Teaching children about mortal sin

[mellowcalico]

I’m sorry that your daughter isn’t the kind of Catholic you think she should be.

But I do believe that it is our responsibility as their parents to make sure that they are being brought up in the Church.

It is not the Catholic Schools responsibility or the Religious Education Program’s responsibility — they are only there to help.

At their baptism the parents agree:

You have asked to have your child baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him/her in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring him/her up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?

No where in there does the responsibilty fall on a Catholic School or a Religious Education Progam – you don’t like what the school or RE is doing – it is your responsibility to make a change.

I can’t speak for the person you quoted, but in the case of my own mother I think two things. First off, I mentioned my mother not really having been taught herself, so she wasn’t in much of a position to teach me much–but she tried (my father was Episcopal). Also, I think back then, there was a trust in the schools and a trust in the Church. If you brought your child for educational classes on the Catholic Church that they would learn these things.

Second, my mom learned about the Church pre Vatican 2 and I was post Vatican 2. So a lot of what she learned, changed and she wasn’t sure what to teach.

 

[kage_ar]

And they look like this when you tell them that ripping CDs for friends or pirating video games is stealing.

 

[Teelynn]

This is a problem within my own family. My daughter was raised in what we call in the Church (at least in my own parish) the “lost generation”. In her CCD classes they did not even make their first confession before they made their first communion! I asked the director of CCD what the deal was…she told me they were too young to understand it, and they thought it better to wait until they could understand what reconciliation was all about…they didn’t feel they were “culpable” yet. They never really did have them formally make their first confession in that parish. My daughter finally made her first confession when she was a grown adultQUOTE]

I’m sorry that your daughter isn’t the kind of Catholic you think she should be.

But I do believe that it is our responsibility as their parents to make sure that they are being brought up in the Church.

It is not the Catholic Schools responsibility or the Religious Education Program’s responsibility — they are only there to help.

At their baptism the parents agree:

You have asked to have your child baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him/her in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring him/her up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?

No where in there does the responsibilty fall on a Catholic School or a Religious Education Progam – you don’t like what the school or RE is doing – it is your responsibility to make a change.

Yep, what I should have done was to pull her out of CCD altogether. I was always confronting the CCD department, the Pastor and even the Bishop. I did drop the ball, by allowing the Church to get their hands on her at all. I was always in conflict with what they were doing, and had to constantly swim against the tide. They were almost openly sabotaging people like me, every inch of the way. There were parishes in my area that didn’t even offer confessions on a weekly basis!!! Yes, they are only there to help…some help they were!!!…NOT.