Father's Role in Family and Society

Some recent studies have demonstrated how important a father is to his child's development. Children with fathers present have a lower rate of delinquency, drug, and alcohol use, teen pregnancy, and so on, than those with absent fathers. The father's presence is also a significant positive factor in children’s getting a college education, finding a satisfying job, and making a lasting marriage. Psychotherapists today are saying that both parents are vitally important to the stable development of their children. The mother's input is invaluable in the formative pre-adolescent years but the father's most important influence is at adolescence. Single mothers tell us that it is terribly difficult to teach their children about the meaning of God the Father, who seems so impersonal because their natural fathers have abandoned their children. Adolescent daughters long to hear from their fathers that they are beautiful and loved. In fact, a girl's choice of partner and satisfaction in marriage is often directly related to the relationship she has had with her father. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the vital importance of the father’s role comes from the fact that he with his wife cooperates with God the Creator in bringing a new human life into the world. There is no power greater than that (#2367). (A few Biblical references to fathers: Genesis 2:24, Exodus 20:12, Ezekiel 19:19-20, Sirach 3:1 16, Matthew 19:16-22, John 1:14, 2 Cor. 6:16-18, Ephesians 6: 1-4, 1 Thess. 2:11