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“What is urgent is the evangelization of a world that not only does not know the basic aspects of Christian dogma, but has in great part lost even the memory of the cultural elements of Christianity.” (John Paul II, January 26, 2004) |
Your
children are in the 10th grade
— the 10th year of Religious Education
— and do not know Who God is, what the Church
is, and why either should have any impact or
influence on their lives. Except for their Baptism
in Christ and their First (and probably last)
Holy Communion (the significance of which they
know nothing) — they are effectively pagans.
This sounds harsh. It is meant to be. We need
to be shaken out of our indifference and awoken
from our illusions.
Our children — your children — do not know their Catholic Faith. In fact, most of them do not even know God.
And they are in the 10th grade of Religious Education. Think on that for a moment. They have already had nine years — 9 years — of something dubiously dubbed, “Religious Education.”
In less than a year they will make their Confirmation, which is to say, they will publicly “confirm” their belief in a God they do not know and ritually assent to the teachings of the Church ... of which they know nothing.
We will congratulate them and shower them with money and gifts, and tell them how proud we are of them. They will wear caps and gowns, as befitting graduates of some form of learning, and be absolutely clueless as they stand before the Bishop who would not dare embarrass himself or them by asking them the most basic question about what — in this defining moment — they are assenting to, what they are standing in Confirmation of — fully aware that, with rare exception, the student will be unable to answer.
This is not simply the sad state of CCD today — or as
we more disingenuously call it now, “Religious
Education.” It is the dismal and utterly reprehensible
state of Catholic Religious Education everywhere
in America, and likely elsewhere, for the
past 70 years.
Warm Bodies
“How can this be?” you ask.
It is stunningly simple: students know little
or nothing about God and the Church because,
by and large, their teachers know little
or nothing about God and the Church. Religious
Education north of Boston is the only venue
of formal education in the world in which the
recruitment process for teachers has two criteria
only: a warm body and a willingness to teach
what one does not know.
There is no formal training for a Catechist. Not in this “faith community” (the awkward New Age neologism for the apparently now defunct, “Church” or “Parish”) at least in this small town just North of Boston — and very likely not in America at large. The “DRE” as they prefer to be called, or “Directors of Religious Education” do not question the prospective Catechist in any way to ascertain his or her grasp, knowledge, or understanding of the Faith that they will be teaching. If the candidate can read, they are qualified to teach. Period. There are no such things as “competencies,” no courses, no required readings, no demonstrable qualifications.
To fully grasp the egregious nature of this absurdity, try to imagine your local school hiring a teacher of Ancient History who never studied it, does not know Homer, Thucydides, or Virgil, nothing of the culture and politics of Classical Greece or Rome — but who has sufficient visual acuity to read the text of The Iliad or the Aeneid. The only credentials required for the position are a warm body and a willingness to teach something of which the candidate knows little or nothing. This absurd disproportion is not likely to inspire confidence in parents. But it does in DREs ...
The first thing to grasp is that, in many parishes, the DRE is a “Professional Catholic” — not in the way, let us say, that a Catholic physician is said to be a “Professional Catholic” — that is, a practicing Catholic who happens to be a physician, professor, lawyer, etc. in one of the secular professions. DREs are “professional Catholics” in another way. They are Catholics who are paid to teach Catholicism through unpaid Catechists. Catholicism is not just presumably their Faith, but their livelihood, their living, their income — in a word, it is their “job.”
The “DRE” typically — and most often defectively — knows her faith, and is selling it to the highest bidder. The Catechist, hopefully learning as he or she is teaching, at least follows the injunction of Christ Himself: “Freely you have received; freely give.” For all their admirable charity, many, regrettably, have little to give because they themselves were not taught by their Catechists who had, in turn, been given little — or much that was counterfeit — by their Catechists.
