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. |
That is the porblem with coming late to a discussion, isn't it?
Sorry.
Can I borrow you to say this to my mother-in-law who has always thought being a godparent was just another event to send money and a card?
That's despicable. You should ashamed of yourself.
I couldn't agree more, which is unusual for us ;-). Everyone at Mass should show the repsect due to the Real Presence. It is not a come-as-you-are party. The priest was absolutely right, and pushing him was reprehensible. No real Catholic would ever do such a thing, much less recount it proudly.
I NEVER use envelopes, nor do I give every week (I prefer to write one larger check each month). And I am a little confused here, when did weekly giving become a requirement of church membership.
What this article demonstrates to me is that there is a pastor who is either too busy, or too self-involved to know first hand who is and isn't at mass. And I know that part of this is the "shortage" of priests, but not all of it. When I was a kid, the priest stood outside on the steps after mass and personally spoke to everybody, I don't see that as much any more.
Yes they are. In our town they drop the kids off at Religious Ed and head off to the Church of Starbucks.
A real Staten Island Catholic would say "Father can kiss my ass."
No problem!
:)
Except, of course, there is.
Thousands of papyri, inscriptions, etc.
No, it was in the context of your claim that there is no evidence of the existence of Christian belief before 300 AD.
It was ridiculous then and it is ridiculous now.
LOL!
And by the same token you believe, but do not know, that the US Constitution predates, say, 1820.
After all, there are only a few reported copies of this document dating to 1789, and they could be clever forgeries. Radiocarbon dating cannot eliminate the possibility that they were mocked up decades afterward.
Your assumptions about the origins of the US government are held purely through faith and have no rational grounds, right?
The Third Commandment is still the Third Commandment. The Book of Exodus hasn't been rewritten, as far as I know.
First of all, none of these children are being denied Christ's presence because of the pastor's actions. Rather, it is their own parents who are not taking them to Mass. the pastor may be a bit ham-handed, but he is only displaying the truth.
Being Catholic is not like soccer or piano lessons. It's not something you can contract out for paid specialists to do on your behalf. If you have no desire to attend Mass and teach your children the faith, don't expect the Church to do it all for you.
SD
Well, "attendance" ultimately translates into dollars. There is also, I think, an element of "control" that enters in with some preachers or pastors. I found myself being shoved out by a preacher who preached several sermons within a two month period consisting of about one Bible verse and then the bulk of the sermon blazing away about how we ought to be attending all the classes offered up there. It is a very small church, my husband is in a leadership position (unpaid position). All well and good, but I have been very ill in the last few years with a heart attack, a TIA stroke, numerous hospitalizations for high blood pressure and then angioplasty, and also have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia neuropathy and other symptoms that hits out of the blue.
I am almost sixty years old. I spent several years of my life in school. When I graduated from high school (with all due respect to those with multiple college degrees) I promised myself I would spend no more time with my legs stuck under a desk in classes. I had attended the preacher's night study classes for two years with my husband before I got really sick, and had also gone to the Sunday School lecture classes. His wife also had a "class" during the week that was more or less a lecture class and I think they both got their noses out of joint that I didn't continue attending after the first few months. (I tried to explain to her that I worked, that I did our statements and that if I didn't do the narrative statements, WE DIDN'T GET PAID, but it seemed to not be understood. My work was piling up and my house was getting to be a mess and I was walking out and leaving it to go to "classes". I finally decided doing my work was also "holy and sacred", as much as being their little pupil was!
At any rate, the last sermon of his that I attended that was short on Bible and long on orders to bring notebooks so that we could "take notes on his sermons", I just didn't go back except for a couple of special activities that my husband was involved in. I just have taken it as God's will. My husband still goes up there and I am going to a different church with no musical "performances and entertainment" which are big at the other church, and I am thankful!
That, I think, is the intent of the priest.
Hope it works! My husband taught CCD to Confirmation teens. 90% of them did not attend Mass nor did their parents. We always thought it odd that they'd take time out of their busy schedules to drive the kids over to our house on a Tuesday night and return to pick them up an hour and a half later but could not make it to Mass on Sunday morning. The lack of belief and understanding of their faith astounded us.
Why send them to CCD if they didn't believe in the Catholic Faith??
story on abc ny tv news right now.
I'm not sure I'm a good example of a godparent, as I don't send money and cards. But my buddy does an excellent job instructing, and having his kids taught the ways of the church. And if anything did happen to him and his wife, I'd like to think I'd be right there to help meet there needs. Especially the most important, their spiritual needs.
I agree with you.
See post 114.
I wonder what Jesus thinks about this...?
During my youth I was a parishioner the largest church in the state. The church was much desired as a location for weddings. A former priest of mine like to tell a story about a woman who called to set up a wedding date. The priest, not recognizing her name, asked if she was a parishioner. The woman replied, "oh yes my mother never misses a bingo".
"'eat the cracker prep'" is rather vulgar.
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