Dcn. Phúc's Blog: "Reclaiming Faithful Fatherhood" Initiative (inspired by Cor) (UPDATED 6/2/2025)

Dear Brother Knights, Catholic gentlemen, brothers in Christ,

In prayer, God put in my heart the desire for men to reclaim faithful fatherhood for Him, the Eternal Father in heaven. To that end, the Holy Spirit inspired me to share with you this "Reclaiming Faithful Fatherhood" Initiative leading up to and through June, which is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and includes Father's Day.

As we heard in the "Into the Breach" video on "Fatherhood" (https://www.kofc.org/en/campaigns/into-the-breach.html) and Fr. Charlie's talk, men are the protectors and the providers for their families. . . particularly as the SPIRITUAL leaders of their "domestic churches". Inspired by that, here is the MISSION of the "Reclaiming Faithful Fatherhood" Initiative: All brother Knights will get their families - wives, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren - to Mass on Father's Day.

THE CHALLENGE

In lieu of a Father's Day gifts, share with your children your desire for them to go to Mass with you as a family. Now, if you children live in a different city or state, then share with them that you would like them to go to Mass on Father's Day (which is on a Sunday) in communion with you. For some, this will be like David versus Goliath but, as men, we are called to be courageous. Fortitude is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is why I present this "Reclaiming Faithful Fatherhood" Initiative to you now so that you have all of May to pray about it and ask the Holy Spirit to give you courage to extend this invitation.

CELEBRATE

Take a picture after Mass to capture the memory of you and your family going to Mass together on Father's Day. For those men whose children are in another city or state, invite them to take a picture after Mass and send it to you for your own keepsake.

As children celebrate First Holy Communion and Confirmation over the next month, let us tap into the graces of the Sacrament of Confirmation that we received and be bold, be Catholic, and bring our families to the altar of the Lord to receive the Eucharist, the source and summit of our Christian life.

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UPDATE (6/2/2025)

Pope Leo XIV: "I am particularly happy to welcome so many children, who restore our hope! I greet all the families, which are small domestic churches where the message of the Gospel is received and passed on. The family, Saint John Paul II said, “has its origin in that same love with which the Creator embraces the created world” (Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane, 2). May faith, hope and love always increase in our families. In a special way, I greet grandparents and the elderly, you are models of genuine faith and an inspiration for the younger generation. . .

May the Virgin Mary bless families everywhere and sustain them in their trials. I think especially of those families suffering due to war in the Middle East, in Ukraine and in other parts of the world. May the Mother of God help us to press forward together on the path of peace."

Regina Caeli, 6/1/2025, https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/angelus/2025/documents/20250601-regina-caeli.html

. . .

UPDATE (6/2/2025)

The profound thirst for the infinite present in the heart of every human being means that parents have the duty to make their children aware of the fatherhood of God. In the words of Saint Augustine: “As we have the source of life in you, O Lord, in your light we shall see light” (Confessions, XIII, 16). . .

This effort requires that special attention be paid to those families who, for various reasons, are spiritually most distant from us: those who do not feel involved, claim they are uninterested or feel excluded from the usual activities, yet would still like to be part of a community in which they can grow and journey together with others. How many people today simply do not hear the invitation to encounter God?

What drives the Church in her pastoral and missionary outreach is precisely the desire to go out as a “fisher” of humanity, in order to save it from the waters of evil and death through an encounter with Christ.

Perhaps many young people today who choose cohabitation instead of Christian marriage in reality need someone to show them in a concrete and clear way, especially by the example of their lives, what the gift of sacramental grace is and what strength derives from it. Someone to help them understand “the beauty and grandeur of the vocation to love and the service of life” that God gives to married couples (SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Familiaris Consortio, 1). . .

Faith is primarily a response to God’s love, and the greatest mistake we can make as Christians is, in the words of Saint Augustine, “to claim that Christ’s grace consists in his example and not in the gift of his person” (Contra Iulianum opus imperfectum, II, 146). How often, even in the not too distant past, have we forgotten this truth and presented Christian life mostly as a set of rules to be kept, replacing the marvelous experience of encountering Jesus – God who gives himself to us – with a moralistic, burdensome and unappealing religion that, in some ways, is impossible to live in concrete daily life.

In this situation, it is the responsibility of the Bishops, as successors of the apostles and shepherds of Christ’s flock, to be the first to cast their nets into the sea and become “fishers of families.” Yet the laity are also called to participate in this mission, and to become, alongside ordained ministers, “fishers” of couples, young people, children, women and men of all ages and circumstances, so that all may encounter the one Saviour. Through Baptism, each one of us has been made a priest, king, and prophet for our brothers and sisters, and a “living stone” (cf. 1 Pet 2:4) for the building up of God’s house “in fraternal communion, in the harmony of the Spirit, in the coexistence of diversity” (LEO XIV, Homily, 18 May 2025).

I ask you, then, to join in the work of the whole Church in seeking out those families who no longer come to us, in learning how to walk with them and to help them embrace the faith and become in turn “fishers” of other families.

Do not be discouraged by the difficult situations you face. It is true that families today have many problems, but “the Gospel of the family also nourishes seeds that are still waiting to grow, and serves as the basis for caring for those plants that are wilting and must not be neglected” (FRANCIS, Amoris Laetitia, 76).

What great need there is to promote an encounter with God, whose tender love values and loves the story of every person!. . . if we want to help families experience joyful paths of communion and be seeds of faith for one another, we must first cultivate and renew our own identity as believers. . .

Message to participants in the seminar "Evangelizing with the Families of Today and Tomorrow. . .", 6/2-3/2025, https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/pont-messages/2025/documents/20250528-messaggio-dicastero-prolaicis.html

. . .

Vivat Jesus.

Deacon Phúc Phan

Council #10333 | Assembly #3533

Saint Albert the Great Catholic Church

Diocese of Austin

Assistant to the State Chaplain

Texas State Council