Catholic Replies
Q. Do we know how old St. Joseph was when he married the Virgin Mary? I have heard it said that he was an old man. — W.D., via e-mail.
A. No, we don’t know for certain how old Joseph was when he married Mary. We think that Mary was about 15 or 16 years old, and young men at that time usually married when they were in their twenties. Those who speculate that Joseph was old may be trying to account for his willingness to enter into a celibate marriage. But Pope St. John Paul II shed a different light on Mary and Joseph’s consecrated virginity at an audience in 1996:
“It may be presumed that at the time of their betrothal there was an understanding between Joseph and Mary about her plan to live as a virgin. Moreover, the Holy Spirit, who had inspired Mary to choose virginity in view of the mystery of the Incarnation and who wanted the latter to come about in a family setting suited to the Child’s growth, was quite able to instill in Joseph the ideal of virginity as well.”
Also rejecting this theory in his book To Know Christ Jesus (pp. 71-72) was Frank Sheed, who said that “such an arrangement, with Joseph merely brought in to keep the neighbors from talking, would hardly be a marriage at all, but rather a mockery of marriage.” He said that “we must think of them as truly husband and wife, with a true union of personalities, each bringing completion to the other, with a profound sharing of interests, sharing of lives, enriched by the special graces from God that their virginity called for. . . . Both loved God supremely, and their love of God poured back in a great flood of love of each other, love so great that it made the ordinary outward manifestation unnecessary. There was more love in that virginal family, more married love, than ever a family has known.”
Also casting doubt on Joseph as an old man is what he was called to do as head of the Holy Family. Could an old man work hard in a carpenter shop every day? Could an old man have walked 90 miles to Bethlehem, leading a donkey carrying his wife? Could an old man have traveled hundreds of miles to Egypt and back to escape the murderous wrath of King Herod? And could an old man have made the long trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem, and back, to celebrate Passover each year? It is more likely that Joseph was a vigorous younger man.
Q. Are the number of angels and demons set for all time, or can their numbers grow or diminish? We know that Jesus sent many demons back to Hell. Did that put them out of commission? When a child has died, we have heard the sentiment that God needed another angel. But I’m sure that we are born either spirit or flesh and cannot become the other. Should we pray for angels or just against demons? I pray the St. Michael prayer every day for our priests, our Church, and our country. — D.H.D., via e-mail.
A. 1. The number of angels was set when God created them. Since billions of people have lived in the world, there are at least that number of guardian angels and certainly more since there are eight other choirs of angels above those who serve as our guardians.
The number of demons can grow with every person who chooses Hell over Heaven and joins the ranks of Satan. We recall reading about the exorcism of a woman in Iowa many years ago in which one of the demons possessing her identified himself to the exorcist as her father, who had sexually abused his daughter for years. So he had been added to the number of demons.
- We don’t know whether the demons Jesus sent back to Hell were henceforth incapable of harassing or possessing anyone. We would think not. Their evil work will continue until all of them are permanently cast into the “pool of fire” at the end of time (cf. Rev. 20:14).
- You are correct that we don’t become angels in Heaven; we retain our humanity, and our souls will be rejoined to our bodies at the glorious resurrection at the end of time.
- We can pray to angels for their protection and intercession, but we don’t need to pray for them. They are all-powerful spirits who act as God’s messengers and who carry out His plan in the world, including protecting each one of us.
- Everyone should pray to St. Michael every day to protect us from the power of the Devil, whose malign influence seems to be everywhere. Q. Church leaders have urged Catholics to register our protests with the pharmaceutical companies that have used fetal tissue in the production of vaccines, medicines, medical therapies, and other products. Can you provide the contact information so that we can register our strong moral objections to the continued use of fetal tissue in so many products? — R.S., Idaho.
A. Here are the major offenders:
Pfizer Inc., 235 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017.
Moderna, 200 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Johnson & Johnson, One Johnson & Johnson Plaza, New Brunswick, NJ 08933. Q. President Biden likes to emphasize what a good Catholic he is. But haven’t many of his policies during his first year in office gone contrary to Catholic teachings? — E.R., via e-mail.
A. They sure have. Here is a summary of Biden’s moral lapses provided by Bill Donohue of the Catholic League.
“We tallied eighteen abortion policies enunciated by [President] Trump that were overturned by Biden in his first year in office; twelve policies on religious liberty were reversed; and six policies on sex (or what they erroneously call gender) were overridden. Trump is not a Catholic; Biden identifies as one. Indeed, Biden considers himself to be a ‘devout Catholic,’ and carries rosary beads to prove it. Yet in 2021, we found 69 instances where his policies departed from Catholic teachings.
“Most of the departures involved issues such as abortion, transgender rights, and religious liberty. For example, Biden became the first president to declare that the public should pay for abortion — all abortions. He insisted that transgender persons should be a protected class, even to the point of forcing Catholic doctors and hospitals to violate their conscience by performing sex-transition surgery. He also rolled back the religious exemptions afforded faith-based programs.”
