Digital Marian Helper Magazine Spring 2021

M arian H elper • S pring 2021 • marian . org 15 I t’s a reasonable question. Did Fr. Donald Calloway’s letter to Pope Francis have an influence on the Holy Father declaring a Year of St. Joseph? Here is what we know. We know the Church has a long tradition of the faithful petitioning the See of Peter for various things. For instance, through the guidance of the Hol y Spirit, many bishops and lay faithful successfully petitioned for the Church to declare the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception (which she did in 1854) and the Assumption of Mary (in 1950). When St. Joseph was proclaimed the Patron of the Universal Church in 1870, the decision came following various petitions to the Holy See. Similar successful efforts were made to have St. Joseph’s name added to the Mass (approved in 1962). Father Donald’s efforts began in 2018 when he urged the Oblates of St. Joseph to write an official letter ask- ing the pope to declare a Year of St. Joseph. The Oblates loved the idea and followed through with it that year. They never heard a response, so they instead declared a Year of St. Joseph for their community. Father Donald didn’t let it go at that. In 2019, he wrote a letter to every bishop in the United States asking each to declare a Year of St. Joseph on the diocesan level. Concurrently, he asked members of the faithful to also petition their bishops with a similar request. In all, 12 bishops followed through. Father Donald didn’t stop there. He wrote his letter to the Pope, which was hand-delivered on May 4, 2019, by a friend of the Marians, Bishop Hector Zordan fromArgentina. We know the Pope and the bishop opened t he letter and had a conversation about it. Th at’s when the picture you see here was taken. Father Donald didn’t stop there. In anticipation of the Jan. 1, 2020 publication of his book Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father , he wrote a letter to the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary in May 2019 asking for a plenary indulgence for all who make a consecration to St. Joseph using his book. “I thought it was a long shot,” Fr. Donald admitted. He heard back on Dec. 30, 2019, from none other than Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, granting the request for the year 2020. As last year unfolded and Fr. Donald’s book became a bestseller, Fr. Donald said he began to hear chatter from Rome that big news may be coming. On the morning of Dec. 8, the 150 th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, Fr. Donald received word about the Year of St. Joseph. The decree was signed by Cardinal Piacenza. “You cannot tell me there isn’t some kind of connec- tion,” Fr. Donald said with a laugh. Did Fr. Donald have something to do with this? Father Donald sees the Holy Spirit at work in all of this. “Something is up,” he said. “Think about it: Since 1870, when Pope Pius IX declared St. Joseph the Patron of the Universal Church — telling the world to turn to Joseph as our loving father, our spiritual father — there has been so much momentum, and now it’s reaching a crescendo. “Now it’s time to bring in St. Joseph, the head of the Holy Family, and ask him to bring us closer to Jesus and Mary. I think that’s what the Holy Spirit has been doing, building up to this moment. The whole Church is now coming around to St. Joseph,” said Fr. Donald. “I never anticipated the book being this big, but at a time when families are under attack, marriages are falling apart, when people have turned away from God, when there’s so much anxiety and fear, we really do need St. Joseph. We need his protection. Now is the time of St. Joseph.” In tandem with the Holy Father’s declaration, the Apostolic Penitentiary issued a decree granting plenary indul- gences for the year “to perpetuate the entrustment of the whole Church to the powerful patronage of the Custodian Y e a r o f S t . J o S e p h D e c . 8 , 2 0 2 0 – D e c . 8 , 2 0 2 1