I found this at Rev. Know it All and it’s a priest, Fr. Simon saying exactly what he thinks. There’s a lot to consider here but no punches are pulled.
Here it is:
Friends,
You may have noticed that recently, at Mass, I asked the young people who attend our religious education program to stand up. Of the 250, give or take, who attend the program, I counted about 50 or 60 at all the Masses. Our teachers have done wonderful work. They have made great sacrifices for the sake of the religious education of our children. They have not failed. The 50-year-old system that they inherited has failed. We are using a model that was created before cell phones, soccer practice, twitter, facebook and video games. The model we are using is older than the Beatles. It’s as old as I am.
We inherited a system from the good old days of flourishing Catholic schools another failure which was lovingly remembered in the book, “The Last Catholic in America,” a charming reminiscence about Catholicism during the 1950’s in which young Eddy Ryan loses his faith. Religious education was called C.C.D. or the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. In this usage it refers to a form of classroom style religious education for children in public schools. It was, at least in my youth, the threadbare cousin of Catholic schools.
Catholic schools, by and large, have become failures themselves. There are some splendid Catholic schools, but in my experience of 40 years in ministry, increasingly, especially in large urban areas, Catholic schools have become inexpensive private schools for middle class people who have little or no interest in the Catholic faith, maintained at great expense by Catholic parishes. Catholic schools are, for the most part, over.
Continue reading at Rev. Know It All>>>
June 21, 2012 at 6:19 pm
What eastern rite catholics prepare for confession w/water balloons and donuts?
June 21, 2012 at 7:13 pm
I teach theology in a catholic high school, it is a mandatory part of the curriculum and we teach the faith zealously with complete orthodoxy. We speak with them about many topics such as mortal sins, abortion, gay marriage , etc. We are orthodox in our practice and apologize to no one for it. If you want a child to be Catholic then as a parent you need to practice your faith,in front of them, with them and the Parish Priest needs to speak the truth to them from the pulpit and not pass over controversial topics like artificial contraception, abortion, premarital sex etc. There has been a failure of Priests, and others to teach the truth as if they were scared to speak it and that's why we are in the mess we are in.
June 21, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Fr. Simon doesn't take anonymous posts (and I don't blame him), but since I am a DRE and I don't want my pastor or andy parishioners to wig out upon seeing my post, I will post it here.
Father, I'm a DRE and I would have stood up and clapped and screamed in my living room right now except that I would have scared the baby and had the older kids wondering if they should call their father home from work. Please do this. Please.
A CCD Lady in Anydiocese, USA
June 21, 2012 at 7:52 pm
I hope the good Father is not serious about YouthChurch. looks like another gimmick–Lifeteen anyone?–that will get certain kids to come to Mass (or some dubious semblance thereof)where they will be entertained with bad christain pop music and clown-happy celebrants until the next fad comes along and where they will learn to be non-denominational evangelical Christians dressed up as Catholics.
June 21, 2012 at 7:52 pm
Anonymous at 2:13,
It has been a failure of priests, but also a failure by us, the laity. Priests can only preach the truth to those who are at Mass. We, the laity, are responsible for remaining silent when our siblings announce they will use birth control, our friends/neighbors skip Mass for sports, golf, or a weekend at the lake, when our "Catholic" politicians undermine the Church and yet we vote for (or even donate money to) them anyway. When we fail to fraternally correct and get those who surround us back to the sacraments, there's little that priests can do.
The failures of Sacramental prep, and of the Church in general to pass on the faith, has been a failure of the entire Church– the shepherds, the priests, the religious, and the lay. It will take all of us to try to rebuild.
June 21, 2012 at 9:02 pm
It sounds as if the priest is belatedly introducing a regime whereby children are admitted to baptism and the other sacraments in accordance with The teaching of the Church. No child ought to be baptised where his parents have. It clearly shown that they are sincerely committed to raising their child in the knowledge and practice of the Faith. A child ought not be admitted to further sacraments unless they know their Faith, practise it as required and solemnly assent to continue to practise in fidelity to the Church.
June 21, 2012 at 10:26 pm
I applaud this effort. For too long parishes have poured most of their resources into schools and had very low returns for the amount of money and man hours they cost. It seems the bishops are all in favor of more parish schools, but was this a model Jesus started? I don't recall Jesus ever starting a school.
June 21, 2012 at 10:36 pm
There are many imprecisions here. This most important is that you don't have to know that something is a mortal sin in order to commit a mortal sin. It is possible to be culpably negligent.
June 21, 2012 at 11:32 pm
My daughter just completed her "Confirmation program," which was so horrible that several families in addition to ours waited impatiently to hear about it each week. When 9th graders can't make the Sign of the Cross, don't know the basic prayers of our faith (Hail Mary, anyone?), don't know the seven Sacraments, never attend Mass and have attended RE classes every single year, something is terribly, terribly wrong. She did enjoy her retreat very much and learned a lot from that experience, but the rest was a nightmare for my homeschooled, faith-filled child. Our RE system is so, so broken.
June 22, 2012 at 12:04 am
It all is for naught without protecting and nurturing the family.
That, TOO, needs a radical change from the past many years.
Karl
June 22, 2012 at 12:30 am
Father is spot on.
I teach at a Catholic High School. Although I would lose my job, I wish the diocese would get out of this business. Over half of the students never attend Mass…maybe Christmas or Easter. The students who do attend Mass would attend Mass whether the school was there or not. Evangelize??? What a joke. Not when the administration is so eager to attract students that we are forced to water down the Faith so our students can feel "comfortable". God forbid if I ask parents why they religiously attend every sporting event, but can't manage to get the family to Mass on Sunday.
