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Previous Messages from the Director
June 2022
Dear Friends,
On June 21, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron of Christian youth, AIDS sufferers and their caregivers. Gonzaga was a Jesuit scholastic who died at the age of 23 in 1591 during the plague of Rome. He died while caring for the sick.
When Gonzaga entered the Jesuits, his father wrote to the Jesuit Superior General stating, “I merely say that I am giving into your Reverence’s hands the most precious thing I possess in the whole world.” His father made a huge sacrifice when he gave the gift of his son to God.
During the month of Father’s Day, I would like to share with you these thoughts of the Holy Father on fathers:
Fathers must be patient. Often there is nothing else to do but wait; pray and wait with patience, gentleness, magnanimity, and mercy. A good father knows how to wait and knows how to forgive from the depths of his heart. Certainly, he also knows how to correct with firmness: he is not a weak father, submissive and sentimental. The father who knows how to correct without humiliating is the one who knows how to protect without sparing himself… The Church, our mother, is committed to supporting with all her strength the good and generous presence of fathers in families, for they are the irreplaceable guardians and mediators of faith in goodness, of faith in justice and in God’s protection.
Let us all give thanks for good fathers and offer prayers for those fathers who need a little help in living out their roles.
Thank you for your support and your prayers, and Happy Father’s Day.
Sincerely,
Barry J. Leidl
Director, Advancement