Posted on 06/27/2005 1:42:52 PM PDT by Coleus
| Parents miss Mass, kids get ax |
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The Rev. Michael Cichon, pastor of St. Joseph/St. Thomas in Pleasant Plains, used each family's bar-coded donation envelope to track attendance. He's tossed about 300 kids from classes and told them not to reapply until next April. Without the classes, children cannot receive the sacraments, meaning some youngsters who thought they'd be making their First Communion next year will have to wait. The suspensions, legal under church doctrine, were a shock to many parents with kids enrolled in the 1,400-child program, which caters to kids who don't attend Catholic schools. "It's hurtful," said Joseph LoPizzo, 38, whose 6-year-old son was booted. "I've been a parishioner at that church for 23 years - longer than he's been the reverend." LoPizzo said he paid the $150 for his son's Thursday afternoon classes last year, but his father-in-law's illness hampered the family's church attendance. "I've just never heard of a church kicking you out," complained Lisa Nicol, 36, who got a letter saying her 7-year-old twin daughters had been barred from classes. "They should be more welcoming and sensitive." The pastor said he suspended kids from the 2005-2006 after-school program because Mass is an "essential" component of the Catholic faith. The affected families were attending church less than once a month, he said. Cichon insisted that the move has nothing to do with the lack of a donation. "There are many families who put absolutely nothing inside the envelopes they submit," he said. |
I don't think that children would consider *not* having to attend after-school classes in a religion they don't practice to be "punishment."
Since this looks like after-school RELIGIOUS education, it appears as tho there are no nonCatholic pupils. What's the use of educating Catholic children if the children follow in the footsteps of the parents who don't attend Mass? In a perfect world, the Church might have the time and money to get the children to Mass.
Sure the parents are commiting sins in the eyes of the Church. Sure they should be held accountable in some way for their own irresponsability. But I just don't think the children should be deprived. I think it will turn a whole bunch of them against their faith, and more will be lost. JMHO
Prayers for the proper resolution of this problem.
oh i love a catholic basher. There is nothing secret about them and i am sure that the Church would welcome anyone interested, but they have a hard enough time getting Catholic kids to come to CCD let alone those of other faiths. The nonCatholic Christians on FR that bash Catholics really ought to consider, what would Jesus do... the hypocrisy is palpable. but hey, I'll pray for you. : )
Everyone complains about CINOs and about how no one wants to stand up to them. Yet here we have a pastor basically asking parents if they really want to raise Catholics, or if they're just looking for cute photos to hang in their offices.
And the response is outrage that anyone dare deny their childrenm "the right" to First Communion in a religion they apparently don't care to practice themselves.
SD
Thankyou.
But he was sick and.....
Well we were on vacation and.....
Prepare the kids even if the parents....
I don't like the bar codes and....
Well then all the pedophille priests should....
Father, If I sinned and didn't go to confessiion right away, BUT, I was on an airplane and crossed the internatiional dateline.........
But in OUR church we......
What they should do is.......
That's all very nice, guess what?
Pope Benedict XVI
"The Cafeteria is Closed"
Door-to-door bus service, with employees (security-checked and bonded!) to watch the children during Mass, take them to the bathroom, etc. Maybe provide lunch, too? Preschool care and baby nursery, so the parents could go out for breakfast unencumbered? Oh, and all of this "free" to the recipients, of course ...
Whoops, sounds like I've just invented a Sunday version of the public school system!
(Not making fun of you, Mach9 - just grabbed your comment for a rant :-).
If the parents are not now committed to weekly Mass attendence, the children will end up "deprived" shortly after their big ceremony.
SD
Calling the priest "the reverend" is a tip-off that this guy is a stranger to the Catholic Church.
Bar coded envelopes? Respecting God's authority is one thing, but this catholic government thing . . . . I would never by choice give any authority to a bunch of . . . . I think I'll stop now.
Our God is an awesome God
Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above with wisdom
(repeat) When He saw what had to be done
He sent His one and only son
Our God is and awesome God
He was sent from up above
To tell us of His undying love
Our God is an awesome God
When His blood shed that day
He took and washed my sins away
Our God is and awesome God
Greater is He that is in me
Than he that is in the world
Our God is an awesome God
Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above with wisdom
And power and love our God is an awesome God
I have taught classes filled with kids whose parents don't go to mass. They are going to catechism class because of cultural reasons mostly. I usually teach fifth graders, and I have had kids who hadn't been to confession since they made their first confession, and only went to mass for holidays and if we had one during the class period.
The kids are sent to catechism because you're supposed to do that - sort of like making sure they get to first communion so they can have the family celebration, or go to confirmation, so they can have their 15th birthday celebration party.
You do plant some seeds, and maybe they'll bloom, but catechism classes are a poor substitute for a life where the family prays, goes to services, and lives out the Christian calling.
And for some reason or other, a lot of the kids around here think that once they've been confirmed they don't have to go to mass any more. My kid has been told flat out - long as he lives at home he goes to mass. If he stays out all night Saturday, well, his butt goes to late mass on Sunday evening.
Don't know how much he's really getting out of it, but it has colored his thinking...at least some. And modelled religious parenting too. I hope.
True for some, no doubt. But we are planting seeds of faith. After 8 years, and also parenting, I can see that the idea does indeed stay firm in the most unlikely of kids. And some have grandparents, aunts/uncles, babysitters, who share faith with them and with whom they attend Mass. We simply can't stop trying because parents are unwilling to live the faith themselves. Each of us has our own experience with faith with it's own peaks and valleys, we have to take the opportunity to share faith with the child simply because the parent brought the child in the first place. Occasionally we even see a parent return to faith because of their child's experience.
I know some families where the kids go to school in one parish and they attend church at another. Probably doesn't explain the cases here, but it does happen, especially where the schools vary in quality.
No Catholic would call him him a 'reverend', but it is used in formal titles, as in:
Rev. Patrick O'Malley
or
Most Rev. Patrick O'Malley
(I believe 'Most Reverend' means 'bishop', but since we never use it in discussion, I don't know for sure).
It all depends on your objective. If your objective is to make sure that all parishioners of a catholic church are completely following the rules, then this is a good method. If your objective is to spread the word of God, then this method is counter productive. God works in many ways. It is not unusual for those who have lost their way, to eventually find their way back to God. The priest in this case seems to be slamming the door in their face.
Perhaps, but I was self-conscious enough about dressing different from everybody else... I did not need a smart-aleck telling me that I could not walk into my Father's house! It wasn't very long after this that that church started posting the names of those who (in the priest's opinion) did not pay full tithe. How would he know what each family was making? I did not wait to see if my name was posted (I always put cash, don't believe in getting a tax deduction for my donations in church).
Hmmm, that is one possible assumption, I agree. However, my parents did not attend Church regularly. I stayed with my religion, and my sister teaches it for a very large Diocese in Pennsylvania. She graduated from a Catholic college and holds a Master's in theology. Because of our church we had the opportunity to learn the faith and siezed it. In later years, my parents became more religious and we praised God for their return. Perhaps the example can be learned from the children sometimes, too.
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