We throw too much money into a model that is no longer reality. These schools are not what keeps our youngsters Catholic. If we do not redirect our money to a full parish religious education program (toddlers through adults)we will continue to lose Catholics. What is more shocking is that we charge money for the bare-bones religious ed programs available. That would never happen at a Protestant ecclesical community.
June 22, 2012 at 4:05 am
Don't know what he means about YouthChurch — I don't think such a program exists.
I have heard some good things about Catholic family religious ed. Parents and children study the same topics (but at different levels, obviously). It does get the parents involved as well. Some of my Protestant friends have something similar.
June 22, 2012 at 4:20 am
Wonderful. This post it tough to argue, however…. its just what Catholic schools that do in fact do the job need: fodder for anti-Catholic catholic homeschool parents. Just dandy.
This gives moms that spend a fair amount of the day browsing the internet for reason #45,789 to bash Catholic education (yes, some of it is clearly deserved) with their listserve 'network'.
The problem is ladies, the restoration will not come about by email and facebook from the bunker. It will come about with prayer and heavy lifting. In the meantime, let's keep waiting for a papal encyclical on homeschooling like we have for Catholic education.
Yes, there is a lot of work to be done and many things are broken and there is no easy answer. Fr Simon as usual makes some good points, but giving up isn't the answer.
June 22, 2012 at 4:29 am
When I realized that Eastern Rite Catholics from the Middle East don’t have Communion and Confirmation classes…The result is that they have a vibrant spiritual like that they have maintained in the face of 1,300 years of unremitting persecution.
First, while I applaud the courage and the sentiments of this priest, the above is very oversimplified, as many Latin American countries (and even several European ones) follow this same model, so I don't think there is any real cause and effect there. Second, I also applaud his use of "we" collectively in placing the blame, assumedly with hiself included. But…and I know this is going to sound offensive to many hear…if he does not say the Tridentine liturgy, then he owns a great deal more of the blame than maybe he is aware (or cares to admit). THIS is the reason the faith of the Eastern Christians is so strong and has withstood centuries of Muslim onslaught: the liturgy IS the manifestation of the faith, and theirs was never watered down after Vatican II. The divine liturgy, fasting, adherence to the calendar (specifically to holy days of obligation) and outward signs of Christianity (clothing, crosses etc) are all tied together…but it is the liturgy that is MOST important. If you do not see the reverence, the piety and above all the importance of the message through the liturgy, then it makes it that much more difficult to pass on the faith to the next generation. And frankly, that is the elephant in the room that this priest's article overlooked.
June 22, 2012 at 7:17 pm
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June 22, 2012 at 7:18 pm
The fundamental problem is that the Catholic Church placed its ultimate faith in a kind of structural and cultural osmosis, not in the Holy Spirit. Consequently, when the osmosis failed, the faith could not be communicated because, for far too many Catholics, the structural and cultural osmosis *became* the faith and the focus of worship. That's one reason why the clerical sex-abuse crisis metastacized: When your faith is in an institution, that institution must be protected at all costs, even at the cost of the innocent.
The Catholic Church has buried the Gospel under geologic layers of esoteric theology and legalism. When Church leaders repent and dispose of the irrelevancies, then it will florish. If not, then it will stumble along until the demise prophecied by St. Malachy and Pope Leo XIII.
June 22, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Joseph – wrong.
June 22, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Really the joke is on the CCD teachers and priests… parents have been using them as babysitters for years, even to catch a break during Mass.
What are we teaching our children when we export them from our sides at Mass?
1. Mass is secondary to class.
2. Some professional needs to handle you for you to be well formed in your faith.
3. You need to be constantly amused to learn or behave.
4.You are kind of an idiot if you are unable to assimilate the liturgy going on before you and need it re-translated via tape, crayons, bean-bags, electric guitars and disco balls.
What a lot of effort for bupkis. I vote GIVE UP. Take the kids to Mass and then live like Catholic parents. You might even try acting like you like it.
June 22, 2012 at 10:01 pm
My brother and I both attended Catholic school from first grade through high school+. He died at age 80 having been a daily communicant for many years. We both knew and loved our faith because of the excellent Catholic shools of the pre-Vatican II era and the faithfulness of our parents. But the times are different. Many Catholic children do not even attend the one hour a week religious education programs. I have never heard a priest at Sunday Mass encourage parents to send their chilren to the religion classes. There are announcements that it's available but that's all. Probably many Catholics are not even aware that the Catholic Church is the only church founded by Jesus Christ. Suggestions: (1) Apologetics needs to be a part of every Sunday homily. (2) There needs to be parish organized groups which will prepare active Catholics to go out in pairs(like the apostles)to those registered in the parish. Every registered parish member should be personally contacted and urged to attend Mass regularly and to enroll his/her children in a religious program.
June 23, 2012 at 4:55 pm
I sincerely wish that both church officials & those involved in the education system stop beating themselves up. I've been a social worker and teacher for over 30 years. I also belong to a rosary group at my parish. There is nothing wrong with our religious education sytem; most parents do what they can to lead by example. Most kids in secondary school & perhaps post secondary are wholly involved in life outside of our religious institutions; are trying to find themselves socially, emotionally, educ ationally and spiritually. Thet are worried about their future employment and place in society. Not much time is spent on religious endeavours. However, in my experience, they do come back to the faith with zeal after having discovered that life in the real world without true faith and God is meaningless. Even my most hardened students who were enthralled by Darwinism and spent adequate time experimenting with other kinds of faith have returned. There is a time and a place for everything. Unfortunately, youth is wasted on most young. They don't understand about the mercy and love of God until much later. Maturity and getting kicked around by life – -does teach them much. Going back to something that brings peace into their lives is eventually appreciated and embraced. God Bless!