CAPG's Blog 

"Yes, beloved workers, the Pope and the Church cannot withdraw from the divine mission of guiding, protecting, and loving especially the suffering, who are all the more dear the more they are in need of defence and help, whether they be workers or other children of the people.

This duty and obligation We, the Vicar of Christ, desire to declare again clearly here on this first day of May, which the world of labor has claimed for itself as its own proper feast day. We intend that all may recognize the dignity of labor, and that this dignity may be the motive in founding the social order and the law founded on the equitable distribution of rights and duties.

Acclaimed in this way by Christian workers and having received, as it were, Christian baptism, the first of May-far from being an incitation to discord, hate, and violence-is and will be a recurring invitation to modern society to accomplish what is still lacking for social peace; a Christian feast, therefore, that is a day of rejoicing for the concrete and progressive triumph of the Christian ideals of the great family of all who labor.

In order that this meaning may remain in your minds and that in some way We may make an immediate return for the many and precious gifts brought to Us from all parts of Italy, We are happy to announce to you Our determination to institute-as We in fact do now

institute the liturgical feast of St. Joseph the Worker, assigning it to the first day of May. Are you pleased with this Our gift, beloved workers? We are certain that you are, because the humble workman of Nazareth not only personifies before God and the Church the dignity of the man who works with his hands, but he is always the provident guardian of you and your families." Pope Pius XII

"The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was first announced by Pope Pius XII in an address given on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Christian Association of Italian Workers, May 1, 1955. "From the beginning," he stated, "We put your organization under the powerful patronage of St. Joseph. Indeed, there could be no better protector to help deepen in your lives the spirit of the Gospel. As We said then (March 11, 1945), that spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world; but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work. Thus, if you wish to be close to Christ, We again today repeat, 'Go to Joseph'" (Gen. 41:44).