Is there cause for concern for children (before 1st confession) to attend Sunday School in place of Mass?

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dng

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Hi All,

Just need a sanity check, before i talk to my priest about my concern (or not).
For context me and wife teach Sunday School once a month.

The situation is my local Parish priest wants children (who have not done their 1st confession) to attend Sunday School at the Church hall instead of attending Mass with their parents during the whole duration of Mass. what do you think? is this ok or not?

I’m incline to disagree with this because :-
  1. Mass is for worship (not learning about the faith i.e the goal of Sunday School)
  2. Exposure to the physical presence of the Lord in the eucharist at mass is critical. (this is the Apex of the mass)
  3. Missing mass on Sunday is a grave matter (even if the child doesnt have full knowledge, plus its good to form good habits)
On the flip side, The main reason for why the priest wants to do this are:-
  1. to maximise children attendence for Sunday School ( there has bee a trend of parents taking the kids home straight away and skipping out of Sunday school normally after mass)
  2. Young children get bored during mass.
  3. Trend of parents not catechising children at home.
I know the parish priest will have the ultimate say as he is our shepard, but shall i speak out or just keep quite and roll with it?
 
This is a decision for parents to make, not the priest. There are compelling arguments on both sides of the decision.

Personally, I have opted not to send my son to Sunday school, which is offered concurrent to Mass, for these reasons:
  1. The family is a domestic church, and praying together and celebrating Mass as a family sets an example for your children to follow.
  2. Jesus is present in the Eucharist, and children can engage in adoration during Mass.
  3. I know my child best, and I want to ensure that teaching on such an important topic is done correctly and in a way that is tailored to his interests and learning style.
  4. The Sunday school curriculum we have is low level and age-linked, and doesn’t discuss substantive material that he is interested in.
  5. Children learn by doing, and experiencing the Mass is better than reading about it.
  6. He is young, and I prefer to have a parent supervise him.
  7. We have an active life in the church and are concerted my teaching him the faith all the time.
  8. Creating a precedent where children are removed from part of Mass risks supporting a mindset in the parish that children aren’t welcome in Mass.
For the record, in speaking with our pastor, his view is that it is preferable to offer a special Mass with child-accessible language in the homily and explanations of what he is doing to engage children in the Mass at their level. He’s planning to create a family drop-in Montessori program for catechism instruction under the Catechism of the Good Shepherd model. I think this is an excellent approach and am grateful that we have such a terrific priest leading our parish. He’s a new priest who has inherited the existing Children’s Liturgy of the Word program and is in the process of making these changes.
 
alphawoman said:
This is a decision for parents to make, not the priest. There are compelling arguments on both sides of the decision.

Personally, I have opted not to send my son to Sunday school, which is offered concurrent to Mass, for these reasons:
  1. The family is a domestic church, and praying together and celebrating Mass as a family sets an example for your children to follow.
  2. Jesus is present in the Eucharist, and children can engage in adoration during Mass.
  3. I know my child best, and I want to ensure that teaching on such an important topic is done correctly and in a way that is tailored to his interests and learning style.
  4. The Sunday school curriculum we have is low level and age-linked, and doesn’t discuss substantive material that he is interested in.
  5. Children learn by doing, and experiencing the Mass is better than reading about it.
  6. He is young, and I prefer to have a parent supervise him.
  7. We have an active life in the church and are concerted my teaching him the faith all the time.
  8. Creating a precedent where children are removed from part of Mass risks supporting a mindset in the parish that children aren’t welcome in Mass.
For the record, in speaking with our pastor, his view is that it is preferable to offer a special Mass with child-accessible language in the homily and explanations of what he is doing to engage children in the Mass at their level. He’s planning to create a family drop-in Montessori program for catechism instruction under the Catechism of the Good Shepherd model. I think this is an excellent approach and am grateful that we have such a terrific priest leading our parish. He’s a new priest who has inherited the existing Children’s Liturgy of the Word program and is in the process of making these changes.
Click to expand...
Wow…this priest DOES sound terrific. May God bless him for his efforts to catechize our children properly.

Mary.
 
MaryT777 said:
Wow…this priest DOES sound terrific. May God bless him for his efforts to catechize our children properly.

Mary.
Click to expand...
He’s phenomenal, and we’re so lucky to have him! I’m excited to see how his efforts materialize, because he’s attempting to create a pilot model for the Archdioscese. We live in an area undergoing some demographic shift from wealthy retirees to young families, and he is attempting to create a series of ministries that correspond to the changing needs of our parishioners. I pray that his initiative will be successful and that his approach will bring all the families in our parish close to God! 🙂
 
dng said:
Hi All,

Just need a sanity check, before i talk to my priest about my concern (or not).
For context me and wife teach Sunday School once a month.

The situation is my local Parish priest wants children (who have not done their 1st confession) to attend Sunday School at the Church hall instead of attending Mass with their parents during the whole duration of Mass. what do you think? is this ok or not?

