The Feasts of St. Joseph

Earlier today (19 March 2010), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi invoked a prayer to St. Joseph for help in passing the Health Care debacle.  Not being Catholic, I couldn’t remember who he was the patron saint of besides children’s aspirin, so I decided to check  Wikipuddlia.

Here’s the entry for St. Joseph:

Further down, under Sainthood, we find this:

Here’s the pertinent paragraph enlarged.

Now click on that image.  It’s on Wikipedia, so it’s got to be true… heh. My initial reaction was that some wag edited the Wiki for fun, BUT WAIT!  IT’S TRUE!

From The Washington Times:

Seeking to shore up support for her embattled health bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today announced it was the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, adding “We pray to Saint Joseph to benefit the workers of America which is what our health bill would do.”

Problem is, March 19 is indeed the feast day of Saint Joseph, foster-father of Jesus. But the actual feast of St. Joseph the Worker (same man, two ways of commemorating him) comes in six weeks. Set for May 1, it was introduced by Pope Pius XII in 1955 to counteract May Day, the high holiday for communist and socialist workers.

So, Wikipedia is right, Nancy blew it twice in one swell foop, and Joe Biden’s disease is contagious.

[Crossposted here.]