St Joseph Declaration

At the 1st vatican council(1869-1870) over 300 prelates petitioned to holy see to declare St joseph as the patron saint of the universal church, and on december 8,1870 pope pius IX proclaimed him so. In 1955 pope pius XII added the title, patron saint of workmen for St. Joseph, the feast to be celebrated on may 1st.

No less deeply aware of st josephs close patron al links with the universal church was John XXIII. In fact, this prompted him to declare st Joseph, as a heavenly protector of the second vatican council, realizing as he already did that the church's overall well-being and modernization would have top priority on its agenda.

Interestingly enough, it was in one of the councils initial sessions that John XXIII had striking proof of high esteem in which he held St joseph. For it so happened that a certain Yugoslav bishop felt moved to stand up and express his regret to the assembled prelates that devotion to St joseph had sadly declined in the present day church. This statement evoked a chorus of derisive laughter from the assembly: after all, was it for trivial matters such as this that they had been summoned to Rome from the ends of the earth?.
We can imagine how chastised many of those worthiest must have felt when, the very next day (november 13,1962), cardinal Cicognam, speaking on the Holy Fathers behalf, solemnly announce that he had decided to pay st Joseph the signal honor of including him, with immediate effect, in the cannon of Roman Mass, his name to be placed immediately after the Virgin Mary's and ahead of John the Baptist, the apostles and martyrs.

Vatican II assembly

Pope Pius XII laid the ground work in 1950 for Vatican II which opened in 1962 by pope John XXIII and closed by Paul VI in 1965.The major outcomes of this council are as follows:
(1)Latin was replaced by the common language of the local people,priest was allowed to face the people & in 3 years nearly all of the scriptures would be read at the Holy Mass.
(2)allowed lay people too,to involve reading scriptures,assisting with distribution of Holy communion
(3) marriage & single life were respected,as equal vocation of GOD along with Holy orders.
(4) promoting Christian unity among various denomination & religions.
(5) using modern technology to explain the faith.

Nearly 3000 priests +lay people attended. Previous council vatican1 held 100 years before to decide on papal infallability!

Undoubtedly one of St joseph's prime concerns as patron of the church is that it faithfully preserves and safeguards the precious truth of revelations- the so called deposit of faith!. Let us recall that the carpenter of Nazareth had been further privileged, along with Mary, to be the first depository of two key new testament truths: her virginal conception, and her child's identity as the incarnate son of God and redeemer-to-be of fallen mankind.

For more details follow this links :
http://weeklycatholicreflection.blogspot.com 
Or
http://www.sundayreading.net/  ‬

Or for more details about Mary

http://holymaryreflection.blogspot.com