctrinate our kids with homosexual, transgender, Marxist, woke and Critical-Race-Theory propaganda in the coming year. We must stand together in these efforts and work to change the board itself.
Along these lines, did you see what Abrar Omeish, FCSB member-at-large, did last week? This is an excerpt of an article taken from the Daily Mail:
“Abrar Omeish…addressed the graduating students of Justice High School on June 7. In English, she told them that: ‘The world sees the accolade, the diploma, the fruit of all your years yet be reminded of the detail of your struggle.’ But when she repeated the speech in Arabic, she told students to remember their ‘jihad’ – a word meaning both ‘struggle’ and, specifically, holy war waged on behalf of Islam.
[“Her…father Esam Omeish…served on the board of Dar al Hijrah mosque, a Falls Church, Virginia-based mosque which critics say has a long history of ties to terrorism finance…Anwar Al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American terror financier killed by a drone strike in 2011, was hired in 2001 to be the imam at the mosque. Two of the September 11 hijackers briefly prayed there. The mosque condemned Al-Awlaki, saying they had no idea of what he would later become.”]
“….‘We struggle with human greed, racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, white supremacy, growing wealth gaps, disease, climate crisis, extreme poverty amidst luxury and waste right next door, and the list goes on,’ she told the group.…
“….’You are walking into a world that will be uncomfortable when you seek to cause good trouble. And that may seek to intimidate you or make you think the truth is controversial,’ she said….”
This woman is in charge of our kids’ education. Why don’t we take charge instead? As I mentioned last week, there is an active effort to recall Omeish and our own Springfield District member Laura Jane Cohen. See https://openfcpscoalition.org/.
And Dad…. it’s time to get involved and take charge, with Mom, of your sons’ and daughters’ education.
Priestly Fatherhood and Scholarships. You call me “Father,” and I strive to be a good spiritual father to you, learning from the great examples of so many good men, including my own Dad and many of you. So I too am responsible for my children’s education, at least in the broad moral sense. So as I wrote last week, the parish will again be offering one-time $2,000 scholarships for each parish child who switches from public school (k-12) to Catholic school for the 2021-2022 school year. We will also offer scholarships to all qualified parishioners who continue to attend Catholic grade school ($1,000) and Catholic high school ($2,000). This amount is renewable every year, and is subject only to minimal qualification terms. Additional financial aid is available to families with greater need, and also to homeschooling families to cover direct educational costs.
To fund the above scholarships, we need all parishioners to consider donating whatever they can to the cause. Beginning in August you will find a special monthly “Catholic Scholarship” envelope included in your monthly offertory envelops. But right now you can give by mailing a check directly to the parish with a note saying it’s for the “Scholarship Fund,” or you can give through Faith Direct (there is a special fund set up there on the “my gifts” page). PLEASE, GIVE GENEROUSLY!
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles