First communion article in The Irish Times

fisgon · 12-05-2012 1:47pm #1

Interesting article in The Irish Times today about First Communions.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0512/1224315958557.html

It's clear that for the vast majority of parents, the event has no religious significance.

My favourite part is when a priest organises a few masses in one particular parish that parents must bring their kids to in preparation for the communion. He has to change the date of one of these masses, but forgets to inform one of the schools. Three mothers turn up at the mass, which is now just a normal mass and not a preparatory one for communion, and complain to the priest afterwards when they realise that it doesn't count towards their quota "they came to him complaining bitterly that they 'had to sit through this'".

joseph brand · 12-05-2012 1:56pm

sussing out the best angles, strutting ignorantly around a church they use only for family rituals.

The word 'strutting' puts images of Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever' into my head.

At my daughters' christening (wife insisted), the priest told us all about a mother who rang him requesting that the car park be kept empty, as her child would be arriving by helicopter! Didn't everyone arrive by helicopter to their communions? :P

Sarky · 12-05-2012 2:21pm

And yet people get all uppity when I laugh at the beliefs they pretend to have.

lazygal · 12-05-2012 2:24pm

I'd love to know how many parents would be bothered with the prep if it wasn't handily done by schools. Theres two communions near us today (two schools and churches) and to be brutally honest seeing the girls dressed as mini brides of Christ kind of turns my stomach. We plan on maybe bringing our kids to Disneyland in the States if we have to send them to a Catholic school, with a heavy emphasis on those not being Catholic getting to go see fictional characters dressed in special clothes reenacting scenes from fairytales of old. Nothing like church.

a5y · 12-05-2012 2:26pm

joseph brand wrote: »

The word 'strutting' puts images of Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever' into my head.

At my daughters' christening (wife insisted), the priest told us all about a mother who rang him requesting that the car park be kept empty, as her child would be arriving by helicopter! Didn't everyone arrive by helicopter to their communions? :P

What, no chorus of angels descending from heavens? Tsk tsk. Poseur.

CL7 · 12-05-2012 5:33pm

Sarky wrote: »

And yet people get all uppity when I laugh at the beliefs they pretend to have.

They still hold irrational beliefs which stops them from thinking for themselves even if they differ from RC doctrine. I've tried to reason with lapsed Catholics to help them make the final step and be free of this superstitious nonsense but I haven't been successful so far.

krankykitty · 12-05-2012 7:21pm

Priest talks sense when he suggests having a baby party, second class party, pre-teen party with bouncy castles etc rather than going in for the sacraments when you don't believe nor have you set foot inside a church. It would be an answer for those who beat their craw to you about the child "feeling left out" and missing all the goodies!

That system in Portlaiose sounds great and lets hope it makes it's way around the rest of the country. Let's see who's so keen to do Communion when the parents have to put in the work. Plus maybe the kids might learn something useful in school during the time that would have been spent at communion prep.

looksee · 12-05-2012 7:48pm

In some aspects of the RC church there are hard and fast rules that cannot be broken, in others anything can be adjusted to get the result you want.

The church could easily solve this whole nonsense by

1. encouraging schools to allow children unrestricted access to schools, rather than have them baptised just to get into the most reasonable local school

2. insist that children who want to take first communion should attend a reasonable proportion of Sunday masses beforehand

and 3. move preparation to outside school hours so that a conscious effort has to be made by children and parents.

This would undoubtedly lead to smaller numbers taking first communion, but they would be more sincere and more likely to stay with the church.

byhookorbycrook · 13-05-2012 4:29pm

There was a thread on another site recently of how the priest would not allow a child who had not attended any mass or done any prep outside of school make her communion. "And she had her dress bought and all."School caught in the middle and under a lot of pressure from all sides.

Galvasean · 13-05-2012 4:41pm

lazygal wrote: »

I'd love to know how many parents would be bothered with the prep if it wasn't handily done by schools.

One of my best friends is a primary school teacher. Her class had Communion yesterday and she told me that they have done nothing but Communion prep for the past two weeks, literally. No lessons, no maths, no english, no nothing! It's such a waste of learning time.

neemish · 13-05-2012 4:55pm

Most priests would agree with what's being said here, but from a religious point of view. It would be a dream come true for the majority of parishes if First Communion was pulled from the classroom and parents actually had to put in a bit of effort to prepare their child. If you don't go to Mass, why bother?
Am laughin at the two ladies who had to go to a "normal" Mass...shows where their priorities lie

byhookorbycrook · 13-05-2012 5:12pm

Then there's the case of a child who was held up at the hairdressers, skipped the church and went straight to the hotel!

FinnLizzy · 18-05-2012 7:28pm

This is the one area of Catholicism where I take the priests' side. They're usually well meaning people, if not a little backwards. .

What I can't stand is the á la carte Catholics that keep this crap going and making a religion as tacky as Catholicism even more tacky.

If you couldn't be arsed, don't. It'll soon stop being the done thing.

First communion article in The Irish Times

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