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. |
They were hindering them by preventing their parents from bringing them to Him. Read the verses.
The Bible states, You must first believe then be baptised... How does an infant confess Christ? How do you know a child believes. Therefore, if one is baptised as an infant, it really is for naught, unless it is afor another spiritual purpose... and no, there isn't a Limbo, or Christ would have taught the baptising of babies, also there would have been record of babies with John the baptist.
There is only one unforgivable sin, that is blaspheming the Holy Ghost. Being baptisted when coming to the knowledge of Christ is not blaspheming.
On another thread ZD revealed that he did not know the difference between the Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth and Perpetual Virginity.
Additionally, I think he sometimes uses that "I used to be a Catholic" angle.
God didn't manifest Himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Paul, Peter and John and James, etc.? I sure thought He did, since that is what Scripture says.
Please quote to us all the verses of the Bible which address attending Church on Sunday.
Once you do this, you'll understand the context of my statement.
Mary was virgin at the birth of Jesus, didn't stay a virgin though... There isn't any record of MAry's mother having her as a virgin and you can't have perpetual virginity while having sex with your mate.
Ok, where's the wafer?
Ok, where's the wafer?
So it's just burgers and dogs and fireworks for the Fourth. No re-crucifying.
Damn, that was a close one!
Good thing we have these astute Bible readers here. here I had the nails and cross all ready to go after we finished off the burgers ...
I can't, so I read what's in english... so what is missing in the translations?
This is no different than parents abandoning their children to the public school system. Family worship is suppose to be just that.
Preaching to the choir :)
BEsides, it isn't me you are mocking
I'm still looking for a divinely inspired table of contents to the Bible, to make sure I have the right books, no more, and no less.
There isn't any record that church was on Sunday.
Precisely. Which is why the Church does not care one whit what you believe the Bible does or does not say about Sunday attendance.
So, do you keep Saturdays Holy for God and rest? That is the only reference to giving a day to God. And, none of it says you must attend church.
No I don't. I keep Sundays, since the Catholic Church transferred the obligation to Sundays in view of the Lord's Resurrection. Also we interpret "keep holy" as commanding worship of God be done in a corporate manner on Sunday. I'm sure you have your own personal interpretations of this phrase justifying abstention from Church worship. Perhaps you can explain them to us.
And he didn't establish a church
"Upon this rock I shall build my Church"? Is that a Catholic interpolation in the Gospel of St. Matthew? "I shall build" is a pretty forceful statement of action by the Lord Jesus otherwise.
The path is even in your Catholic Bible, too bad you are told not to read it.
By who? You?
I guess you aren't aware we read through the Bible every year at Mass and Matins. Or maybe that doesn't count since we do it at Church rather than home alone.
I understand your point. However, there are many others with similar stories. It is very difficult situation. I am not objective because of my personal experience. But I strongly believe that all children deserve religious education even if their parents don't. Children are far too precious to give up on so easily.
This is all about money, anyway. Since the priest sex scandals began, revenues have been decreasing every week in most parishes.
These strong-arm tactics will only result in the families leaving the parish of this tyrant and joining another parish, or leaving the RCC altogether. There are many Evangelical churches waiting to welcome these people with open arms--and no hand in their pocket. Some priests just don't get it.
What's disgusting is the rank hypocrisy of parents who expect their children to live Catholic lives but refuse to fulfill the most basic requirement of spending one hour a week out of their busy lives to give worship to God. The Church is awash in "parishioners" who hang around long enough to fulfill all the family obligations of having baptisms and a church wedding while holding up a middle finger to Rome. If it's become evidently clear that these families are not interested in actually raising the kids in the faith, but avoiding their own personal scandal of Johnny not having a First Holy Communion like his friends and cousins, then it's a farce.
This is an act of spiritual mercy toward the parents. Maybe some will realize that their souls are in jepoardy. Maybe some will decide whether or not they really want their kids to be raised Catholic, and will find it in themselves to come to mass. If they really want that, and if they really love their children, they'll be role models, not orchestraters.
Makes sense,,,,, maybe he can explain it to Christ at his judgement and see if he was right.
Are you divorced and re-married, or just divorced?
Okay, hands down you win the Bible illeteracy award!
St. Matthew 19.13-15:
"Then were little children presented to him, that he should impose hands upon them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said to them: Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me: for the kingdom of heaven is for such. And when he had imposed hands upon them, he departed from thence."
"Presenting" "little children" is something you do with infants. Being "presented" is not the same as "walking" or "coming under ones own locomotion".
And you will note it was Jesus' disciples holding them back, not the parents.
Lastly, please note that he physically blesses these children, just as we baptise them.
I really think you are putting me one when you claim to be a Protestant. I know no Protestants as Biblically illiterate as you.
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