Communion season in full flow...parents question

haveringchick · 12-05-2015 07:15AM

zeffabelli wrote: »

I didn't pick anything out.

And no they shouldn't do first eucharist, it doesn't belong in education. It's voo doo.

If you didn't pick out a school for your child then who did?

zeffabelli · 12-05-2015 07:45AM

haveringchick wrote: »

If you didn't pick out a school for your child then who did?

With numbers being what they are, you go where whomever will take you. 35 kids in the class.

kylith · 12-05-2015 08:12AM

Zamboni wrote: »

ET are fantastic - and unlike other schools, don't discriminate on religious grounds so a large proportion of their places are children who are called Christian by their parents.

I do remember reading last year that an ET school was oversubscribed because all the local 'Catholic' children were going there, and a number of non-Catholic children had to go to the Catholic schools because of this. And since ET don't discriminate they can't refuse the Catholic kids in favour of those with no local 'ethos' school.

mikeym wrote: »

I dont get the whole communion cake thing???

I never got any cake when I made my communion.

I'm fairly sure there was cake at mine, but it was generic cake rather than special cake.

On the a la carte Christian thing I have rarely been so peeved as I was listening to my brother complain about having to go to mass for 6 weeks before his kid's communion. "Why are you doing Communion then?" was a question that apparently did not compute. Apparently you 'have to' have your child make their communion because 'You just don't understand, Kylith, you don't have kids'. If my future kids give me any hassle over it the answer will be a firm 'because we're not Catholic'.

zeffabelli · 12-05-2015 08:16AM

kylith wrote: »

I do remember reading last year that an ET school was oversubscribed because all the local 'Catholic' children were going there, and a number of non-Catholic children had to go to the Catholic schools because of this. And since ET don't discriminate they can't refuse the Catholic kids in favour of those with no local 'ethos' school.
I'm fairly sure there was cake at mine, but it was generic cake rather than special cake.

On the a la carte Christian thing I have rarely been so peeved as I was listening to my brother complain about having to go to mass for 6 weeks before his kid's communion. "Why are you doing Communion then?" was a question that apparently did not compute. Apparently you 'have to' have your child make their communion because 'You just don't understand, Kylith, you don't have kids'. If my future kids give me any hassle over it the answer will be a firm 'because we're not Catholic'.

I have no problem with ala carte religion, other wise you have fundamentalism.

Thing is the schools, once second class comes around, alot of the time is devoted to first communion, and at least my local one is not accommodating at all to those who don't care for it...so the children do spend a lot of their time excluded, which means parents wont opt for it because they don't want their kids to feel bad....and this is a reasonable response in face of the implicit institionalised blackmail.

Personally I think this is a lousy role mode for children on how to respect difference. The very same schools that have exclusion as part of their bullying policies, practise it themselves.

At that age, can one expect them to have a thick enough skin to feel excluded?

keithclancy · 12-05-2015 09:31AM

Forced Inclusion through threatened exclusion.

Personally I find the concept of forcing your kids to follow some religious rituals and say words purporting to believe in something they don't understand as disturbing.

On one side many parents talk about the Christian Brothers, the Magdalene Laundries and The Churches position on homosexuals.

Then in the same breath they say they are getting their kids baptised because it's the "done thing" even though they admit they have no belief in it, talk about sending mixed messages.

The communion and confirmations are like practise weddings and all the kids care about is getting money and all the parents care about is having a pissup.

I would have preferred if they gave me a choice when I was old enough to choose whether I wanted to be a Roman Catholic.

No way I'll baptise my kids, they can pick whatever religion they want when they are old enough, if that happens to Catholic then that's fine too.

