Lack of Genuflecting by school principal!

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hailholyqueen

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Hi to all!
I am new to CAF. My husband and I just sent our son off to kindergarten at a local
Catholic School (not our parish since our school as orthodox as it closed!). Our son has been attending Mass with me since birth. He knows Jesus is in the Tabernacle and knows it proper to genuflect and also to kneel at the Consecration. My question is what do you do when the principal herself does NOT genuflect or make ANY sign of reverence??? The pastor who is fairly new to the parish (2 yrs.) is a canon
lawyer and pretty solid. He does not mess with the Mass and is very reverent. We
approached him about the situation (classes of kids/teachers do not genuflect either and
they were all confused as to when to kneel, sit and stand). But he made light of it and
said he suprisingly saw a few genuflect and that it’s the beginning of the year.
HELPPPP…what should we do?

thanks,
hailholyqueen
 
Pastors with parish schools normally want you to go to the school’s administration before going to them.

Tell the principal that it is hard to teach children to genuflect when they don’t see other Catholics whom they look up to doing it. Ask her if he would make an effort to do that for you. If she is in the habit of wearing a dress and especially if she wears heels, be aware that she may opt for a profound bow, instead, in order to make a sign of reverence that she can manage gracefully. I have seen many very traditional priests with old knees go from genuflection to a profound bow. You do what you can do, and take what you get.

If the principal refuses to do this, your duty is to see to it that your child to remembers, no matter what anyone else does. DO NOT tell the child if the principal or any member of the faculty was asked to genuflect, but refused. That is not her concern. You can tell her that many Catholics of your generation were never taught to do this, but thank goodness that the awareness is coming back into wider use, as it should be. In the meantime, we will not judge anyone on what their parents did or did not bring them up to do or pay attention to anything else we might think a fault. We hope they will do the same for us, as this mutual generosity of heart is even more important when in the presence of Our Lord than the duty to genuflect.
 
Is the principal Catholic? I’m only asking, because not everyone who teaches at a Catholic school is. So, that might be one thing. The other is, is the Tabernacle present and is Christ present in it? If the answer to all of these is yes, then I agree with EasterJoy, you should talk to the principal herself. Maybe she had poor catechesis herself?
 
Give them time if they are new to get their feet wet - also make an appoitnment to talk to the principal about it. If that does not work out - Catholic school employees are employees of the archdiocese - feel free to let the arch know.
 
Jea9 said:
Is the principal Catholic? I’m only asking, because not everyone who teaches at a Catholic school is. So, that might be one thing.
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I had not thought of that. It is good to consider that this might be the case, when approaching the principal about the issue.
 
Well, it’s possible that the priest will still talk to the principal. Are you certain that the principle habitually neglects to show reverence, or is it possible that she was distracted just that day? I would hesitate to confront her about this until I’d seen it happen a few times, and even then I’m not sure how to go about doing that in a productive way. Whether or not you end up talking to her, now would be a good time to look for opportunities to talk to your child about showing reverence to Jesus even when the people around him don’t. You don’t need to mention the principal specifically - just wait until the next time you’re at Mass, and compliment him on genuflecting. Then you can lead into a discussion about how some people don’t know that they should show their love to Jesus in that way (sometimes other kids, sometimes even grown ups), and that we should do it anyway. Maybe someday those people will see us doing it and see that it’s a good idea. Jesus loves to see you genuflect, and he especially loves it when you do it even though no one else is. There will be plenty of times when your ds sees people not giving proper reverence to Jesus, so these talks will come in handy for more than just this one situation.
 
hailholyqueen said:
Hi to all!
. My question is what do you do when the principal herself does NOT genuflect or make ANY sign of reverence??? Tn
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do you know for a fact the principal is physically able to genuflect but does not do so out of deliberate irreverance? do you know for a fact children in the school are never taught to genuflect?
bear in mind many of the children you saw at the beginning of the year may never have had your son’s advantage of being taken to Mass and properly taught by their parents, and their may be a learning curve for them, and even for some of their teachers. Your son can evangelize in this matter by his own good example. Lucky son to have such good parents.
 
hi again,
thank you for all your suggestions!!! yes she is catholic and no she does not wear heels. yes Our Lord was in the tabernacle and she failed to genuflect or make any sign of reverence again when they had a school open house meeting in the church (of all places). my husband is going to make a mtg with her since he too feels its the lack of formation (she is 50 and has been in the catholic school system for 25 yrs.). we just hope this doesn’t affect how our son is treated. but oh well, Our Lord is worth defending! any more suggestions???
thanks!
 
I would just say be careful with the approach at this mtg, I know 50 doesn’t seam “old” but even at 31 it is very difficult for me to genuflect, and it is possible that she had made some sign of reverence that you did not see, or that she had made a sign of reverence had to deal with some issue and forgot when she returned.

Same with the teachers, they may have been focused on their classroom, heck, I’ve said thank you instead of Amen during communion when caring a small child, sometimes our human brain forgets whats in our human hearts.

Good Luck, God Bless
 
catholic79 said:
I would just say be careful with the approach at this mtg, I know 50 doesn’t seam “old” but even at 31 it is very difficult for me to genuflect
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I rarely genuflect, myself. If I go down, it’s nearly impossible to get back up. And I’m in my thirties, too.
 
I’m curious where the tabernacle is in your church?

In my church you walk into the back of the church and are facing the altar, but the tabernacle is in a small room off the back of the church. So you’d either have to walk along the back wall of the church, look to see if the sliding doors are open and if so genuflect to the tabernacle with your back to the altar then go find your seat.

I was taught that if the tabernacle is by the altar you genuflect on your way in to your seat, but if the tabernacle wasn’t present you bowed towards the altar to show your respect. Is that what others were taught? Or something else?
 
In Catholic grammar school (only 15 years ago), I genuflected in front of the Tabernacle while my class was assembled in our parish church.

Some kids laughed, and the teacher rolled her eyes.

Just focus on your child and the well-being of his faith.
 
Why do people genuflect?

We were taught that Jesus is not interested in that kind of thing. It’s far more important to aspire to live like Jesus did. Love thy neighbour and all that.
In fact, I would even go as far as to say that the OP could even be in a state of sin because they are judging others.
I recall a nun once telling me that when at Mass, you should just do your own thing, and not to be looking at what other people are doing.
People could also be in danger of thinking themselves ‘better’ or more pious than others.
 
I just read this today in Michael Dubruiel’s The How-To Book of the Mass
“When you find yourself ready to judge another person or the way something is being done at Mass, turn the judgment into a prayer for the person or people who, a few seconds before, had been your victims. Ask God to bless them and to bless you through their service.”
Just another perspective; perhaps pray in addition to having a meeting?
 
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