May - St. Augustine Catholic

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St. Augustine
The Magazine of the Diocese of Saint Augustine
Most Rev. Victor Galeone
Publisher
Kathleen Bagg-Morgan
Editor
Susie Nguyen
Editorial Assistant/Subscriptions
Patrick McKinney
Art Director/Graphic Designer
Father Bill Ashbaugh
Amelia Eudy
Tom and Jo Anne Fogle
Michael Gannon, Ph.D.
Shannon Scruby-Henderson
Father John E. Hurley, CSP
Elizabeth Johnson
Father Joseph Krupp
Dr. Cathleen McGreal
Tim Ryan
Elizabeth Solsburg
Contributing Writers
Paul Figura
Tom Gennara
Susie Nguyen
Scott Smith
Contributing Photographers
Jonathan Sion
Advertising Sales Coordinator
InnerWorkings
Print Management
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Diocese of Saint Augustine Website
www.dosafl.com
The St. Augustine Catholic is a membership publication of the
Diocese of Saint Augustine, 11625 St. Augustine Road, Jacksonville,
FL 32258-2060. Published monthly except January and August.
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St. Augustine Catholic May 2007
editor’s notes
Fathers and Daughters
You can’t get a way from it. It’s
everywhere. From mainstream
television news programs, to Blogs
on the Internet, talk radio, and
magazines that you can’t help but notice at the
checkout counter at the grocery store. Our
society seems overly fascinated by the antics
of young celebrities who are out of control.
Newsweek, in their Feb. 12 cover story, calls
it “The Girls Gone Bad Effect.” It’s enough to
make parents cringe.
In Newsweek writers Kathleen Deveny and
Raina Kelley asked some good questions.
Does the rise of the bad girl signal something
more profound, a coarsening of the culture
and a devaluation of sex, love and lasting
commitment? Should parents be concerned
about the effect our racy popular culture may
have on their kids and the women they would
like their daughters to become? The answers
are likely to lie in yet another question: where
do our children learn values?
The good news, according to
the article, is for the most part our
children are learning values at home
– from attentive parents, strong
teachers, religious leaders and
nice friends. And statistical
evidence indicates
that teen pregnancy,
drinking and drug
use are all down. But
parents are still fighting
an uphill battle when
it comes to countering
harmful media messages and
the power of peer pressure. It’s
a 24/7 job!
In March, Project SOS
(Strengthening Our Students)
hosted a Father Daughter Dinner
Date called “Dancing with your
Star.” They invited Erika Harold, Miss
America 2003, and her father Bob to
come to Jacksonville to share their own
personal testimony (cover story page 18).
The Father Daughter Dinner Date was a
great success. According to Pam Mullarkey,
Ph.D., founder of Project SOS, the
program provided both daughters and
their male role models, whether it be their
father, uncle, stepfather or grandfather, the
by Kathleen Bagg-Morgan
opportunity to hear how unhealthy choices
can negatively impact their lives. It gave them
the tools to begin fostering happy healthy
relationships.
“This is a critical time in our country in the
lives of our young women for fathers to show
that they care for the welfare and well being of
their daughters,” says Dr. Mullarkey.
And the more time dads and daughters
spend together, the better. It turns out that
fathers can have as much or more impact on
their adolescent daughters’ lives as mothers,
says Dr. Linda Nielsen in the March Better
Homes and Gardens article, “Stand by Your
Girl.” Dr. Nielsen is an adolescent psychologist
and professor at Wake Forest University in
North Carolina, who teaches a college course
on father/daughter relationships.
“If dad is a supportive, trusting parent
and counselor, his daughter is more likely to
develop more confidence about her choices.
She’ll also come to expect the same respect
and decency from her male friends
that she gets from her father in these
exchanges.”
There are a number of resources that
help parents parent. For dads visit
www.dadsanddaughters.org.
The non-profit organization
Dads and Daughters offers
free e-newsletters full of
suggestions for creating
bonding time. The group
also deals with broader
issues, rallying against
images of dangerously skinny
or sexually explicit girls and
gender stereotypes.
Project SOS is a local
non-profit organization
committed to assisting our
youth to make “Best Choices”
in choosing to refrain from
pre-marital sex, drugs, alcohol,
abusive relationships, violence
and suicide. Project SOS
also provides parents with
educational materials and
resources to help reduce highrisk
behaviors. Visit www.
projectsos.com or call (904)
354-6883.