Before the decimation of the teaching Orders of Sisters — and vocations in general — following the Second Vatican Council, our children were taught their Catechism by Nuns (Sisters, really) who were unpaid consecrated women who taught with a passionate conviction not only what they knew well, but, by and large, lived well. This had been the case almost universally until the confluence of Vatican II and the anti-culture of the 1960’s. It was a climate saturated with permissiveness, and a clamoring not so much for freedom as for license. Any notion of “authority" and anything less hedonistic than what verged on euphoria became synonymous with “repression” — ecclesiastical, civil, moral, and sexual. As the doors — behind which incense and silence had stirred for 2000 years — were flung open, the miasma — and the animosity — of the world rushed in. The vocations — unable to accommodate this inimical influx — either rushed out or were systematically driven out. Social manifestos replaced religious evangels; the Realpolitik of man became the summum bonum, the greatest good, not the salvation of his immortal soul — a quaint and at best, anachronistic notion effectively abolished by the now socially enlightened masses.
It was at this point that the great teaching orders of Religious Sisters either evolved into, or were subsequently replaced in toto by the Professional Catholic, the Catholic for whom Catholicism became a profession, not of faith, but in the way of a job. Much like the Sophists of Classical Greece (the great antagonists of Socrates) who “sold" their wisdom and made a handsome living off it (ever proving themselves clever, but never wise), today we confront the Professional Catholic who sells Catholicism for a living, and with a vested interest in what is sold because it redounds to their wages. That the goods they sell are shoddy and defective is of no concern to them. They have a captive market: every Catholic with children must pay them each and every year for ten years. Not bad work if you can get it ...
It is true that St. Paul said that “the workman is worth his wages” but it remains equally true that St. Paul sewed tents — not Christianity — for a living. The DRE, you must understand, does not sew tents.
Alternative Methodologies
One DRE north of Boston appears convinced that the way to reach the children is not through tiresome doctrine, text, and study (as, for example, Jewish children learn their faith), but through the oxymoron called “Christian Rock and Roll” (the term, “Rock and Roll” you will remember, derives from the bodily movements associated with copulation) to which she herself sprightly dances in her office. She is not alone. The “Ministers of Music” — among the many “Ministers of this and that” which proliferate throughout the “Faith Community” and within the “Worshipping Spaces” — “cool” neologisms for “Church” They have even brought in pianos, acoustic guitars and drums complete with trap sets to punctuate the Mysteries of the Mass. It appears to be a mind-set that prevails among those employed by the Church as “Professional Catholics.”
And yet the numbers of the young who appear at Mass (especially those unaccompanied by a parent) continue to diminish. Given the failure of “Religious Education” through what can only be loosely construed as formal and “graphical” instruction, is “Rock and Roll” really the inducement our children need? Will syncopation suffice where formal instruction does not? Can we “Rock and Roll” our children to God through “Christian Rockers”? After 9 years of “formal” instruction with so dismal a result, perhaps another, some alternative, non-textual pedagogical avenue is open? Perhaps the new evangelizers are not the Catechists (if ever they were), but the “musicians” the “Rock and Roll” Catholics?
Piqued by this, I began to ask around — first
my own children, and then their acquaintances:
“Can you please tell me the name of a Christian
“Rock and Roll” group”?
“No.”
“How about a Christian “Rock and Roll” artist?”
“Mmmmm ... no.”
“Well, what about the music at Mass?”
Their eyes roll and they giggle.
This is cause for uneasiness.
“No Child Left Behind ...”
It
is also why children can pass through 9 years
of “Religious "Education,” end up in the 10th
grade preparing for Confirmation — and not
know God and what He expects of them, or the
most basic precepts of the Church to which
they will formally ... and obliviously ... bind
themselves.
It is also why no one fails “Religious Education.”
There is no “staying back.” The bindings of
the Bibles given the students remain unbroken,
as well as their Newer-Age Catechisms-of-sorts.
The queue leading to the Bishop is always as
long as the year before.
Why are there so few young Catholics at Mass? To begin with, no
one has taught them even the simplest and most
basic Catholic precept: that attendance at Mass
on Sunday is obligatory — even if you are oblivious
to why you are there.
Not a Member of the Better Business Bureau
But
you have paid
to have them — your
children — taught
their religion. It is
you who drive them to “CCD”— and it
is you who go back to pick them up.
Cash and carry ... So, why are they —
your children — as oblivious to the
Faith — as you are ... too?
