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. |
judging from the flames I'm getting...I think I made a boo boo mark!
I don't see any allegation that that has happened.
Taking them out of class means they learn less about Jesus, does it not?
Going to Mass every sunday means they'll learn even more. Parents have the primary responsibility to teach their children in the Faith. You can't say God is important on Wednesday night for CCD class, but unmportant on Sunday morning.
Excummunicate the parents, not the kids...
The parents have basically excommunicated themselves already. Now which is a worse situation? Admiting a child to First Communion thereby imposing on him an obligation he has no power to keep with his non-serious parents. Or resrving the First Communion to a time when it is taken seriously?
SD
I'm assuming by "threw," you mean "through?"
Okay, I've thought this through now, and I think the pastor should let the children continue to attend R.E. classes if they have paid for them. However, he should not give First Communion to children whose families are not regularly attending Mass.
oh cripes I totally misread that - you'd think I'd know better after attending Catholic schools for 10 years!!! ha! But you know what's odd, I knew quite a few kids who had split parents, one Catholic, one protestant, and they didn't attend Mass, but they sent their kids to CCD classes. Interesting that they're wanting to handle it this way.
Regardless, your parents had an obligation. This pastor is seemingly trying to discover how many parents are serious.
SD
I agree. Without instruction for these kids, another generation could be 'lost'. It is important to keep instructing the kids, and it has to be done with some care, too, because the little ones I instruct are generally surprised to find their parents are sinning by not attending Mass. We try to encourage the parents by offering a Mass they can attend with their child during class time a couple times during the year. It does bring a few around.
I really don't like the idea of keeping track of donations with bar-coded envelopes. I had no idea that was happening!
That's just wrong!
Also, the parents shouldn't be surprised that their kids were kicked out. Doesn't seem like they were setting a good example for their kids anyway. How can they expect the kids to take their religion seriously when they obviously don't.
Do you really think the pastor did this in order to make sure children did not attend religous education?
Or was he trying to get the parents to become serious about going to Sunday Mass?
Why do you assume the first?
SD
While I recognize the good motivation here, it seems like the children are being punished for the sins of the parents.
That's been happening for years. Instead of bar-coded envelopes it was names on the envelopes, before that it was the name on the check, before that the priest remembered everyone who went to church.
And though I no longer go there, not because of his comment, I fully agree with his statement.
A pastors job is to teach and shepherd his flock. But the spiritual condition of a person or their kids, is not HIS. Each person is responsible for their own spiritual condition, and if they have kids, their kids'.
If the parents aren't serious about their faith, the children are already "lost." One hour a week of CCD can't overcome the parents' unwillingness to live their faith.
SD
see post 77.
Plus caring for a seriously ill family member can excuse one from Mass. There are always other Masses offered one can attend. I think had that family spoken privately to the pastor about their dilemma, they could have worked out something. I think the Pastor was more likely referring to those who just simply skip. And regularly.
I don't think that we need to re-invent the wheel, but cleaning up the priesthood, offering a greater variety of better music, and delivering a message (which is the same message that has touched Christians for 2000 years) in a way that touches people living in the 21st century is the way to get people back to mass.
It's an odd situation, to be sure. It just occurred to me that it's summer (duh!), so they're talking about children not being admitted to classes for the next "school year," not "expelled" from classes that are currently going on.
I guess the pastor really wants to get people's attention, something like, "Spend a year coming to church, and then enroll your children for R.E. if you're going to be practicing Catholics." (And I assume they get a refund if they'd paid before now :-).
You sound like a perfect example of a great godparent! God bless you!
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