Archbishop Hebda has designated this upcoming year as the Year of St. Joseph for the Archdiocese. It will begin on Tuesday, December 8th with a 7pm Mass that will be held at the Cathedral. (This Mass will be live-streamed on the events page of the archdiocesan website if you wish to tune in.) This year marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as the Universal Patron of the Church. Blessed Pius IX declared this after many cardinals, bishops, and lay faithful from around the world petitioned him to do so. While there are many reasons that this is a fitting title for St. Joseph, one of them has to do with his authority. St. Joseph was the head of the household of the Holy Family. He, for example, was the one who was tasked with taking “the young child and his mother” to Egypt to flee from King Herod (Mt 2:13). Since scripture teaches that God gives parents genuine authority over their children. This means that St. Joseph had been entrusted with true authority over Jesus. While it is true that he was not Jesus’ biological father, scripture does consider him to be legally his father. For example, Matthew tells us that Joseph was the one who named Jesus (of course, at the command of the angel) and Luke tells us that the child Jesus “was obedient” to his parents (Mt 1:25, Lk 2:51) If God himself entrusted St. Joseph with authority over Christ, then it makes sense that he would have a certain authority over the Church which is the Body of Christ. And so, St. Joseph is rightly called the Universal Patron of the Church. The devil and his angels greatly fear authentic authority because they rebelled against God’s rightful authority by their disobedience. Because of this, they greatly fear the authority of St. Joseph. Catholic tradition has acknowledged this by giving him another title: St. Joseph, Terror of Demons. If this is the case, then let’s be sure to call on St. Joseph for his spiritual protection especially during this year of St. Joseph. St. Joseph, Terror of Demons – Pray for us!