after confirmation

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angell1

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do you guys thik there shold be a continuation of formation classes of some sort after confirmation?

currently, our teens get religious education until after confirmation, then, nothing. and I feel like the teenage years are very important, and many people lose their faith at this stage due to various factors

any idea of how the structure could be better improved? not that it’s up to me, but I’m just looking for ideas, if ever I get a chance to introduce new ways to help to a parish in the future.

we do have a struggle where not all parents are teaching the faith at home and not all families can afford to send their kids to catholic schools. and even some catholic schools aren’t even teaching the faith properly anymore.

any suggestions?
 
My parish offers both Faith Formation classes (for pretty much everyone) and also after RCIA has mystagogia classes which I think they would allow anyone to attend and not just the former RCIA members. Perhaps you could ask the faith formation director at your parish what’s available?
 
Faith formation should be a lifelong activity.

My ideal would be that parishes offer a variety of activities, classes, groups, etc. that would appeal to different people at different times in their lives. Some groups or activities might be catechetical in nature, some might be social justice oriented, some might be prayer oriented, some might be faith sharing groups, etc. There might also be groups that appeal to different age groups – teens, young adults, senior citizens, etc. for social and service activities.
 
The priest, the rabbi and the minister had lunch together every month.

One day the rabbi asked: “We have bats in the roof of the synagogue. Have you guys ever had this problem?”

“Oh yes” said the minister, “I had to use a special bat removal service. It was very expensive.”

“We had bats in our church” said the priest “but all I did was Confirm them and they have not been back since.”

🙂
 
angell1 said:
do you guys thik there shold be a continuation of formation classes of some sort after confirmation?

currently, our teens get religious education until after confirmation, then, nothing. and I feel like the teenage years are very important, and many people lose their faith at this stage due to various factors

any idea of how the structure could be better improved? not that it’s up to me, but I’m just looking for ideas, if ever I get a chance to introduce new ways to help to a parish in the future.

we do have a struggle where not all parents are teaching the faith at home and not all families can afford to send their kids to catholic schools. and even some catholic schools aren’t even teaching the faith properly anymore.

any suggestions?
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There generally are classes. kids just don’t come. Many parents believe that Confirmation is a sort of Graduation, and fail to enroll their kids after.
We have formation all the way through Senior year, but this Archdiocese Confirms in 10th grade.
If the program is good, and effective, they will return, on fire for the faith.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Faith formation should be a lifelong activity.

My ideal would be that parishes offer a variety of activities, classes, groups, etc. that would appeal to different people at different times in their lives. Some groups or activities might be catechetical in nature, some might be social justice oriented, some might be prayer oriented, some might be faith sharing groups, etc. There might also be groups that appeal to different age groups – teens, young adults, senior citizens, etc. for social and service activities.
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I agree with all of the above. I would also like to see offered Biblical Exegesis, moral theology, sacramental theology, lives of the saints and other topics after confirmation. The questions found in ask the Apologist would be great topics for these discussions.

In our area, 3 yrs after confirmation, 1 out of 3 catechumens and candidates no longer practice. My guess is these are the remedies needed.
 
Zoltan_Cobalt said:
The priest, the rabbi and the minister had lunch together every month.

One day the rabbi asked: “We have bats in the roof of the synagogue. Have you guys ever had this problem?”

“Oh yes” said the minister, “I had to use a special bat removal service. It was very expensive.”

“We had bats in our church” said the priest “but all I did was Confirm them and they have not been back since.”

🙂
Click to expand...
😃
 
The archdiocese of Denver is moving the age of confirmation to 3rd grade in the coming years. So there will DEFINITELY need to be religious education after that 👍

Archbishop Aquila did the same thing in his previous diocese – in one of the Dakotas – and participation in religious education throughout middle and high school increased.

Of course, my son is in 5th grade, so now I have no idea of when he’ll be confirmed, as he is in the middle of the old way (8th grade) and the new move to 3rd grade. 🤷

Gertie
 
Gertabelle said:
The archdiocese of Denver is moving the age of confirmation to 3rd grade in the coming years. So there will DEFINITELY need to be religious education after that 👍

Archbishop Aquila did the same thing in his previous diocese – in one of the Dakotas – and participation in religious education throughout middle and high school increased.