“I have paid the tuition!” you complain — and the return on my investment is total ignorance?
In the world of business, had you paid that money for a product — and received in the mail an empty envelope in return, you would call the owner of that business a con-man, a “rip-off.” But for the next 8 years you continue to buy “the product” and receive an empty envelope. Who is the fool?
I encourage you to ask your DRE: “Why does my child not know God?”
The Church has ever taught that we, as parents, are our childrens’ primary teacher — and we have failed. It is an uncomfortable truth.
Ask your DRE why she has, too ... if only to know where your money is going, and why. If you do not receive a satisfactory answer —and you will not —acknowledge that you have been a fool and demand a refund, as is reasonable and just. But be advised: you cannot call the Better Business Bureau and tell them that you have been scammed. Still less can you call the Chancery, or the Bishop. The BBB will at least reply to your letter. The Chancery will just “push the empty envelope” and in the unlikely case that they do reply, they will most likely tell you that the Bishop deems your “CCD” program an outstanding model of religious education, and that he personally holds the pastor and DRE in the highest regard.”
In truth — at least here in Boston — Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley is as clueless of the reality of “Religious Education” as your children are of their Faith.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Comments? Write us: editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
_____________________________________________________________________________
Comments submitted on this Article:
Please write us and tell us what you think: editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Dear Editor,
Hello from Santa Paula, California.
I have been blessed by finding the wonderful
Boston Catholic Journal website and greatly
enjoy your articles. I would like to offer
a hopeful response to the November article
"Religious Education in America."
I live in Ventura County, California, which
is very much a biracial community - Caucasians
and Latinos (particularly Mexicans). This
community provides interesting contrasts
in religious education and practice. What
you have described in religious education
I most certainly see in the dominantly Caucasian
churches of the county - a strange watered
down mix of new age, populist, and pop culture
"theology." These churches have bands during
Mass, gongs in middle of the church, and
tend to regard the Eucharist as symbolic.
The Latino churches stand in sharp contrast:
youth attendance is high, people of all
ages still take the Eucharist on the tongue,
many women still cover their heads, NO ONE
leaves early during mass, and either Sisters
or students from St. Thomas Aquinas college
perform religious education. I am a man
in the middle of two cultures: biracial
Irish and Mexican. I have lived this contrast,
wandering the area for several years trying
to find a church that has not abandoned
2000 years of rich Catholic tradition and
culture. It was truly a very despairing
period in my life and I almost gave up.
Fortunately, I have found most of these
traditions alive and well in Latino churches
and I finally feel like a whole Catholic
again. This shouldn't be too surprising
as with Mexicans, there is no line between
Mexican culture and Catholic culture. To
be Mexican is to essentially be Catholic.
While forces of secularism have often split
our religious and ethnic identities in White
America, these forces have been largely
unsuccessful with Latinos in the Americas.
Most likely, all this is a function of socioeconomics
and materialism. When you look at it that
way, it is not surprising that White America
has grown, fat, lazy, and arrogant due to
high standards of living, with all of this
affecting religious practices and education.
The faithful and traditional Catholic Christians
(generally speaking) continue to be the
poor, working class, and politically disadvantaged
- those closest to Christ. So through Him,
it is these communities that may prove to
be the salvation of religious education
and tradition in Catholic America...but
we'll have to swallow our pride first!
May the peace of Christ be with you,
Jason Miller
Editor’s Response:
Dear Dr. Miller,
Thank you for your kind and extremely perceptive letter. We share in your anguish, and equally share in your hope that the burgeoning Latino community in America will bring with it — and resolutely maintain — its strong and authentic Catholic identity. May it be the leaven needed in in this self-indulgent Anglo-Saxon society that has, as you correctly observed, become complacent and to a large extent spiritually bankrupt and liturgically corrupt. It remains to be seen if the promise of affluence at the cost of its Catholic identity will prevail — or if that that genuine Catholic impulse historically prevalent in the Latino community, that indefeasible identity that is inseparable, even inalienable from 2000 years of Catholicism, will overcome the increasingly defined "American Catholic Church" that has made God in man's image ...
