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Post by Cato on Oct 18, 2011 10:02:40 GMT
www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/sacrament-opt-essentialFrom the article; "Parents will be asked to take a pro-active role in their child's faith under radical new proposals that will put the onus on 'opting-in' to the sacraments rather than the traditional approach where virtually every child makes First Holy Communion and Confirmation. The Church this week announced a major shift that will see parents asked to choose whether they want their children to receive the sacraments or not rather than just following the lead of other children. It will signal a radical shake-up of sacramental preparation for decades and it is likely to lead to a situation where fewer Irish children are making their First Holy Communion and Confirmation with parents asked to reflect on whether or not they want to freely choose for their children to participate in the life of the Church." What are the thoughts of people here on this one? It makes sense to me as I think that the current situation where most children make there First Communion only to disappear from church until before their confirmation - this is somewhat disrespectful to practicing Catholics and is really an exercise in hypocrisy or cynicism by those going through it for form's sake.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2011 13:43:19 GMT
I suppose it will be a smaller church, but hopefully a strong one. There would be no whining about being forced by the Church to take the sacraments and would pass the buck on to parents which is a good thing. Neither the state nor the Church own your children, they're your own, so make a responsible decision and live with it.
Perhaps a lot of parents who would ordinarily complain will ask themselves what it is they believe and what they want for their own children. A sort of boost of oxygen to a flagging faith that they have taken for granted here.
I would hope that if they do this they insist parents attend a refresher course in catechesis too. I'm all for it, and perhaps children who didn't make their first Holy Communion as children will be more open to this as adults, instead of being resentful as many are now.
Unfortunately we will lose many people who would and do benefit from the graces. I wonder would I have faith now were it not for all the graces received as a child/obnoxious teenager... Ultimately though, God wants us to choose to love and follow Him and we only have to come looking and He'll swing open the door. So we have to trust in that. No more whining about a pushy Church either, if you want in then you make the choice. Yes, I think it's a good thing too. Interesting thread Cato.
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Post by Los Leandros on Oct 18, 2011 14:03:51 GMT
On balance I think it's for the best, with one important caveat. The present airy-fairy, vacuous catechesis in Catholic schools is replaced by something with substantially more meat. The wider culture is quite anti-Catholic enough. Catholic schools ( if they are to be true to their ethos ) will have to step up to the plate ; indeed they must be made to step up to the plate by the responsible Bishops. It's no use Archbishop Martin bemoaning the state of the Faith among young people, if he wont enforce a reasonably robust Catholic education system in his schools.
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Post by Cato on Oct 18, 2011 15:11:33 GMT
Yes, I was somewhat stunned by my son's 'Alive-O' books. They are curiously light on anything 'overly' Christian and lacking any Catholicism whatsoever - their is not one mention of the Church in them. (He is in First Class now and this is his third Alive-O book.) They're actually quite new-age in their content. I'm somewhat stunned that the bishops ever signed off on them.
Now, I am not a Christian, but used to be, and indeed was quite a well informed and well educated one, so this doesn't bother me over much, but if I were still a Catholic I would be somewhat critical of the whole thing.
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Post by Los Leandros on Oct 18, 2011 15:44:29 GMT
Exactly Cato. It's as if the Bishops's are ashamed of what their Church teaches. If I were an atheist, I would like my children to learn about atheism in it's entirety, & not be ashamed to do so. In fact I often admire ( although I may disagree with them ) many atheist proponents, e.g,. Messrs. Dawkins, Hitchens etc. ; at least you cannot doubt their passion for what they believe in.
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Post by hibernicus on Oct 18, 2011 20:45:29 GMT
Agreed that this is a good thing, provided better catechesis is given to those who "opt-in" than is currently the case. The impression I get is that a lot of people in the church bureaucracy would like to water down Catholicism to something as vague as Anglicanism, and that if it wasn't for the Magisterium that is exactly what they would do. They are really reluctant to accept that Catholicism has very definite beliefs and that someone who rejects them is no longer a Catholic. It's interesting that Cato mentions "alive-O" given that the BRANDSMA REVIEW has been highlighting its shortcomings for a long time. To be fair to its perpetrators, this attitude is not just confined to catechesis - a lot of modern educational theory is based on the idea that teachers should not convey content but should operate in purely procedural terms - "teach them how to learn". The results are similar to those found in catechetics. Moreover these theories of how to learn are not treated as subject to empirical verification/disproof but are treated as self-sustaining and self-evident.
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