By Paul Dobbyn
A MILLION Australian children go to bed each night without a father and more than 30 per cent of teenage boys don’t live with their biological father.
The Father Factor, a book launched in Brisbane last week, has assembled statistics and case studies to argue, at its worst, this is a social disaster.
The new book also offers a constructive way forward.
One of the book’s authors, menALIVE co-founder Robert Falzon, said evidence emerging from research he’d done with QUT’s Science and Engineering faculty Adjunct Professor Peter O’Shea had shown “the father factor is real, relevant and destiny-shaping”.
“Fathers play a major role in influencing the outcomes of people’s lives … particularly in happiness, success and health,” Mr Falzon told those gathered for the launch at the Francis Rush Centre on October 24.
“We are a country that does not have fathers, not just in homes but in every place of leadership.
“So I set about trying to find a way to wave this red flag in society and say this is a problem.”
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, launching The Father Factor, provided thought-provoking social commentary as well as some insights into his own father’s impact on his upbringing.
“This slim volume is extremely timely and welcome,” he said.
“It’s a crucial combination of heart and head.
“It’s a book which reads the state of play, the signs of the times well.
“We are living in time of enormous flux – the understanding of what it means to be human is being challenged and understanding frayed to what it means to be male and female.
“Society can’t tell you about this anymore; it’s something you’ve just got to work out; cultural osmosis is a thing of the past.”
Archbishop Coleridge said patterns of employment had changed, redefining the role of man as breadwinner.
“So the role of a father as source of authority has been redefined,” he said.
“We are at the point where many men don’t know what it means to be a father which is why I believe many are giving up trying.”
He said such trends were having theological consequences for the understanding of “God as Father”.
“This touches the very heart of what it means to be Christian and Catholic,” he said.
Mr Falzon said he had been moved by his experience of reaching some 14,000 men in various menALIVE events over 11 years to consider writing the book.
“Fatherhood didn’t just matter in the lives of these men either,” he said.
“Nearly every woman that I’ve talked to spoke significantly about the influence of their father, and the influence of the other man in their life, the biological father to their children.”
He paid tribute to co-author Professor O’Shea describing him as “the genius” who had brought a new focus to the book.
“God was good and didn’t let me run in my ideological, dreamworld approach to the method of writing the book,” he said.
“Peter said our opinions don’t matter – if we’re going to raise a subject of such significance to society we had to put our opinions aside. “And the truth did reveal itself in the evidence.”
Professor O’Shea said he found the process of researching the book “cathartic”, helping to adjust his understanding of his own father’s influence on his life.
This evidence-based approach to writing The Father Factor was important, he said.
“It’s very easy in life to do lots of things that don’t work,” he said.
“This approach helps us to adjust not only our conscious thinking processes but also our subconscious thinking processes.”
Archbishop Coleridge said the book should be used in formation in such areas as schools, seminaries and marriage preparation.
“There is a great deal in this book that I think should be required reading for seminarians,” he said.
“Because if the priesthood does not lead to spiritual fatherhood, spiritual generativity, if it’s not an experience of fathering, then inevitably it dries up.”
Mr Falzon said the archbishop must have some powers of prophecy.
“The Reverend Anthony Percy (rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd at Homebush, Sydney) having read the book has just bought a copy for every seminarian there,” he said.