Dear Editor,
I read your latest article
on religious education in American with
sense of sadness that yes, I too, have been
there as a parent and as a former DRE. During
the 70's I began to see what has been referred
to as the "cookie, kool-aid and sweet Jesus"
times. My own children were in elementary
school and attended CCD classes. Our DRE
was a sister with pierced ears, polished
nails, and pink lips. I do not mean any
personal disrespect, but we as parents and
teachers were urged to the point of being
pushed to forget the old ways and get with
the new. No confession before First Communion,
Confirmation, well, maybe if you really
want to ...
I became so confused, disgruntled and yes,
angry that I pursued my own degree in Religious
Education at a Catholic university so that
perhaps with God's grace I could make a
difference. That DRE degree could have been
the beginning of the end for me as well
had God not been with me every step of the
way. I was taught by adjunct professors
flown in from hither, thither and yon with
new agendas, their own! I heard and saw
things that shocked me and scandalized those
in the program who were non-Catholic. What
I took from that experience besides my DRE
was a determination to save the baby that
was being thrown out with the bath water.
Sadly, my time as a volunteer DRE in an
newly organized parish was short-lived as
mid-year I was called to a parish council
meeting to ask why I was I teaching all
of that "old Catholic stuff." In trying
to defend our beliefs and actions, my assistant
and I ended up having to resign or be fired.
Years later when my youngest daughter was
ready for school, we made the sacrifice
in distance and money to send her to a Catholic
school. In her sophomore year in high school,
the class watched and "critiqued" current
movies. Her teacher was a sister. Now my
children are married with children of their
own, and they do NOT know their faith. Each
one has chosen to join the denomination
of their spouse. Yet, privately each one
has come to me to express as best they can
how much they wish they knew the Catholic
faith of their family.
It is now much later and my sister is experiencing
a crisis in faith for so many of the same
reasons as were alive and well in the late
60's and 70's. She also attended CCD classes
and has had nothing since ~ not for the
lack of searching. In my own parish we listen
to the paid, professional band, sit for
the entire Mass (no kneelers in church)
and the homilies revolve around the sports
world. My heart aches for the truths of
our faith that were tossed out the door
along with the communion rails, statues,
prie-dieus and holy water fonts.
I do not have specific answers for this
growing cancer of secularism in Holy Mother
Church, especially here in the United States.
At this time in my own life, it is prayer.
Active participation in parish life is needed,
but how can one get a foot in the door if
one has a rosary in hand? I do think that
with the growing Hispanic population some
reverence and respect for our beautiful
Catholic faith will return. However, how
can the younger generation of even the devout
Hispanics escape this secular society and
the laxity in the practice of our faith?
There are dark moments when I fear we have
come too far, and I ask why are prayer and
penance the foreign language we do not understand?
In closing I would like to pose this thought
although it is not mine alone. A friend
of mine suggested that much of the dilemma
in the Church in the US is a result of disobedience.
We don't like to obey; it goes against our
own will, rubs us the wrong way, how dare
anyone tell us what to do......and yet He
was obedient unto death, death on a cross
for you, for me. With prayer, penance and
obedience ... and the mercy of God perhaps,
just perhaps, we will live to see our faith
rightfully restored and preserved.
a former "DRE"
Dear Editor,
We live in a small South Texas town with
about 300-400 families in our parish. What
you described in your article seems to mirror
our parish; "a warm body and a willingness
to teach". Our recruiting systems is a signup
sheet on the bulletin board in the church.
There's no requirements regarding qualifications
with the exception of required certification
training which nobody attends. Lets say,
there's no enforcement where if you don't
become certified you don't teach. Therefore,
we have well meaing people that are ignorant
of their faith teaching the children. The
teaching curriculum is never reviewed or
updated. I am told it would be too expensive
to make any changes that would require a
newer, updated curriculum. We must pinch
pennies in order to pay off the parish's
new community/basketball center. I've never
known of or seen where the teachers are
monitored to see what they're teaching the
children. If a parent were to complain they'd
be "gilt tripped" into shutting up by being
told "if you don't like it then why don't
you teach?"