Of course, my son is in 5th grade, so now I have no idea of when he’ll be confirmed, as he is in the middle of the old way (8th grade) and the new move to 3rd grade. 🤷

Gertie
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Sorry to hear that. Don’t expect the classes to be packed.
Especially in this age, people just simply be relieved to not have to bring their kids any more. Mass attendance will go down as well.
There’s a reason why some Bishops keep it in the High school years.
It forces the parishes to offer good programs for the kids.
 
Our students just received the Sacrament of Confirmation last Saturday. We had 115 teenagers–8th graders. Bishop George Rassas was the minister of the sacrament. His homily was addressed to the candidates

About 70% of the class is from our Catholic grade school. The remainder are from about ten local public schools. Our parish is located in an urban/suburban middle and upper middle class neighborhood of Chicago.

Sadly, about one third of our Confirmed choose not to worship again in our glorious basilica for several years, if ever. That seems mostly due to the attitude that Confirmation = Graduation, even though that is not at all how we teach. I think the essence is that many parents are prioritizing other “activities” over Sunday Mass worship and faith formation. The parents feel that they have “done enough.”

The dichotomy is that 85% of these kids will attend local Catholic high schools. Tuition ranges from $10,000 to $18,000 annually for those schools.

We have no formal continuing education program for after confirmation (high school students). However, our parish does have a teen youth ministry with about twenty five active members, mostly girls. They perform works of service in the parish and the local community. We have one teen mass monthly in our chapel.
 
Gertabelle said:
The archdiocese of Denver is moving the age of confirmation to 3rd grade in the coming years. So there will DEFINITELY need to be religious education after that 👍

Archbishop Aquila did the same thing in his previous diocese – in one of the Dakotas – and participation in religious education throughout middle and high school increased.

Of course, my son is in 5th grade, so now I have no idea of when he’ll be confirmed, as he is in the middle of the old way (8th grade) and the new move to 3rd grade. 🤷

Gertie
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We can be hopeful and pray for that same result again–and for your son and his mates.
 
We have 85 kids in LifeTeen.
43 of them Confirmed yesterday.
25 of them want to return as Teen CORE Members. Twenty don’t want to be leaders, but want to come back for classes. The rest have parents who said “I’m SO glad to be DONE!”

😦

If parents see their child’s moral and faith formation as a chore, big surprise we young people suffer greatly in college. Nobody cares about them.

My philosophy about religious ed is two-fold:

1)Your students have to know that you will tell them the TRUTH. Exactly what the church teaches, and why.
2) They have to know you truly love them and care about them. Many of them have no one, NO ONE. The need to know that you want them to thrive and be close to God.

You can serve all the pizza in the world and bribe them to classes any way you think works…but if you don’t truly offer these 2 things…
forget it. They’ll be cafeteria catholics . on a good day.
if they don’t think you’re talking straight, or that the priest, the parish, and the church cares…you have already lost them. They get catechized by the media and their friends. And it is very seldom correct.
:twocents:
 
pianistclare said:
We have 85 kids in LifeTeen.
43 of them Confirmed yesterday.
25 of them want to return as Teen CORE Members. Twenty don’t want to be leaders, but want to come back for classes. The rest have parents who said “I’m SO glad to be DONE!”

😦

If parents see their child’s moral and faith formation as a chore, big surprise we young people suffer greatly in college. Nobody cares about them.

My philosophy about religious ed is two-fold:

1)Your students have to know that you will tell them the TRUTH. Exactly what the church teaches, and why.
2) They have to know you truly love them and care about them. Many of them have no one, NO ONE. The need to know that you want them to thrive and be close to God.

You can serve all the pizza in the world and bribe them to classes any way you think works…but if you don’t truly offer these 2 things…
forget it. They’ll be cafeteria catholics . on a good day.
if they don’t think you’re talking straight, or that the priest, the parish, and the church cares…you have already lost them. They get catechized by the media and their friends. And it is very seldom correct.
:twocents:
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Words of wisdom…as usual.

Blessings to you
 
pianistclare said:
We have 85 kids in LifeTeen.
43 of them Confirmed yesterday.
25 of them want to return as Teen CORE Members. Twenty don’t want to be leaders, but want to come back for classes. The rest have parents who said “I’m SO glad to be DONE!”

