St. Joseph, Proclaimed Patron of the Universal Church 150 Years Ago, Is Needed More Than Ever, by Joseph Pronechen

By Joseph Pronechen, National Catholic Register, December 5, 2020

Dec. 8, 2020, marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pius IX proclaiming St. Joseph as “Patron of the Universal Church.” The timing was providential, for several reasons. The date also celebrated the 16th anniversary of Pius IX’s proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

With the declaration on that Dec. 8, Pope Pius IX called the day “sacred to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and Spouse of the Most Chaste Joseph.”

Now, 150 years later, Father Matthew Spencer,provincial superior of the Oblates of St. Joseph, finds the title “perfectly apt and very important to our times.”

He makes strong connections between today’s society and the situation during the time of the proclamation. “The time when Pius IX lived was facing a lot of darkness, and the Church was facing a lot of persecution,” Father Spencer said. As the individual states in Italy were unifying against the Church, “the Church was under extreme, persecution, especially at the heart of the Church in Rome. Pius IX saw this clearly along with bishops all over the world.”  …