We've had a few DREs that were run out of
their jobs because of a small crowd of "other
ethnic origin" that wanted only a person
who was bilingual and wouldn't follow church
rules. Of course they never tried to become
trained for the position when the courses
were offered and definitely didn't know
anything about their faith. Now the church
secretary is running the operation among
all the other duties she does. In some classes
there's about 30-40 students in the class
room with one teacher; what a hoot, how
can anything be taught here? I've suggested
to the Pastor that if there aren't enough
teachers don't have the class. He just looks
at me with a blank stare. I don't know what
to make of it. We continue to pray for him....
My wife offered to provide the teacher certification
courses in the parish. She's given about
three now and only 4-5 people show up. I
don't mean to sound so negative but, this
is the reality of it. My wife and I have
taught high school R.E. for over 20 years
and we always have to begin with the basics
(i.e., who is God, why are you here, etc)It's
most perplexing to observe clueless children
when one wonders what are the parents doing
with their children since they are the first
teachers of the faith. Of course some think
its the church's duty to be the primary
faith teacher just like they think its the
local school's job to teach their children
discipline among other subjects. I've worked
in law enforcement for over 12 years and
am now retired but I remember parents giving
up on their children and expecting the criminal
justice system to straighten their children
out after the parents failed at their jobs
miserably in raising their children.
This is the reality of it and it is a sad
dilemma we're in...
Mike
Editor’s Response:
Dear Mike,
Thank you very much for your letter. We
commiserate with you. The sad state of "Religious
Education" in America — and very likely
elsewhere in the world — is a reflection
of the widespread indifference of the Bishops
of every diocese who, in their primary role
as Teachers of the Faith, have defaulted
upon it, panning it off to "Professional
Catholics" — Catholics who earn their living
off being Catholics. This coterie of very
"progressive" and often disaffected individuals
and groups within the Church are clearly
more concerned with social and sexual issues
than actually teaching children what is
most basic, most elemental, in their faith.
We are not suggesting that the bishops teach
Catechism; we are simply emphasizing the
fact that bishops do not, to our knowledge,
and in our experience, do anything meaningful
and measurable to ensure that the true Catholic
Faith (and not the personal opinions of
uninformed and unqualified teachers) is
in fact being taught within the Churches
in their diocese. Clearly, they cannot monitor
each classroom, nor can the parish priests
(although they ought to make an effort).
It is the DRE who is "being paid" to do
the job, and like her bishop, she in turn
pans it off to "unpaid" Catechists with
no questions asked, no qualifications required.
They get to teach their opinions, she gets
to cash her check. And that is why "Johnny
does not know God" in the 10th and last
year of CCD or "Religious Education".
A great deal of pretension surrounds this,
and there is much make-work and self-aggrandizing
meetings, from the bishops Chancery down
to the local DRE's office, applauding themselves
on their success in the face of a sobering
reality that discloses a catastrophic failure
in the transmission of our Catholic Faith,
a failure that has become both systematic
and pandemic.
No one is going to call the DRE to account;
not the bishop, not the pastor, and certainly
not the "parish council". No one is asking
the most blatant question: why do our children
know nothing of God or of their faith after
ten years of "instruction"?
You, the parent, must ask your DRE why.
You're paying her — and you are not getting
the goods. What is worse, neither is your
child.
Dear Editor,
My wife and I are so fed up with the way
the Church is heading. All we hear is “spiritual
froth”; is there someone out there with
the courage and fortitude to take a stand
for their faith? Don’t get me wrong, there’re
some excellent priests and religious out
there that lay down their lives for their
people every day. We pray every day that
our Pope, bless his soul, will pull in the
reigns on the American Church. However,
we’ve got some “wolves in sheep’s clothing”
and they’re in the “hen house”.
We really need to inquire with total honesty
and objectivity of ourselves as a Catholic
people, are we ready to claim our identity
in order to respond to the call of the Gospel,
in such a way as to be real signs of the
Kingdom of God. God is simply waiting for
your responses.
