More than 200 fathers, families process through St. Paul streets for Catholic Father’s Day

Gathered for faith, fraternity and family in the Year of St. Joseph, more than 200 Catholic fathers and their families celebrated Mass June 19 with Bishop Andrew Cozzens.

After the Mass, Bishop Cozzens helped lead a 1.5-mile eucharistic procession and rosary through city streets before picnicking with the group back where they started: Maternity of Mary in St. Paul.

Organized by men’s group Catholic Watchmen in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Catholic Father’s Day event was one of more than a dozen across the country championed by Wisconsin-based Men of Christ and Texas-based Catholic Men’s Leadership Alliance.

“What better way to celebrate Father’s Day than a Father’s Day procession led by an icon of St. Joseph,” said Matt Zolnick, 33, who with his wife, Elena, 34, and their children, Gloria, 3, and Victoria, 1, recently moved to St. Paul from New Jersey and joined Maternity of Mary. “We thought we’d enjoy Catholic fellowship in our new spiritual home.”

A highlight of the procession was men taking turns carrying a large Pilgrimage Icon of St. Joseph, Husband, Father, and Worker, which is housed at St. Constantine Ukrainian Catholic Church in Minneapolis. The icon was commissioned, drawn and designed by area carpenter Joshua LaFond and painted by Eric Menzhuber of the Twin Cities.

The Zolnicks — pushing a stroller for two and at times helping Gloria walk along the streets safely blocked off by police escorts — were joined by men and women young and old, infants and teenagers. The procession progressed to Lake Como and back to the parish. Neighbors took notice from porches, front yards and driveway cookouts of their own on the sunny and mild summer day.

In his homily, Bishop Cozzens said he hopes the Catholic Father’s Day gathering will become an annual event. It is important to highlight men’s call to be sacrificial leaders of their families, with St. Joseph as a model, he said.

“Every man on earth is called to be a father, and we only call him father to the degree in which he imitates God the Father,” Bishop Cozzens said. “Fatherhood is about self-gift, the opposite of selfishness. It is a desire to pour myself out. To make a gift of my life.”

St. Joseph’s life was turned upside down as the earthly father of Jesus, Bishop Cozzens said. He was “called to make his whole life a service for Mary and Jesus. Everything was ordered to this end, to protect and provide for Mary and Jesus.”

Men responding to their own call to sacrificial giving will find the most demanding aspects of that call to be the most rewarding, Bishop Cozzens said. “When we live sacrificial lives for others, it fills our lives with joy and goodness.”

John Ingebritson, 47, and his son, Sam, 10, and Scott Zipp, 54, and his son, Thomas, 9, traveled together from their parish St. Michael in St. Michael to take in Catholic Father’s Day. Zipp and Ingebritson belong to a Catholic men’s group in their parish and Zipp is an organizer at St. Michael for Catholic Watchmen.

Ingebritson said he enjoys any opportunity to “celebrate Jesus, especially in the Eucharist.” It’s also easier to be a good Catholic man with other Catholic men as support, he said.

Zipp’s son, Thomas, said he enjoys being with his friends, and the outing was a great time.

“It’s sort of fun,” he said. “I get to see my friends. I get to go to Mass and I get to pray the rosary.”