Retreat In Canadian Focuses On St. Joseph

“Men, do not hesitate to engage in the battle that is raging around you, the battle that is wounding our children and families, the battle that is distorting the dignity of both women and men. This battle is often hidden, but the battle is real. It is primarily spiritual, but it is progressively killing the remaining Christian ethos in our society and culture, and even in our own homes.”
—Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, Diocese of Phoenix
Into the Breach: An Apostolic Exhortation to Catholic Men, my Spiritual Sons
June 28, 2019

Canadian—St. Joseph: Model of How to Be a Real Man, was the focus on a retreat for men and young men March 27 at Sacred Heart Church.

Presenting the retreat was Monsignor Michael P. Colwell, JCL, pastor at Sacred Heart and of St. Patrick’s Church, Shamrock and St. Mary’s Church, Wheeler.

“For some time now, I have been reflecting on the Catholic Man and how the practice, or non-practice of his Faith affects his children and the practice of their Faith later as adults,” he said. “Continuing from Bishop Olmsted’s Apostolic Exhortation, ‘One of the key reasons that the Church is faltering under the attacks of Satan is that many Catholic men have not been willing to step into the breach—to fill this gap that lies open and vulnerable to further attack. A large number have left the Faith, and many who remain Catholic practice the Faith timidly and are only minimally committed to passing the Faith on to their children... the truth is that large numbers of Catholic men are failing to keep the promises they made at their children’s baptisms—promises to bring them to Christ and to raise them in the Faith of the Church.’”

Monsignor Colwell came across a Pew Study that has some shocking results:
“I found that if the father is an irregular church attendee and mother a regular church attendee, only 3% of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, while a further 59% will become irregulars,” he said. “Thirty-eight percent will be lost. I also learned that if the father is non-practicing and mother a regular, only 2% of children will become regular worshippers, and 37% will attend irregularly. Over 60% of their children will be lost completely to the Church! The study also showed that if the father is regular but the mother irregular or non-practicing, amazingly, the percentage of children becoming regular goes up from 33% to 38% with the irregular mother and up to 44% with the non-practicing. This suggests that loyalty to the father’s commitment grows in response to the mother’s laxity or indifference to religion.

“In short, if a father does not go to church—no matter how Faithful his wife’s devotions—only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will become regular churchgoers. If Dad takes Faith in God seriously, then the message to their children is that God should be taken seriously.”

After Monsignor Colwell studied this and a number of other resources, he became saddened and convicted at the same time.

“I asked myself, what can I do to address this, where would I even begin,” he said. “And the answer was St. Joseph. I decided to offer a retreat for men and young men, entitled: St. Joseph: Model of How to Be a Real Man. In the retreat I address aspects of St. Joseph the man, including being a just man, a Faithful, religious man, attentive and responsive to God’s call and plan, the Most Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, fatherhood, the worker, and St. Joseph as mentor to Jesus. I touched on this various themes while rooting them in the four Cardinal Virtues of Justice, Temperance, Prudence, and Fortitude.”

Monsignor Colwell offered a truncated version of this retreat to a few men March 25 at St. Patrick’s Church, Shamrock, a retreat he said was “well received.” Twenty-eight men attended the Canadian retreat, including a number of teenage young men. A third retreat was offered at St. Mary’s Church, Wheeler, on April 17.

“The message I tried to convey was simple: Be a man! Be an authentic Catholic man!” Monsignor Colwell said. “The men and teenagers were very engaged and responsive in this experience, showing a real hunger for the truth and not shying away from the challenge at hand.

“I love adult/young adult formation, so I hope to have a follow-up to this retreat, maybe not specific to being a Catholic man, but I will do my best to try and address the spiritual hunger of the people I serve. I am planning a retreat for women and young women in early-May on Women in the Bible.”