It was the year 1870. A significant year in the history of the Church as the First Vatican Council [Vatican I] was concluding. But suddenly, the political situation in Rome crumbled. The council fathers were forced home. Rome was under siege and the long Vatican captivity began. On the surface, prospects appeared bleak for the papacy. In reality, things were not as bad as they seemed./
He who had preserved Christ himself from the designs of a wicked Herod still stood prepared to protect the Vicar of Christ from the plots of a wicked world. When things appeared at their worst, Pope Pius IX acceded to the desires of the faithful and various members of Vatican I and invoked the powerful protection of the guardian of the nascent Church, Joseph of Nazareth.
On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception that year, all of Italy was invited to offer Mass for the intentions of the pope. Thus, 8 December 1870 was Italy’s day of prayer for the See of Peter. And Peter’s heir seized the occasion to perform a great act of apostolic authority. In the Roman basilicas, he published the decree, Quemadmodum Deus, declaring St. Joseph patron and protector of the universal Church.
Sixteen years previous, to the day, the same pope officially opened a great Marian era by defining Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Now he opened a proportionately great era honouring her life’s companion, Joseph.
The Church has been in search of new ways to honour her eternal protector. Pope Pius IX himself made the feast of Joseph feast one of the solemnities in the Church’s liturgical calendar. Later, Pope Leo XIII approved the St. Joseph Scapular and penned the encyclical, Quamquam pluries, on devotion to St. Joseph. The Litany of St. Joseph was endorsed for public use by Pope St. Pius X. Benedict XV sanctioned a proper preface in Joseph’s honour and added his invocation to the Divine Praises. Pius XI designated him a special protector against communism. Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
It was hardly surprising, then, that from the very outset of his pontificate, Pope St. John XXIII should sing Joseph’s praises. This devotion of the pontiff was already evident in the conclave that elected him the Bishop of Rome. Faced with selecting a name, Cardinal Roncalli seriously considered “Joseph.” But no pope had ever taken the name before, so he chose the name, John.
Pope John, on several occasions during his homilies and through his teachings, exhorted the faithful that “St. Joseph is the protector par excellence of the family, along with the other two [Mary and Jesus] of whom he was the incomparable guardian. The simple mention of Jesus, Mary and Joseph reminds us that there [in the Holy Family] we find all human history and there we find also the salvation, the grandeur, the beauty, the splendour of the Catholic Church.
In his apostolic letters, he referred to the prayer “To thee, O Blessed Joseph” [of Pope Leo XIII, prescribed to be recited after the October Rosary] as “the most beautiful prayer that did so much to enrich the time of our childhood.”
