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. |
oh i agree with you. i went to Catholic school in the 60s, it was much stricter, they were just implementing Vat2. my First Holy Communion was prevat2, i consider myself lucky. i think the kids should be in church. our religious director walks a fine line, encouraging the parents to bring the kids but not imposing severe sanctions if they don't. i also agree that using envelopes as an indicator is bogus. we don't intend our home parish bc it is overboard liberal, but we attend the church where my kids go to school weekly. we donate in cash or check.
Usually they are referred to as Priests. The problem is that the Catholic Church has moved so far to the left with the New World Order and the Novus Ordo Gathering on sunday, they are more Protestant or Lutheran than Catholics! SO I guess Reverend would be acceptable.
My uncle passed this week, and the "Priest"???/Reverand, had an Ear ring in his LEFT ear. From what I ahve been able to learn -- Left is RIGHT (Hetrosexual) and Right is WRONG (Homosexual). My question is why is it necessary for a Catholic?? Priest?? Reverand?? who is sworn to Celebicy, need to advertise his sexualality/sexual preference??
Yep. What about Catholics who don't use envelopes? I guess he won't even take their kids.
Not only is it inaccurate and not descriptive, it's jaw-droppingly ignorant.
Idiot priest. What if they regularly attended Mass at another Parish (maybe because they didn't like Fr. Cichon's homilies)? What if they didn't use the envelopes but instead put in cash? What if the parents used checkless banking and had the parish contribution automatically mailed to the rectory?
Lamebrained tactics like this really frost me. Fr. Cichon is nothing but a control freak. I hope the parishoners who fall into one of my categories above vote with their feet and enroll their kids somewhere else next year!
Because you believe it does'nt make it so.
My original point was there was no indisputable archeolgical evidence. It was in context of faith vs reason. You can't come to faith via reason. You missed all that then as you do now. But that's typical for morons like you.
I was apparently having a hard time getting threw to you so I'll type slowly. YOU BELIEVE, YOU DO NOT KNOW.
I'm glad that works where you are. Where I live, the shortest drive between the three closest parishes is about 45 minutes. If all three are bad (and they are), you can go two and a half hours to the next one.
Okay - I just wondered.
A Staten Island Catholic would say "longer than father has been in charge down there."
I realized that. Keep reading further! (the posts) ;)
Pretty diabolical.
I think you've missed the point here. The point is NOT to keep children from religious education, but to emphasize to the parents (who are the FIRST TEACHERS AND BEST EXAMPLES OF THE FAITH) how important it is to set examples of faith and holiness that their children can follow. If the kids don't see their parents loving and participating in the Faith, how can they be expected to be good Catholics later? It doesn't work very well, and I have some first-hand experience regarding the whole equation.
Does attending mass at Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals qualify one as a parishioner? Or must one attend a little more frequently? In 23 years, if all he went to was Christmas and Easter, that adds up to 46 times. The priest does more than that in one year.
Some people slay me. They show up 1-2-3 times a year. Drop a 5-10-20 bill, in the plate, and think they're square with God. "Hey God, look at me. See how good I am?"
Out of the 100 or so parishioners who showed up for Sunday Mass this past week, I counted 2 who were under 30 years old.
My father was a pretty serious Catholic for whom missing Mass was indeed a mortal sin. However, he HATED the practice of using coded envelopes for donations (no bar codes in those days -- they had your name on them). His philosophy was that it was nobody's business what he gave or didn't give. He usually tossed a $20 bill into the basket, which I suspect was a pretty big donation in our middle class parish in the 1950s, but he would never use one of the envelopes. I guess by the standards of this priest, my Dad would have been a non-attender, and I would have gotten kicked out of Catholic school.
Yep. Back in the Stone Age, when I went to Catholic school, they would mark you down in Religion if they didn't see you at the 9 o'clock children's Mass. Didn't matter if you went to Mass at another time, or to another church, just do what we say, when we say it.
That said, I haven't been a Catholic for awhile, but aren't Catholics still supposed to go to Mass? Is it still a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday? I get the feeling these parents aren't going to Mass elsewhere; they aren't going at all.
If the kids continue in religious education they will eventually ask the parents why they do not go to mass...because it is an obligation. This is what got my neighbor back to mass each Sunday. Maybe an exception rather than the rule. This priest will accomplish nothing. Kids won't get sacraments. Parents will get mad and change parishes or leave the church. People who don't understand Catholicism will have one more anecdote about the irrelevance of the church. I fail to see anything good that this will accomplish.
No. During the baptism the Parents are specifically charged with being the teachers of their children in the Catholic Faith. If the parents are not practicing Catholics they cannot set an example to their children.
Well, actually, I believe tfecw has a point.
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