The Holy Father announces a Year in honour of St Joseph

Pope Francis has announced a Year of St Joseph to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the saint’s proclamation as patron of the Universal Church. The year begins on 8 December 2020 and concludes on 8 December 2021, as outlined in an apostolic letter entitled Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart). 

The purpose of the Year of St Joseph is to encourage ‘every member of the faithful, following [Joseph’s] example, to strengthen their life of faith daily in the complete fulfilment of God’s will.’ The pandemic features strongly in the letter as the Holy Father notes that ‘many people had made hidden sacrifices during the crisis to protect others’ drawing parallels to St Joseph who was a man who went ‘unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence - an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble’.

In a decree on Tuesday 8 December, the Apostolic Penitentiary said that, ‘to reaffirm the universality of St Joseph's patronage in the Church,’ it would grant a plenary indulgence to Catholics who recite any approved prayer or act of piety in honour of St Joseph, especially on 19 March, the saint’s solemnity, and 1 May, the Feast of St Joseph the Worker. Other notable days for the plenary indulgence are the Feast of the Holy Family on 29 December, as well as the 19th of each month and every Wednesday, a day dedicated to the saint in the Latin tradition. The three conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence are sacramental confession, the reception of Holy Communion and prayer for the pope's intentions.

‘In the Gospels,’ the Holy Father writes, ‘St Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love.’

The pope concludes his new apostolic letter by urging Catholics to pray to St Joseph for ‘the grace of graces: our conversion’ and with a particular prayer to the ‘Guardian of the Redeemer’. This prayer, and others, as well as a series of short Scriptural meditations can be downloaded via the button below. 

St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church
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