Durban, 19 March, 2021 / 5:54 pm (ACI Africa).
The Archbishop of South Africa’s Durban Archdiocese has said that the abuse in society can partly be blamed on men he refers to as the “modern Josephs” who, he further says, are not playing the role for which they were created.
In his homily on the occasion of the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Friday, March 19, Wilfrid Cardinal Napier said that Pope Francis’ proclamation of the Year of St. Joseph last December pointed to the Holy Father’s desire “to renew the Church from its roots.”
“As soon as Pope Francis made the announcement of the Year of St. Joseph, my thoughts immediately went to what has become the driving vision of his pontificate to renew the Church from its roots upwards, reforming those roots where necessary; renewing but also reforming where necessary,” Cardinal Napier said in his March 19 homily.
He added, “I went down to think about the critical role that our modern Josephs need to play. By modern Josephs I mean the husbands, the fathers, the providers, the protectors of their families and their communities.”
The South African Cardinal said that it is at the point where men fail to perform their expected roles that society does not operate the way it is supposed to be operating.