😦

If parents see their child’s moral and faith formation as a chore, big surprise we young people suffer greatly in college. Nobody cares about them.

My philosophy about religious ed is two-fold:

1)Your students have to know that you will tell them the TRUTH. Exactly what the church teaches, and why.
2) They have to know you truly love them and care about them. Many of them have no one, NO ONE. The need to know that you want them to thrive and be close to God.

You can serve all the pizza in the world and bribe them to classes any way you think works…but if you don’t truly offer these 2 things…
forget it. They’ll be cafeteria catholics . on a good day.
if they don’t think you’re talking straight, or that the priest, the parish, and the church cares…you have already lost them. They get catechized by the media and their friends. And it is very seldom correct.
:twocents:
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it’s so true.

I attended the new evangelization summit over the weekend and was discussing this with some friends.

if people aren’t truly evangelized and converted, then all the catechesis in the world won’t help them. even receiving the sacraments and church activities won’t be quite so fruitful

if people aren’t in love with the lord, why on earth would they care about what they perceive to be “church rules”? well, we see what happens, they don’t

definitely a tough problem that requires a lot of work
 
pianistclare said:
We have 85 kids in LifeTeen.
43 of them Confirmed yesterday.
25 of them want to return as Teen CORE Members. Twenty don’t want to be leaders, but want to come back for classes. The rest have parents who said “I’m SO glad to be DONE!”

😦

If parents see their child’s moral and faith formation as a chore, big surprise we young people suffer greatly in college. Nobody cares about them.

My philosophy about religious ed is two-fold:

1)Your students have to know that you will tell them the TRUTH. Exactly what the church teaches, and why.
2) They have to know you truly love them and care about them. Many of them have no one, NO ONE. The need to know that you want them to thrive and be close to God.

You can serve all the pizza in the world and bribe them to classes any way you think works…but if you don’t truly offer these 2 things…
forget it. They’ll be cafeteria catholics . on a good day.
if they don’t think you’re talking straight, or that the priest, the parish, and the church cares…you have already lost them. They get catechized by the media and their friends. And it is very seldom correct.
:twocents:
Click to expand...
Amen!

We have about 110 teens preparing for confirmation next month (maybe 20 of them are from the parish school). About 10 of them made the First Communion two Sundays ago. We have a very strong confirmation preparation program in our parish. I am curious about how we are going to transition from this program to preparing our 3rd graders, and then taking this excellent teen program and transitioning it to a youth ministry education program.

:hmmm:
 
In my diocese CCD continued through 12th grade. It surprised me to learn this is an exception and not the general rule.

IMO, it’s INSANE to halt religious formation and education right at the stage of life when kids need it most.
 
Boy_Wonder said:
IMO, it’s INSANE to halt religious formation and education right at the stage of life when kids need it most.
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Are there parishes that stop offering religious education after confirmation, or do the kids stop coming (and the parents stop insisting that the kids go to class)?
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Are there parishes that stop offering religious education after confirmation, or do the kids stop coming (and the parents stop insisting that the kids go to class)?
Click to expand...
This is more like it.
We offer Formation through Senior year.
Parents do not enroll their kids.
Parents generally feel like after Confirmation they are done with their obligation, and they focus on sports, academic awards, extracurriculars believing that these things will earn these kids scholarships. I can’t tell you how many parents really believe their kid is going to go to college free on a soccer scholarship. :rolleyes:
Or how many believe that that Eagle Scout project is going to get them into a very exclusive University. Or that their daughter is doing to dance with the Joffrey Ballet and be a prima ballerina.
I’m not saying that extracurricular activities don’t matter. They do. But for many people,
Religious Ed, in their opinion, doesn’t get you anywhere…at least not in earning power.

And then a few years later they are very dismayed to hear that their kids want to live with someone. 🤷 If they marry at all, it will be on a beach somewhere, and that they don’t feel the need to Baptize the grandchildren.
Because “as long as you’re a good person, God doesn’t care”. 😊

Priorities. Many don’t have one that includes formation.
We have nearly 100 kids in our High School program. Eight are Seniors. Only 2 of those are active. It was pretty easy to pick “Catholic Youth of the Year” from our parish.
 
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