Jesus called Nathaniel, the recliner, the
prejudiced one. "- Can anything good come
out of Nazareth?" Nathaniel said. Nathaniel
lacked openness. Nathaniel wasn't ready.
Jesus called Simon, the Zealot. Simon thought
redemption required military and political
force. Simon lacked nonviolence. Simon wasn't
ready.
Jesus called Andrew, the cynic. "-Five loaves
and two fishes! What can anyone do with
that-"? Andrew said. Andrew lacked a sense
of risk. Andrew wasn't ready.
Jesus called Thomas, the doubter. Thomas
couldn't see beyond the obvious. Thomas
lacked vision. Thomas wasn't ready.
Jesus called Judas, the realist. Judas didn't
want God, Judas wanted good business practices.
"-This perfume could have been sold for
300 denarii’s". Judas lacked spiritual maturity.
Judas was definitely not ready.
Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector.
Matthew had spent his whole life succeeding
at the expense of others. Matthew lacked
a sense of social sin. Matthew wasn't ready.
Jesus called Thaddeus, the realist. Thaddeus
was looking for authority and official recognition
but definitely not foresight. Thaddeus asks:
"-Why don't you reveal yourself to the world?-"
-- a loose translation would be: "-You tell
them who you are. Don't leave the burden
to us!-" Thaddeus lacked commitment. Thaddeus
wasn't ready.
Jesus called James the Lesser, the bigot.
James insisted that Christianity was only
for the Jews. James had no idea whatsoever
of world redemption. James lacked awareness.
James wasn't ready.
Jesus called James and John, the sons of
thunder. James and John were well on their
way to becoming career ministers, ambitious
men who wanted a good church position. James
and John wanted to be bishops. James and
John lacked a sense of servant hood. James
and John were not ready.
Jesus called Peter, the rock. And Peter..?
Peter wanted to lead the leader on his own
terms. "-Don't go up to Jerusalem, Jesus-",
Peter said. Peter lacked courage. Peter
was not ready.
The point you see, is that Jesus doesn't
call the “ready”. Jesus calls the willing.
Jesus didn't call individuals as individuals.
Jesus took the disciples in their personal
weaknesses and made of them a powerful,
-- no, an “empowering – Church.”
Are we Catholics ready, with all our sins,
fears, faults, inadequacies and weaknesses
willing in the light of our
baptismal commitment to claim our identity
and vocation?
There is a very brief story by the late
Father Anthony de Mello. The story goes
something like this: “Once a farmer found
an eagle's egg and he put it in the nest
of his backyard chickens. The egg hatched
and the eaglet grew up thinking he was a
chicken. He scratched the earth for worms
and flopped about in the dust as chickens
do. One day, he looked up into the sky and
saw a great and beautiful golden bird gliding
effortlessly in the clear, blue sky. He
said, "What's that?" The chicken said, "That's
the eagle, the king of the birds. He belongs
to the sky. We're chickens, we belong to
the earth". And so the eagle lived and died
a chicken, for that is what he thought he
was”.
Catholics, both clergy, religious
and laity: Who do you say that you
are…?
Name Withheld by Request
Editor’s Response:
Dear Sir,
You ask, "is there someone out there with
the courage and fortitude to take a stand
for their faith?"
Yes, Mike — you do! We do!
Don’t give up!
The "Counter-Church" within the Church is
relying on the silence of the genuinely
faithful who fear to speak, fear to be labeled
"reactionary", "traditionalists", "backward",
"not in the 'spirit of Vatican II", not
"progressive"; who fear to be marginalized,
criticized, and persecuted — as Jesus Christ
promised every follower would be. In fact,
I would venture to go so far as to say that
if you are on good terms with "the
world", "the parish council", "the clique"
who run every Church; if you are welcomed,
praised and lauded ...... you cannot
possibly be following Christ. Think
on that — then stand up, be heard, and fight
the good fight. When you received your own
Confirmation you became a Soldier of Christ
— and as a Soldier you cannot leave your
post, however menacing they are who encroach
upon you and God's Holy Church.
