*Patris corde*: The Pope Francis’ letter on Saint Joseph

**Patris corde** («with a father’s heart») is the apostolic letter of Pope Francis on Saint Joseph, signed on December 8, 2020, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The occasion marked the 150th anniversary of Saint Joseph’s declaration as Patron of the Catholic Church by Blessed Pius IX on December 8, 1870. With this letter, Francis convened the Year of Saint Joseph, running from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021, enriched with special indulgences granted by the Apostolic Penitentiary. The core of the document presents seven portraits of the saint: beloved father, tender father, obedient father, welcoming father, creative father, working father, and shadowed father.The opening phrase sets the tone for the entire text: “With a father’s heart: thus Joseph loved Jesus, designated in the four Gospels as ‘the son of Joseph'” (Patris corde, introduction). Francis recalls a factual detail that justifies the focus on Josefology given to this document: “After Mary, the Mother of God, no saint occupies so much space in pontifical teaching as Joseph, her husband” (introduction).## The Occasion: 150 Years of Patronage over the ChurchOn December 8, 1870, by decree *Quemadmodum Deus* of the Sacred Congregation for Rites, Pius IX declared Saint Joseph *Patronus Catholicae Ecclesiae* (Patron of the Catholic Church). The Latin text is concise: “The Pope solemnly declared him Patron of the Catholic Church” (ASS 6, pp. 193-194). John Paul II summarized the gesture thus: “In difficult times for the Church, Pius IX, desiring to entrust it to the special protection of Saint Joseph, declared him ‘Patron of the Catholic Church'” (*Redemptoris custos*, n. 28).*Patris corde* thus enters a precise magisterial lineage: the encyclical *Quamquam pluries* of Leo XIII (1889), which founded the patronage on the fact that Joseph was Mary’s husband and Jesus’ legal father, and the apostolic exortation *Redemptoris custos* of John Paul II (1989), published on the centenary of that encyclical. Francis does not intend to replace this doctrinal corpus but to reread it from an existential perspective, based on the experience of the pandemic when countless ordinary people sustained life for others away from the spotlight.## The Seven Portraits of the FatherThe letter is structured around seven titles, each one a facet of Joseph’s fatherhood. They are not parallel devotions but different aspects of a single mission: to serve the Person of Jesus through the real exercise of paternity.### Beloved Father“The greatness of Saint Joseph lies in the fact that he was Mary’s husband and Jesus’ father” (n. 1). Joseph had “the courage to assume legal paternity of Jesus” (introduction), manifested in the act of giving a name: Joseph gave the Child the name “Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21, cited in the introduction). To give a name, in Second Temple Judaism, is a juridical gesture of true fatherhood, not a symbolic formality.### Tender Father“Jesus saw the tenderness of God in Joseph: ‘As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him’ (Ps 103:13) (n. 2). The Child Jesus learned the paternal face of God from the face of a carpenter. Francis draws a spiritual lesson from this: ‘In the midst of life’s storms, we must not be afraid to leave steering to God’ (n. 2).”

Father in obedience

“In all circumstances of his life, Joseph knew to pronounce his ‘fiat’, as Mary did at the Announcement and Jesus in Gethsemane (n. 3). Joseph’s obedience is always active: in the four dreams recorded by Matthew, he wakes up and acts. John Paul II had already called it a ‘pure obedience of faith’ (Redemptoris custos, n. 4).”

Father in welcome

“Joseph welcomes Mary without preconditions. He trusts the words of the angel (n. 4). From this arises one of the most quoted phrases from the letter: ‘The spiritual life that Joseph shows us is not a path that explains, but a path that welcomes’ (n. 4). Joseph does not receive answers to the mystery, he receives the mystery itself into his home.”

Father with creative courage

“During the flight into Egypt, Joseph ‘is the man through whom God cares for the beginnings of redemption history’ (n. 5). That is why Francis proposes him as ‘a special patron for those who have to leave their land because of war, hatred, persecution, and poverty’ (n. 5). This is the most visibly updated aspect of the document.”

Father in work

“St. Joseph was a carpenter who worked honestly to provide for his family. With him, Jesus learned the value, dignity, and joy of what it means to eat bread earned through one’s own labor (n. 6). The theme continues the tradition of St. Joseph as the Worker and gains urgency in a time of unemployment addressed directly by the letter.”

Father in shadow

“This is the most original portrait. ‘One does not become a father, one becomes such… And one does not become a father simply because one has placed a child in the world, but because one takes responsibility for him’ (n. 7). Joseph is the shadow of the heavenly Father over Jesus: ‘He never put himself at the center; he knew how to decentralize himself, placing Mary and Jesus at the center of his life’ (n. 7). True fatherhood is chastity for those who do not possess a child.”

The Joseph Year and Indulgences

To translate the letter into church life, Francis called for a Saint Joseph Year, from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021. On the same day of publication, the Apostolic Penitentiary issued a decree granting special indulgences for the entire year. Under usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharist communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions), a plenary indulgence was granted, among other forms, to those who meditated on the Our Father for at least thirty minutes, prayed the Rosary as a family or between engaged couples, entrusted their daily work to St. Joseph’s protection, practiced an act of mercy bodily or spiritually, or recited a prayer lawfully approved in honor of the saint.The declared goal of the year was not to accumulate practices but to obtain what the letter itself asks for at the end: ‘Let us only implore Saint Joseph’s grace upon us’ (conclusion).

The Seven New Invocations of the Litany

As fruits of the Joseph Year, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, by a letter dated May 1, 2021, updated the Litany of Saint Joseph approved in 1909, incorporating seven invocations drawn from recent teachings: Custos Redemptoris (Guardian of the Redeemer), Serve Christi (Servant of Christ), Minister salutis (Minister of Salvation), Fulcimen in difficultatibus (Support in Difficulties), and Patrone exsulum, afflictorum, pauperum (Patron of the exiled, the afflicted, and the poor). Among these, support in difficulties comes from the prologue of Patris corde, and the patronage of the exiled, the afflicted, and the poor is derived from n. 5.

What Patris corde Adds to Josephology

From the perspective of systematic Josephology, the letter does not introduce new dogmatic theses: the real, not merely apparent, paternity of Joseph, the espousal bond with Mary as the legal foundation for this paternity, and the direct service to the Person and mission of Jesus were already established in Redemptoris custos (nn. 7-8 and 21). The contribution of Francis lies on another level.

First, a biblical-typological emphasis: “Saint Joseph is the hinge that joins the Old and New Testaments” (n. 1), recalling the typology of Patriarch Joseph in Egypt, present in tradition and in the very decree of 1870, which begins by comparing the two Joses. Second, an existential focus: Joseph is the saint at the door, “the man who goes unnoticed, the man of quiet, hidden daily presence” (prologue), proposed as a mediator and guide for all states of life. Third, a social dimension: migrants, the unemployed, and wounded parents find in the letter a concrete reflection. Thus, Josephology gains, without losing speculative rigor, a pastoral grammar for the third millennium.

Whoever wishes to delve deeper can read the full text of Patris corde on the Holy See website and compare it with the exhortation Redemptoris custos: together, the two texts form the current axis of Josephin teaching.

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