Posted on 06/27/2005 1:42:52 PM PDT by Coleus
| Parents miss Mass, kids get ax |
|
|
|
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. |
In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Catholic Parochial grade schools are around $1000-2000 per child per year (with discounts as more children are enrolled). The Diocesean High Schools are around $3500-4000 per year, with a cap of a maximum of tuition for two children at any one time, with any additional children enrolled simultaneously being free.
We have around 100,000 kids enrolled.
The prices for Atlanta seem utterly outrageous and totally out of reach of a normal family.
The prices in Philadelphia are equivalent to the property taxes and excess mortgage one might pay for a typical suburban home versus one in the city.
No one is barred from attending Mass. There is no reason for your own personal situation to hinder your children attending Mass with you and receiving the Sacraments.
You cannot receive Holy Communion if you do not actually attend Mass. These parents don't attend Mass, and don't bring their children. Therefore, they cannot receive Holy Communion, since they are not actually present when the Lord is distributed to the faithful.
What a screwed up system!
All schools here are attached to a parish or, if a regional school, to the parishes in the region. The Pastors are responsible for the operation of the schools. Both the parishes and diocese provide support, with the diocese focusing support on poor inner city schools that are not self-supporting.
Every parish either has a school or is affiliated with one, so that everyone knows where their children are supposed to be sent.
The Church is not for those who refuse to attend. Those who do not attend refuse "fellowship with us" (1 St. John 1.3)
If we were deprived of Christ's message based upon not only our sins but the sins of our parents, I fear the church would no longer exist.
Refusing to attend Mass is not some simple mortal sin like adultery or theft, but outright apostacy from the Christian faith. Such people are to be first admonished, and then shunned. "A factious man avoid after a first and second admonition, knowing that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned." (Letter to St. Titus 3.10-11)
The Catholic Church is not a country club with an "exclusive membership". The church is for everyone.
Only if they actually participate in her program of worship. The Catholic Church is not for those who do not join her children in worship.
As I was taught, only God has the right to judge what is within someone's heart.
As to judging hearts, that power has been given to the pastors of souls (St. Luke 22.30, Acts 20.28, St. Matthew 18.15-17, Hebrews 13.17, etc.), which is why they can both forgive sins and also refuse to give absolution, as well as bind and loose souls from obligations.
And you teach CCD?
St. John 17.3, St. Mark 16.16, Hebrews 11.6, St. John 14.6, Acts 4.12, St. John 3.18 and 3.36, St. John 6.54, etc. Catechism of the Catholic Church #161. Athanasian Creed. On, and on ...
Yes. Why do you ask?
What if you never went to Mass but was on your death bed and called out for a priest.He came and you confessed your sins-how could you be lost forever.
Resign.
I am a she and did not see the dogs and swine verse.Ok I admit it I did not read the whole thread :)
Grew up in the South, belonged to a Baptist Church; I've had a few pieces of flour dough biscuit at these occasional "suppers."
Holy Eucharist it ain't.
Your hurt feelings really don't matter. Let leftists whine about their feelings.
Pushing, laying hands on, a priest is simply wrong.
Unless a priest is actually trying to kill or physically injure you there is no reason to ever put your hands on him.
This kind of behavior is simply vile, disgusting, beneath contempt.
No matter how clouded a mind is by sin, there is no obstacle to divine grace.
Look at St. Paul, St. Augustine, etc.
Among these children there could be kids who are confused by their parents' slack behavior and who want to learn the right way to believe and to live.
Their parents should be punished and shamed, but it is depressing that the only way to do this is by expelling their kids from CCD.
I'm not saying father is wrong - I'm saying that this is a difficult situation and a tough call.
HtC, thanks for volunteering for CCD.
If there had been teachers as orthodox as you in my parish growing up, my spiritual life would have been much easier.
And you make a strong point.
The Church is most properly the Church when we are joined together in the communion of saints adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Refusal to participate in the Church's central activity - the worship of the risen Lord - is essentially a refusal to be part of the Church. It is informal apostasy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.