In reply to Father Scott Murray’s article “The Perpetual Virginity of St. Joseph?”, which is in turn a response to my article “Saint Joseph’s Perpetual Virginity and the Apocrypha,” allow me to say these few words, specifically addressing one of Father Murray’s comments from his, which is the following: “From a theological perspective his virginity only matters in relation to her, which is why traditional texts don’t refer to him as a virgin.”[1] The latter part of this statement is not quite true, when one considers that both the Church Father Saint Peter Damian[2] and the Scholastic Theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas[3] predicate the word “virgo” of Saint Joseph, and since virgo is the Latin word for “virgin,” therefore both Saint Peter Damian and Saint Thomas Aquinas refer to Saint Joseph as a “virgin.” Hence, contrary to Father Murray’s assertion, there are indeed traditional texts which refer to Saint Joseph as a virgin, and these traditional texts are Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on the Sentences and Saint Peter Damian’s De Caelibatu Sacerdotum.
However, I do wish to commend Father Murray. For in his article, Father Murray reveals that “[a] quality that has defined [his] ten years of priesthood and most of [his] life is a consistent and deep devotion to St. Joseph,” that he “pray[s] the Litany of St. Joseph…every Wednesday with [his] parishioners,” and that he “do[es] choose to believe in the perpetual virginity of Joseph.”[4] It is clear to me from reading these statements that Father Murray has a strong devotion to Saint Joseph which diffuses into his parishioners and pervades both his priesthood and his very life, and hence Father Murray is doing things which are bringing about a universal devotion to Saint Joseph, which is very much needed in these dark, even apocalyptic-looking, days of ours. This necessity of devotion to Saint Joseph on account of the darkness looming over the world caused by the hordes of demons which swarm the atmosphere is, after all, why Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Terror of Demons to be the Patron of the Universal Church on December 8, 1870,[5] and is also why Joseph’s name was put into the Communicantes Prayer of Roman Canon in the Mass on December 8, 1962,[6] and is finally why the Catholic Church officially taught that Saint Joseph is the Image of God the Father on December 8, 2020.[7]
Endnotes:
[1] Father Scott Murray, “The Perpetual Virginity of St. Joseph?” Catholic Insight, June 26, 2024, https://catholicinsight.com/the-perpetual-virginity-of-st-joseph/.
[2] Saint Peter Damian, Opusculum Decimum Septimum: De Caelibatu Sacerdotum, Tomus Secundus, in Patrologiae Cursus Completus, ed. J.P. Migne (1853), https://patristica.net/latina/, PLn. 145, cap. III (384): “Et ne hoc sufficere videatur, ut tantumodo virgo sit mater [idest, Sancta Maria], Ecclesiae fides est, ut virgo fuerit et is qui simulatus est pater [idest, Sanctus Joseph]. [And lest this seem to suffice, that only [the] mother [i.e., Saint Mary] is [a] virgin, [the] faith of [the] Church is, that he who is like [a] father [i.e., Saint Joseph] was also [a] virgin.]”
[3] Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, trans. Beth Mortensen, STD, ed. and annot. Michael Bolin, PHD, Jeremy Holmes, PHD, and Peter Kwasniewski, PHD (Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine), https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~Sent.I, IV, d. 30, q. 2, a. 3, ad 4: “Joseph, qui etiam virgo fuit. [Joseph, who was also a virgin.]”
[4] Father Scott Murray, “The Perpetual Virginity of St. Joseph?” Catholic Insight, June 26, 2024, https://catholicinsight.com/the-perpetual-virginity-of-st-joseph/.
[5] Pius IX, Quemadmodum Deus, Oblates of St. Joseph: Holy Spouses Province, December 8, 1870, https://osjusa.org/st-joseph/magisterium/quemadmodum-deus.
[6] For the Insertion of the Name of St. Joseph in the Prayers of the Mass, Enlarged Edition (Kansas City: Romanitas Press, 2019), [A2] 178, n34, emphasis in bold and italics is mine: “It was this cutting off of Bishop Čule that prompted Pope John to order the insertion of the name of St. Joseph in the Canon of the Mass on his own authority (decree announced November 13th, effective Dec. 8, 1962), without waiting for any conciliar recommendation in the matter.”; Donald H. Calloway, MIC, Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father (Stockbridge: Marian Press, 2020), 95, emphasis in bold and italics is mine: “Bishop Cule’s speech on St. Joseph nearly brought Pope John XXIII to tears, and caused the pope to act. On November 13, three days after Bishop Cule gave his presentation on St. Joseph, Pope John XXIII decreed that the name of St. Joseph would be included in the Roman Canon of the Mass! The decree went into effect on December 8, 1962.”
[7] Francis, Patris Corde, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, December 8, 2020, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20201208_patris-corde.html, emphasis in bold and italics is mine: “Romae, Laterani, die VIII mensis Decembris, in Immaculata Conceptione BMV, anno MMXX, Pontificatus Nostri octavo. [Given in Rome, at Saint John Lateran, on 8 December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 2020, the eighth of my Pontificate.]”