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Crisis
in Catholic
Doctrine
The Grave State
of Religious Education in America
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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."
Pope John Paul II
January 26, 2004
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Your
child is in the 10th grade, the 10th year of Religious Education ---
and does 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 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 40 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") 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 pertaining to
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 that, say, a Catholic
physician is said to be a "Professional Catholic" --- a practicing
Catholic who is in "one of the secular professions". "DRE"s are
"professional Catholics" in another way. That is to say, they are
paid 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, if 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 of emolument. 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 a 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 for
a living ... not Christianity. 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", we will remember, derives from the bodily movements
associated with fornication) 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") have even brought in 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 textual instruction, is "Rock and Roll" 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. Wait
... Black Sabbath? Madonna?"
"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 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. 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 must go back to pick them up. Cash and
carry ... So why are they --- your children --- oblivious ... too?
I encourage you to ask your DRE: "Why does my child not know
God?"
We are our children's' 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.
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editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
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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 2006 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! As Father Corapi emphatically states:
"Surrender is not an option."
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
http://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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