10 inspiring Catholic quotes about fatherhood

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CNA Staff, Jun 15, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Every Father’s Day, we recognize and give thanks for the fathers in our lives. It’s a day to honor all men who love and sacrifice for others and to remember the love each of us receives from God the Father. Whether you’re writing out a Father’s Day card or pondering the great vocation of being a father, here are 10 quotes from Catholic figures and writings about fatherhood:

Pope Francis:

“Every family needs a father — a father who shares in his family’s joy and pain, hands down wisdom to his children, and offers them firm guidance and love.” 

St. John Paul II:

“In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God, a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family.”

Pope Benedict XVI:

“God is a father who never abandons his children, a loving father who supports, helps, welcomes, forgives, saves, with a fidelity that immensely surpasses that of men, opening up to an eternal dimension.”

Pope Francis:

“A good father knows how to wait and knows how to forgive from the depths of his heart. Certainly, he also knows how to correct with firmness: He is not a weak father, submissive and sentimental. The father who knows how to correct without humiliating is the one who knows how to protect without sparing himself.”

G.K. Chesterton:

“God chooses ordinary men for fatherhood to accomplish his extraordinary plan.”

Father Lawrence Lovasik: 

“Fatherhood is a vocation in God’s service to be not held lightly or frivolously, but with the serious determination of serious men.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2214:

“The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; this is the foundation of the honor owed to parents.”

St. John Paul II:

“Love for his wife as mother of their children and love for the children themselves are for the man the natural way of understanding and fulfilling his own fatherhood.”

St. Vincent de Paul:

“A man of prayer is capable of everything.” 

Servant of God Father John Hardon:

“St. Joseph is the divinely revealed model of human fatherhood.”