Is it a sin not to take children to mass?

[Katie777]

It’s just a joke. Kids reach the age of reason at different ages. 7 is the age the church determined the age of reason ~~knowing right from wrong innately.

 

[stpurl]

This is probably not a problem except for a very few, but for the ones it affects, it’s a big problem. There are some (not many but some) churches where the Mass itself is so illicit that taking the children would cause so much confusion that even if they are say 5 and 6 and able to follow along, you’d be having to spend every Sunday explaining what Father did or said that was ‘wrong’. This of course would wind up undercutting the priesthood, and make the whole faith seem like something that could be changed at whim—and 5 years later when the kids are tweens lead to them rejecting it because, “Why should I believe what I hear or see is right now, when you were always correcting the priest then?”

I know, you’ll tell me this affects maybe 1 in 10,000 or even ‘1 in a million’. When your family is ‘that one’, it’s no comfort to think that ‘most’ families are getting to know a good true faith and a Mass in communion with the whole faithful, not “Father B’s ad libbed circus”.

 

[Phemie]

Amac1:

I simply want to know have I been sinning by not taking them in the past?

No. My parents would not take me to Mass until I was old enough to sit quietly in the pew for the whole time. My earliest memories of being at Mass are around age 4 or maybe just slightly younger.

My mother strongly believed that babies should not be at Mass until they were old enough to behave, unless there was a suitable “cry room”, which our parish church didn’t have. So on Sunday, she and Dad would attend separate Masses, and the one not at Mass would stay home with me. I realize some parents like to bring their small children to Mass or may not have a reliable sitter, but I am just pointing out that it’s not a sin to make other arrangements for your pre-school child rather than take them to Mass.

This is also how my parents did it with us. If they really wanted to go together they would arrange for one of our cousins to stay with us.

Mom thought it was really strange that I took the kids to Mass as babes-in-arms, but I did it with all three. I was very much aware that I didn’t have to, Mom having been briefed on that by our Pastor back when we were little, but it just seemed normal to me.

I do recall that a baby at Mass was quite a novelty when I was growing up. My first memory of Church is around age 4, the prostration on Good Friday. But according to my dad that is a false memory because I didn’t attend the Good Friday Liturgy until I was much older. But in my memory I’m with my aunt, not my parents so he may not have been aware that I went with her compounded by a bit of jealousy that I don’t have any memory of attending my first Mass with him.