You are not alone. How can you be, in that
Communion of Saints that extends back 2000
years ... and to eternity? You may be surrounded
by antagonists, but as St. Paul tells us,
you are also "surrounded by a cloud of witnesses".
Praised be Jesus Christ. J+M+J
Dear Mr. Editor,
I would like to express
my gratitude for your courageous , inspiring
and informative article entitled, "The grave
state of religious life in America".As a
consecrated religious residing in Europe
it is of particular interest , it enables
me to see and
presumably others too, both the comparisons,
differences and what could become the reality
here, and indeed should act as a warning
to us all and be a rally for greater vigilance
regarding the religious education of our
young.
Some of the things that you have written
about we could already identify with, but
not all, could I please request that you
could give on your site a succinct précis
of the ' format ' of the American Catechesis,
CCD is? At least on paper, in this country
catechists have to take a formal training
and they are accountable to their bishops.
If by the age of 13 the children have no
idea of the fundamentals what actually are
they learning at their classes? Or at least
should I say what are the teachers filling
their allotted and precious time with?
For the teachers not to be accountable is
some way is a sure way of these children
wandering into error, even heresy because
it sounds as if the whole lesson depends
entirely on the whim of the teacher his/herself.
For the children, given to us by God, entrusted
to us is this really the best we can do?
It speaks of apathy, affluence and a dying
faith, not the Faith, by the faith
of those who have the responsibility to
hand down the richness and beauty of the
Holy Catholic Faith.
Teaching a child how many bricks constituted
the walls of Jericho, or which way the River
Jordan flows does nothing to bring them
into a relationship and furthermore develop
a relationship with Jesus Christ , whom
they should come to know as their dearest,
closest, best and enduring friend.Children
have a natural perception for the true and
the beautiful, they also have at quite a
tender age perceptions of some being beyond
themselves, this is God given and our task
is to nurture that.
Children and teenagers are attracted by
genuine examples and witnesses of authentic
holiness, by persons, religious, priests,
and laity whom they perceive to be living
out what they profess.
Here in Europe 'Pop Masses ' have been tried
and in time found to be wanting, of course
there can be , have been specific celebrations
where music of the culture have been used
successfully, but these are special events
catering for thousands, I am thinking in
particular of various Papal Masses for the
young and other centres of pilgrimage. However
the music has usually been tastefully chosen
and well executed because of the young people
who were involved obviously alive within
their Christianity. But when this is applied
on parish levels just to attract the young,
or attract anyone it is invariably failure.
Young people can listen to pop music 7 days
a week 24 hours a day, when they attend
Mass they do not come with the intention
of being entertained, but desperately hoping
that they will find something relevant for
they lives, some meaning... they want genuine
spiritual experiences they want God, they
have a hunger to know Jesus as their personal
Saviour not band leader.
If they find Mass boring its because they
do not meet Christ in the celebration.
I would consider your article to be in fact
a very important one and I hope you will
develop it further.
Children, teen-agers want to know how to
come into contact with God, they want to
know how to pray, they are as we all are
seeking for love, they will only find love
in a person, not in ideas. The amount of
religious literature, graphics downloaded
on the internet by young people is yet another
proof that they are seeking and we are failing
them miserably it seems. In one way, you
have an answer on the Boston site, I see
you have a link to Children and the Eucharist,
how much we could learn from their example
and this wonderful priest who leads them,
to be present to Jesus totally before the
Blessed Sacrament , to both know and give
love.... but they can only do this if we
stand up and take our responsibilities serious....when
all is said and done GOD himself has entrusted
this to us ... to nurture, feed and care
for the young.
"let the little ones come to me "
Please ask your readers to visit
Children of Hope
https://www.childrenofhope.org:
it is a wonderful site dedicated to leading
children into the mystery of the Real Presence
of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, that they
may come to realize how much he loves them!
Bring your little ones here!
Thank you again for this splendid article
and reading the responses from other readers
I get the impression that the pain caused
by it all is far more widespread than one
would of initially believed, God bless you
all.
I will pray that service that your website
is will bear good fruit for Christ, In His
Joy.
Sister Laetitia
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Totally
Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted
to the Holy See in Rome
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