I’m incline to disagree with this because :-
  1. Mass is for worship (not learning about the faith i.e the goal of Sunday School)
  2. Exposure to the physical presence of the Lord in the eucharist at mass is critical. (this is the Apex of the mass)
  3. Missing mass on Sunday is a grave matter (even if the child doesnt have full knowledge, plus its good to form good habits)
On the flip side, The main reason for why the priest wants to do this are:-
  1. to maximise children attendence for Sunday School ( there has bee a trend of parents taking the kids home straight away and skipping out of Sunday school normally after mass)
  2. Young children get bored during mass.
  3. Trend of parents not catechising children at home.
I know the parish priest will have the ultimate say as he is our shepard, but shall i speak out or just keep quite and roll with it?
Click to expand...
Does your parish have more than one Mass on Sunday’s or at least have Saturday evening Mass?

My assumption is that the priest is expecting parents to take their children to another mass, but that he wasn’t them in CCD at that specific time.

However, I believe the mortal sin of missing mass is not applicable to children of that age (I might be incorrect, but I’m assuming that most have not reached the age of reason (legally 7 years old in the Church).

While I’m personally not a fan, my parish has “Little People Worship Service” for the little ones during the 9:15 Mass and “Children’s Liturgy of the Word” for the 1, 2nd and 3rd graders during the same Mass.

However, my personal recommendation is: take them to mass a different time and bring them to CCD at the time your priest is asking for.

God Bless
 
dng said:
Hi All,

Just need a sanity check, before i talk to my priest about my concern (or not).
For context me and wife teach Sunday School once a month.

The situation is my local Parish priest wants children (who have not done their 1st confession) to attend Sunday School at the Church hall instead of attending Mass with their parents during the whole duration of Mass. what do you think? is this ok or not?

I’m incline to disagree with this because :-
  1. Mass is for worship (not learning about the faith i.e the goal of Sunday School)
  2. Exposure to the physical presence of the Lord in the eucharist at mass is critical. (this is the Apex of the mass)
  3. Missing mass on Sunday is a grave matter (even if the child doesnt have full knowledge, plus its good to form good habits)
On the flip side, The main reason for why the priest wants to do this are:-
  1. to maximise children attendence for Sunday School ( there has bee a trend of parents taking the kids home straight away and skipping out of Sunday school normally after mass)
  2. Young children get bored during mass.
  3. Trend of parents not catechising children at home.
I know the parish priest will have the ultimate say as he is our shepard, but shall i speak out or just keep quite and roll with it?
Click to expand...
Well, an opinion from a random layperson… I would totally complain!!! Our CCD was between two Masses to maximize the amount of Masses parents and students could conveninetly attend and that worked well.

By the time children are in second grade, they ought to be able to behave in Mass, or they are not ready to have First Holy Communion (barring disabilities, which are a separate issue).

And does it really make sense to say, they don’t behave well in Mass, so we will prepare them to fully participate in the Mass by making it so they don’t go to Mass? (:confused:)

Along with your point that missing Mass is a mortal sin–is this a habit we want to inculcate? (:eek:)

My children go to Mass over CCD…
 
OP,

In my childhood parish, we had CCD on Wednesday night or Saturday morning. Never during Mass. I do not remember how young we started CCD.

For these very young children, before first confession and first Communion, it is no sin to miss Mass, but I think that it is still a good idea to get in the habit of attending as a family. I would think that separating families like this would only be a good idea for a brief period of instruction, not as a regular practice.
 
Holy Mass is the way we come together as the Communion of. Saints to participate in the mystical body of Christ. Holy Mass is essential for the young through the old. Even though the little one’s do not fully join the mystical body of Christ through the Holy Eucharist, they get blessed and get to be in the real presence of our Lord through the transubstantiation and blessings from the Euharist ministers.

I remember reading “The Story of a Soul” St Terese of Liseax. I was touched by her anguish of being left at home at the age of five while her family went to. Holy Mass. Since our family has the means to get us all to. Holy Mass, and a kid friendly parish, it is helpful to take the experience from Little Flower and allow our children this wonderful joy she so desired.
 
As someone raised with the “Children’s Liturgy” given during Mass, I can sincerely say I’d have preferred to spend those Sundays in that old Church actually learning how to pray the Mass or perhaps learning the music of the Church up in the choir loft rather than having colored with crayons downstairs. Perhaps then I’d have been given a more solid foundation in the faith, something definitely needed in today and tomorrow’s generation of children. The Parish I attend now has the class (which teaches the Baltimore Catechism) after Mass most Sundays.
 
Hi all,

Just want to say a big thank you for all your (name removed by moderator)ut and you’ve made some really good points.👍
I’ll be highlighting these points during the next parish meeting.

To clarify these kids will be mostly around 7 year old (or under). While we do have about 3 mass times available on Sunday i don’t belive the parents will attend Sunday mass for an hour (while kids are in Sunday School) and then again on the same Sunday just for the children to attend mass at a different time.

Thanks again, its been a great help.
 
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