First Communion

[bjan]

My grandson will be making first communion this year. I have a problem with his mother (father is not Catholic). For the last 2 years she has not gone to mass or taken my grandson. She makes sure he goes to CCD. Instead of going to mass, she, her husband and the children go weekly to a Brethern Church (it is a branch off of Mennonites). Grandson made first confession in Dec. 05. I’ve continually ask her why she is having my grandson make his first communion when he can’t even remember the last time he was taken to mass. She will not answer and gets angry when I ask. My husband (who is cradle catholic) said our grandson can choose which church to go to when he is older. I responded with “What choice? He won’t know what mass is”. She doesn’t even read the Catholic bible she wanted when she got married. She reads the bible of the Brethern Church. She taught CCD for 3 years (while still going to other church)which I told her it was wrong. She stopped this year. Should I call and talk to her pastor or head of CCD about this? However, it my daughter found out it would probably end our relationship. Can anyone give me advise please. I forgot to mention, my grandson lives in PA and I in MA. I am disabled and hardly get to see him. When we do talk he tells me if his mother is lying about something she has said.

 

[tdandh26]

Start borrowing your grandson and you begin teaching him truth. Tell him how important these mysteries are and how Christ instituted them. Jesus said I have not come to bring peace but the sword. Mother against daughter…You get the picture.

 

[puzzleannie]

the problem lies with the Catholic father, who agreed to raise his children Catholic when he married a non-Catholic. Even if she is former Catholic who left the Church, he still has the obligation, under pain of mortal sin, to bring his child to the sacraments, to attend Mass himself and bring his children to Mass and grant them access to the sacraments. Yes, the pastor should be notified if a non-Catholic is teaching CCD.

 

[bjan]

I must have really messed up this message. To clarify, my daughter is a cradle Catholic. Her husband is not Catholic and says he never will be. So the one at blame is my daughter. Son-in-law never went to any church until he started going to this Brethern church. My daughter said she goes because the ministers explaination to the bible (our homily) is not boring like the Catholic churches that she has gone to. Plus they have sunday nursery schools there, so she can go and get something out of church. The people are alot more friendly. Which I can understand those points. Some of our priests should liven up their homilies. And the cry rooms in Catholic churches are a joke. Catholics should maybe start having nurseries available during at least one mass. I think this is why most young women stop going to church. But, my grandson is 9 now and I think she should take him to mass. Of course, her husband won’t babysit the other children so she can go. Hope this clears things up some. bjan

 

[mosher]

First, I would say that you should try to maintian the relationship and continue doing exactly what you are doing. Further, you should do anything and everything possible to talk to your grandson about the faith and often. Don’t be shy about it even in the company of his parents. I would also work on your daughter concerning the sacraments. She is focused on herself and what she gets out of going to church as opposed to what she should really be there for which is offering worship to the Father. She seems to have lost (or has never had) a sacramental understanding of the faith. This, by the way, is why nuseries at mass are a bad idea because it perpetuates the idea that we go to mass for our own sake and that just because you can’t understand (as is whith a child) you don’t get anything out of mass. However, the reality is that even the children have a right and obligation to be at mass.

 

[ChristianWAB]

puzzleannie:

Yes, the pastor should be notified if a non-Catholic is teaching CCD.

Actually, I know of a born-again Christian who teaches CCD to fourth graders. You can be knowledgeable enough of Catholic teachings to teach children about them and still not believe them yourself. All you need to do is teach the kids what the Catholic church thinks is right.

 

[rayne89]

Be a good Catholic grandma. Send Catholic children’s books, videos, holy cards, medals and pray for their conversion. Do not interfere in their parenting decisions. Your daughter is a grown woman and she will make her own mistakes. Unless there was some kind of abusive situation you need stay out of it.

 

[tdandh26]

“What the Church thinks is right”? This is a rediculous statement, first the church does not teach what it thinks is right it teaches what has been handed down to it trought the Apostles, and I encourage you to find this truth out for yourself. Secondly, how can a person teach, faithfully, that which he/she has no faith in? How well would the Apostles have fared, had they not believe what they taught. To have a protestant teaching Catholocism, is a slap in the faith of Christ and His Bride the Church.