This is long overdue. Parents and the Church should have the responsibility of preparing their children for religious sacraments.
Makes sense for everyone, the faithful, the teachers, the schools, the people of other faiths and none.
Catholics can have a proper celebration of their faith and those who are just on the bandwagon will probably not do it. Everyone wins.
It's just in the Dublin Archdiocese, it's not a national initiative, but hopefully others will follow suit.
It's still positive to see them acknowledge that the actual sacraments are irrelevant to many families and it's just a day out for many. It will be interesting to see how many families and children take part in the proposed smaller ceremonies.
The whole thing has become a vulgar spectacle of one-upmanship with many parents spending a fortune on limos, clothes etc. It's also disturbing to see some young girls wearing false tan and makeup for these ceremonies.
My only interest in my communion and confirmation was how much money I'd 'make', I was far from the only one and it wasn't today or yesterday
2022. About time.
A lot of parents won't bother with the spectacle now.
It should be a national directive from the government.
Would be great to see if it happened in all our schools.
My own kids told me they did next to no normal school work for close to a fortnight to prep for this. Shocking that so much learning is cast to the side for this.
They need to drop the money aspect from this and the dressing up in wedding outfits for small kids. This always seemed crass to me and the complete opposite to what Christianity is about.
(Edit)
I think it's down to a deep sense of inadequacy in people that they have to promote their kids in this little miss sunshine kind of way.
Traditionally first communion was when a girl became a bride of christ hence why the dress looks like a wedding dress.
Waste of money in my opinion but if you want to have your kid do the sacrement you are probably going to go the traditional route in relation to the dress code.
Can't wait to hear about the feedback parents give to schools who refuse to facilitate First Moneygrabbing events! Some areas will need security guards I reckon.
Good news
It is coming to all diocese. I work in the Ferns Diocese and we as teachers had to fill in a survey with our thoughts in this some years ago. I can't remember but sometime around 2017. As a teacher I think it's fantastic news and as a parent I also think it's brilliant. The time it takes during school to prepare kids who have absolutely no interest in this is crazy. At least if it's outside school people can chose to do it and not just go along with it because they want the day out.
It's far past time IMO. The sacraments and the practice of faith are very much a matter for family and home. The time saved from moving the catechism and practice out of the classroom could perhaps be well served with an early introduction to world religions and civics even at that tender age.
The urge may well be to use the time for more academic work but, I really think that more social & cultural talk and teaching would do plenty more for development.
A lot might. My niece isn't religious and her parents aren't either. But she wanted to do it because all her friends are.
Although over time we would see numbers drop, I don't know if we'll see it any time soon.
Kids aren't stupid: they keep the faith unil the cash is in their hands. There won't be a drop off in people doing these events until the money dries up.
I'll believe it when I see it happening. Dublin diocese is all talk about amalgamating parishes, divesting schools, etc. for years but never does anything. Having sacramental preparations using up valuable time during the school day is insane though.
Can't they just get rid of this whole thing and do it on your own time. I was amazed when I fist came seeing kids in suits and girls in what look like wedding dresses.
Where you coming from, the dress and the suit is fairly common from what I seen in other countries.
I'm more talking about the tacky ones. You know something the beckhams would but the kid in. We're not talking standard black or grey kids suit.
It's surely better to have the prep done by a believing parent or priest (who presumably is also a believer) than some teacher who's typically indifferent and often hostile to faith.
This will free up time to do what exactly? There's not a single thing being learned in these schools that will in any way prepare the kids for the world of the 21st century.
You live in a part of the world with a Christian ethos, so there will no government directives and you are going to be sadly disappointed at how decide to ignore this event.
Ireland is just aligning itself more with the rest of European, so you’ll see people heading of to church for the important events and the church standing empty the rest of the year.
Good first step, but the time taken out of sixth class for confirmation is probably more damaging and really needs to be shunted out too
The church will have to push back against this because they simply dont have the resources to get this done as it is currently being done by their own staff.
Many parishes dont have priests let alone somebody who can teach the kids all the nonsense involved in this.
All going well this will force many schools to drop it and be a nail in the coffin of religious interference in education.
Isnt that whats happening now?
People go at christmas, or to a funeral or wedding and nothing else.
Children in many faiths are presented in their church when they reach a certain age, Jesus was, So no it is not as you say.,,, It is to welcome them into a fuller role within the church.
It was or is the same in the Church of England in which I was raised, At 14 though and yes we wore white and veils. although I think many changed to school or guide uniforms, It is a very important landmark as then we were admitted to full church membership as Jesus was.
It is very good that the preparation is starting to change here. we were vey well prepared for the new responsibility we took on But it was all within the church and not like here. Oh the traditional gift was a Prayer Book.. My white dress was lovely....( decades ago now) Symbol of innocence and purity
They will use lay folk more as they are already doing. And ladies of course...
No.. Try eg Killarney Cathedral on Sundays and weekdays,,
Has anyone asked the children what they actually want?
Yes. 50 quid usually.
why start now? Its not like schools or churches ever considered their opinion before.
Did you even read the headline of the article quoted in the OP?
It's the Dublin diocese proposing this.
You live in a part of the world with a Christian ethos
🙄 That ship sailed decades ago, just the schools are left, maybe that's why some are so desperate to cling onto control of them?
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