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. |
Thanks for the info. What it has to do with my comment is anyone's guess.
"Gee, I wish someone in the church had the guts to tell their parents to take their religion seriously and be role models for their children"?
That should certainly be done IMO. Which of course has nothing whatsoever to do with the Pastor's ham handed and wrong headed approach.
Instead, people like you are worried that the "appearance" of Catholicity is preserved instead of insisting that the "essence" of Catholicity be lived and modeled for the benefit of these children.
Of course that is untrue. Please retract that insult since you don't know me or what I "worry" about. To decline would be un-Christian.
No, you weren't.
Your answers to basic questions on another thread revealed that you were making that up.
Ugh, disregard. That was a terrible analogy on my part.
Since you don't know that to be true, why say it?
I do think things are improving. I'm surprised that's happening in Philly. When the St. Joe nun who'd been running our parish school finally left, lots of other St. Joe nuns applied for the position, but the pastor and parish council unanimously decided to give the job to a Catholic. (A laywoman).
One old enough to be admitted to Communion should be old enough to be "responsible" for trying to go to Mass. For most young ones this would mean asking the parents or another trusted adult to take them.
This is different from being "culpable" in the event that their requests are rebuffed. Certainly, at some point in the child's further development they become masters at getting driven to school dances and football games and the mall to be with friends. When the child is at that point, he certainly has the means to arrange transportation to Church, should he desire it.
SD
So your point is?
Who are you to say I wasn't?
I was 12 when I quit going...
Glad I came back to read your message. I thought those tuition rates sounded awfully high for Catholic schools.
My son attended Catholic grade schools in Philly for a few years and I recall them as being very affordabe. We looked into the Friends schools for high school. 10k is more along the line the various Friends schools were charging in the early 90s. He wound up going to Masterman (public school for gifted and talented), saving us money and leaving a little in the bank for college.
And it doesn't matter anyway...
Punishing the children for their parents' sins is absurd. This pastor apparently lacks any pastoral sense.
I recall as a small child around 7 years old getting my father back to church after years of missing Mass by simply asking 'Why don't you go to Mass?"
He later joined KofC, Holy Name, ushers, helped with the parish bingo, was a founding member of the parish credit union, invited priests over for dinner often, lent the parish priests the use of our car, donated many Saturdays of his labor for parish renovations, and did various other sundry things. He became an example to me later in life.
This priest may have a laudable motive, but his methods stink.
Nice, but you are reading more into that than what is intended. It is a testament that the birth was of supernatural origin.
To read it the way you are is to make it say they had relations immediately after she gave birth.
Sometimes "until" is used in the Bible and elsewhere to simply mean "up to that point in time." It doesn't mean things change afterwards.
SD
Absolutely. My comments earlier were meant in terms of much younger kids who are none the less ready for the sacraments. It's a good habit to get into, even the little ones who can't take themselves to church, to ask and be concerned.
Explain how it's not true. You're attacking the priest for calling the parents on their hypocrisy. If you're insulted, that's a shame. A lot of people are "insulted" by things they don't want to hear. These parents were "insulted" to be told they were living a lie and that their children, by extension of their actions, suffer for their sins.
If you saw the importance of living a Catholic life in essence and not just appearance, you would understand Jesus' blistering attacks on the Pharisees.
"Gee, I wish someone in the church had the guts to tell their parents to take their religion seriously and be role models for their children"?
It has everything to do with his "ham handed" approach. Jesus was pretty ham-handed kicking over the booths of bunch of innocent moneychangers who suffered because the Pharisees stupidly let them turn the Temple into a "den of thieves". They were only there because the Pharisees invited them to be there. They (the moneychangers) probably had great enmity for Christ because of this when He could have converted them instead, no?
Was Christ wrong for pointing out hypocrisy like the priest is wrong?
Yikes! Those rates are sinful. Catholic school should not be out of reach of any student. Although not really cheap here in Philly, the average family, who may have to make a few sacrifices, can send their kids to Catholic school. High school may require the student to get a summer job to help pay tuition, but I don't think that's unreasonable. But $10,000! Outrageous! They are literally forcing committed Catholics to homeschool their children.
If they're not going to mass they're in mortal in. It is impossible for them to be "practicing" their faith and not attend mass.
In order to believe in the immaculate conception you have to believe in the perpetual virginity. Scripture also states that Jesus has brothers and sisters. Jude being one of the half brothers.
Yes, the birth of Jesus is of Supernatural Origins, no doubt there. However, Mary was just like any other young Jewish girl, not of supernatural origins, especially if she was in the lineage of David, who had blood on his hands.
Until does mean up to a point when a change occurs, or Until wouldn't be there, it would state..." and knew her not for the rest of her life...".
Joseph and Mary were normal humans, they had to consumate the marriage, or there wouldn't be a "union"...
It's all rather simple really.
This is all very basic Catholic doctrine, and I am surprised that a self-ascribed CCD instructor chooses to contradict it. It is one thing for priests to uphold standards of conduct for membership in a religious organization, and another thing entirely for a layperson to weild the judgment of souls which belongs to God alone.
ZD, I hate to reiterate a point that was better made by Hermann the Cherusker, but have you read the Gospels?
What was the crucifixion other than a human sacrifice?
Dear old and tired,
"They are literally forcing committed Catholics to homeschool their children."
LOL. You got that right.
It is outrageous. It's not as bad at the elementary school level, where many schools offer tuitions in the range of about $3000 or so per year, and many schools have pretty good multi-child discounts.
It is discouraging, though, to see the burdens that Catholics with large families must bear to provide a Catholic education for their children. Having sat on a scholarship committee for Catholic families, I can tell you that I have been amazed at the commitment and sacrifice that some families have made.
But the bottom line is that most large Catholic families committed to a Catholic education do homeschool.
sitetest
That's good, you would not want to partake unworthily.
at our church because, like I said, it is open to all baptized believers.
Same at our church, believers in the Real Presence. Like what you read about in the book of Acts.
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