Wanted: Male Mentors

     So I have been pondering why there aren't more men willing to step up and be mentors.  As the summer approaches, two father led organizations my boys belong to are in danger of ending because the men who have been President are retiring and as yet, no one is willing to step in their shoes.  If these organizations were women led there would most likely already be a replacement chosen with a plan made for the coming year.  I see this so often and I'm curious why?  Let's face it, in our society there is a shortage of good male role models.  Heck, there is a shortage of men willing to step up and be fathers.  I don't want to shortchange men by any means.  I know many good fathers who are very involved in leading their families and raising boys into men.  However, radical feminism, and the sway of modern progressive society have damaged and emasculated fatherhood to the point where they would have you wondering whether or not men are little more than sperm donors. 
    Pope Francis recently stated of men, “All of us, to exist, to become complete, in order to be mature, we need to feel the joy of fatherhood: even those of us who are celibate...Fatherhood is giving life to others, giving life…for us, it is pastoral paternity, spiritual fatherhood, but this is still giving life, this is still becoming fathers.”  Is that what is missing?  Too many men do not feel the joy of fatherhood?  I mean, it may be no wonder since many men aren't even aware of their importance in the family.  As saint John Paul II so wonderfully stated,  “As experience teaches, the absence of the father causes psychological and moral imbalance and notable difficulties in family relationships. In contrary circumstances, the oppressive presence of a father, where there still prevails the phenomenon of machismo, or a wrong superiority of male prerogatives which humiliates women and inhibits the development of healthy family relationships (Familiaris Consortio, 25).
    In a wonderful article I recently read, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about how coming to know God as Father through the scriptures can help overcome the fatherhood crisis.  In a society where in many homes fathers are totally absent, is it any wonder men who have not been taught to be men by their fathers, feel uncomfortable teaching other boys how to be men.  Boys long to be virtuous hero's.  Hero's who fight battles and slay dragons.  We need you, men, fathers, to step up and teach our young men how to slay dragons.  Guiding these young souls is tricky business and not for the faint of heart. 
     So what exemplifies true fatherhood?  Fr. Hardon clarifies for us that;"

• True fatherhood begins with a lifetime commitment of the husband to his wife.
• True fatherhood builds on the selfless love of the husband for his wife.
• True fatherhood depends on the generous love of the husband for the offspring of his wife.
• True fatherhood means that the husband cooperates with his wife in the spiritual upbringing of the children.
• True fatherhood therefore, is not only or even mainly generating a human body in this world. It is also and mainly collaborating with the mother in developing the human soul for everlasting life in eternity.

Like St. Joseph, fathers should be:

• most just, without partiality or human respect.
• most chaste, according to their married state of life.
• most prudent, in knowing God’s will through constant prayer.
• most valiant in courageously accepting the cross every moment of the day.
• most obedient in seeing every event as part of divine Providence and responding with, “Here I am Lord. I am ready to do Your will.”
• most faithful in loving their wives with perfect fidelity, and their children with tireless generosity.
• the strength of the home by their exercise of manly courage. They are to protect their wives and children from the plots of the modern Herods who are inspired by the evil spirit to destroy the Christian family in the modern world."

       So there it is men.  Physical and Spiritual fatherhood, flip sides of the same coin. We need you on the front lines.  We need you to step up and reclaim your fatherhood.  We need you to lead your sons and teach them to be men.  We need you to step up and volunteer to be mentors and leaders to boys whose fathers can't or don't want to teach them how to be men.  So remember, " As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live."(Saint John Paul II)