Catechesis question

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I live in Costa Rica.
My daughter is now eight years old. We are practicing catholic, and the Catholic church asks for her to go to catechesis three years for the first communion.
So last Saturday was her first day in catechesis. A two hours lesson on Saturday, we are not allowed to call lesson, but an encounter with God, according to the catechism teachers.

Now my daughter went today to the second encounter with God, this morning. This night she came to us, and she said that she needed to say something to her mother. (I am the father), and she said:

Mum, I need to tell you something. But that dad does not hear it.
Well here comes what she said:

The teacher (female with a halter piercing next to the right eye), had said to the group:
Beware of strange men, they can take you away and bring you to an obscure place, they pull off your pants and can (and here followed a detailed description of a violation I don’t want to repeat here) and she closed by saying: and then you will urinate blood for days.

My daughter said: I feel so strange about this in my whole body.

So my wife is a licensed psychologist and we had the scare of our lifetime, because we recognized that the teacher had opened our daughters mind and 35 other kids in the classroom to perversion. This was verbal pornography. Our daughter whom we protected for eight years to run into an obligatory catechesis class to get first communion in an encounter with God was in my eyes harassed.

We understand that from the (volunteering must be said) teacher point of view she tries to protect the kids from running into this kind of predators. The teacher is prepared to do the catechesis respect the catechism knowledge, however she has no understanding whatsoever of psychology and damages the mind of all those 7/8 yo kids thinking that she is protecting them.

Tomorrow I will talk to the priest in charge. No catechesis for my daughter. I lost all trust. Any recommendation is welcome.
 
I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s unfortunate experience. I think it is best to talk to the priest in charge and really find out the teacher’s guilt and culpability. It’s just sad that this comes at a time when the issue of pedophilia in Church has caused rancor among some members. i hope it won’t be the same with you. We pray this is an isolated case. Now if you wish to discontinue catechism in that parish then I hope you could find some other means by which your daughter could undergo catechism, unless you yourself will undertake the task. I guess you still think that catechism is necessary and I’m praying your daughter receives it from a competent catechist. God bless.
 
LdL said:
I live in Costa Rica.
My daughter is now eight years old. We are practicing catholic, and the Catholic church asks for her to go to catechesis three years for the first communion.
So last Saturday was her first day in catechesis. A two hours lesson on Saturday, we are not allowed to call lesson, but an encounter with God, according to the catechism teachers.

Now my daughter went today to the second encounter with God, this morning. This night she came to us, and she said that she needed to say something to her mother. (I am the father), and she said:

Mum, I need to tell you something. But that dad does not hear it.
Well here comes what she said:

The teacher (female with a halter piercing next to the right eye), had said to the group:
Beware of strange men, they can take you away and bring you to an obscure place, they pull off your pants and can (and here followed a detailed description of a violation I don’t want to repeat here) and she closed by saying: and then you will urinate blood for days.

My daughter said: I feel so strange about this in my whole body.

So my wife is a licensed psychologist and we had the scare of our lifetime, because we recognized that the teacher had opened our daughters mind and 35 other kids in the classroom to perversion. This was verbal pornography. Our daughter whom we protected for eight years to run into an obligatory catechesis class to get first communion in an encounter with God was in my eyes harassed.

We understand that from the (volunteering must be said) teacher point of view she tries to protect the kids from running into this kind of predators. The teacher is prepared to do the catechesis respect the catechism knowledge, however she has no understanding whatsoever of psychology and damages the mind of all those 7/8 yo kids thinking that she is protecting them.

Tomorrow I will talk to the priest in charge. No catechesis for my daughter. I lost all trust. Any recommendation is welcome.
Click to expand...
The problem isn’t the catechesis, but the person teaching. Go to that person and tell her the problem. Continue in the guidance of the Scripture passage of Matthew 18:15-17.
 
What that teacher did verbally is no different than the offenses that has the world pursuing the Pope with attorneys.

She needs to be removed as teacher, for she is not dedicated to the truth of the church.

You can teach your daughter her faith, as long as she can pass an exam given by the priest to demonstrate that she understands. Do not hold this against the church, just against the teacher. And if you have to escalate it to the Bishop.
 
Just a shot in the dark but it seems to me that this teacher may have been molested as a child and holds on to a fervency that this should never happen again. This seems realized in the details given concerning the effects of this type of molestation. She definitely should not be teaching and is in grave error here. Unfortunately your daughter and the other kids had to endure the ramifications of her inability to discern how to deal with her own issues.

Please notify whoever is in charge of the program. I have been a catechist for over ten years and we have over 60 catechists in our program and nothing like this has ever occurred. So my prayers are with you that you continue teaching your daughter the beauty of our Catholic faith and try to resist the impulse to want to pull her out of everything. The problem is not with our faith. The problem is with one lady who most likely needs help for herself and in turn is damaging others. I am so sorry to hear of this and I will pray for you and your family… teachccd
 
Every Diocese in the US requires that CCD/RE classes have one class per year on the “Protecting God’s Children Abuse Prevention”. The parents are given notice ahead of time and are given the option to opt out of the class, to teach the class at home, etc.

Call your Diocese, report what the teacher taught. Ask what the guidelines for your Diocese are.

catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dsjcr.html
 
my advice is, get some good catechism books and teach her yourselves, there is nothing wrong with doing it that way, most catechism teachers are parent volunteers anyways,

it wouldn’t take up to much of your time i’m sure, considering the classes at your church are only once a week for 2 hours, but it’s completely your choice, just do what you think is best for the sake of your child’s soul,
when you talk to your priest, you can bring this up with him as well, i’m sure he would have no problem with it.
 
I appreciate very much your advice on this matter.

besides asking on this forum, I also prayed to God before I went to sleep last night for some divine advice from Him.

And last night I had a dream, and maybe it was God who sent me this dream. Difficult to discern though, but I thought I want to share this with you.
I dreamt with a very small lion and a small grey serpent with a split tongue. And as I watched, the serpent touched with his tongue, the tongue of the lion. I watched from a nice distance, six meter or so.
And I thought by myself worried: the serpent is about to bite the lion.
And as I watched I paid attention. And more attention and for my feelings minutes went by, and I could feel the stress of the situation.
Then I lost my interest and remember I thought: The serpent is never going to bite the lion. So I calmed down and turned around to wanted to start doing something else, and outside my field of view, I could hear the hissing lion in pain. When I looked back, I could see no serpent, but it was obvious the serpent had bitten the lion in the tongue and left the scene. The lion was crawling all over the floor.

This is not the first time I have these kind of dreams, and to me the dream appears to bear value in the situation of my daughter. I will try to talk to the local priest today. That is always difficult. If anything I will keep you informed.
 
LdL said:
I live in Costa Rica.
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with your post, but is it near San Jose or Golfito?

I had the pleasure of eating a great meal at, I believe the name was, the Convent on the hill in the middle of San Jose. I also had the opportunty to visit Golfito. I love that town…👍
 
You definitely need to talk to your priest as soon as possible. Things like this should not happen.
 
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