I remember a small fella asking me who Chris was and why did they chop him into plastic circles so we could eat him. :pac:

cloud493 · 12-05-2015 09:32AM

I never got communion cake or a big wad of cash for mine, I got a £5 whsmith voucher and a catholic disco with the rest of my school class. **** you communion in the UK :mad:

lazygal · 12-05-2015 09:39AM

We have two children and baptising them was never on the cards. We're considering our school options at the moment. I'm not entirely happy with the local ET school, one reason is because those 'doing communion' are lined up to attend classes during home time so that's making it obvious to everyone who does what, another is the learn together programme which is simply a sop to the mad Dept of Ed rule that children coming to know god is the most important element of the education system.
The school system here is one reason we'd seriously consider moving abroad, combined with our increasing frustration about the role of the religious leaders in things like abortion law. I don't like the 'well we need more ET schools' attitude. There is mega duplication of schools already in Ireland, things like a small town having a Protestant school and two Catholic schools because the boys and girls shouldn't be educated together. I would prefer a genuinely secular system, not the crazy patronage model we have where all schools are private and, from what I can see, not really accountable to anyone.

I had typical a la carte parents who didn't really believe in anything not so nice, like not using contraception, homosexuality being a disorder and divorce/abortion never being acceptable, yet did the communion and confirmation thing regardless because of the traditions behind it. They now say they probably should have been a bit more courageous than they were and maybe let us decide on a faith to follow, if any.

kylith · 12-05-2015 09:54AM

zeffabelli wrote: »

I have no problem with ala carte religion, other wise you have fundamentalism.

Thing is the schools, once second class comes around, alot of the time is devoted to first communion, and at least my local one is not accommodating at all to those who don't care for it...so the children do spend a lot of their time excluded, which means parents wont opt for it because they don't want their kids to feel bad....and this is a reasonable response in face of the implicit institionalised blackmail.

Personally I think this is a lousy role mode for children on how to respect difference. The very same schools that have exclusion as part of their bullying policies, practise it themselves.

At that age, can one expect them to have a thick enough skin to feel excluded?

Kids have thicker skins than you think, especially when you arm them with the phrase 'I'm not making my communion because we're not Catholic. We're going to the zoo that day instead'. There were Chinese kids in my school and they weren't teased for not making their communion/confirmation; they were envied for getting to do their homework or colouring in rather than going to boring rehearsals.

The problem with a la carte religion is you get the situation we see these days where the average kid will be in mass 5 times in their life: baptism, communion, confirmation, wedding, and funeral, and 4 of those will be at the behest of parents who only want them to do it for the look of the thing. Along with artificially inflating the RCC's numbers.

I think that to teach your children that it's ok to lie about what you believe in order to get money is a terrible thing to do.

I would like to see what would happen with Catholic schools' entrance policy and their policy of exclusion during sacrament preperation if everyone who wasn't a practising Catholic didn't baptise their kids and didn't allow them to make communion/confirmation. My guess is that the schools would change pretty rapid if 90% of kids weren't going to these mass rehearsals.

Mint Aero · 12-05-2015 10:15AM

T'was the year of '93 and young Mint Aero, being of sound mind declared I'm atheist I do not wish to receive the communion. Banished from the village, expelled from primary school Mint went into hiding. It was a long decade before the tide of Catholicism in Ireland gave way to the worship of money, timber decking and breakfast rolls.

There Mint lay in the back of a white van donned in a high viz and a sausage runny egg sambo clutched in his blackened hand. The birds chirped, the sun shone through the half open rear door awakening Mint.

A tall bearded figure stood before him. The tall thin man had long hair tied up in a pony tail under a hard hat. Who are you? he exclaimed. I'm the one they banished in the summer of '93. I was the primary school pupil who refused the religion. For I'am Mint.

Very well said the main. You will lay blocks and boast to educated people how much money you earn. And so it was, Mint spent the next few years living out the back of that van, laying block after block until he could afford a 3 bed semi. There he got internet connection, there he found AH. From then on Mint would lay no more blocks for he had found his Kingdom.

zeffabelli · 12-05-2015 11:54AM

kylith wrote: »

Kids have thicker skins than you think, especially when you arm them with the phrase 'I'm not making my communion because we're not Catholic. We're going to the zoo that day instead'. There were Chinese kids in my school and they weren't teased for not making their communion/confirmation; they were envied for getting to do their homework or colouring in rather than going to boring rehearsals.

The problem with a la carte religion is you get the situation we see these days where the average kid will be in mass 5 times in their life: baptism, communion, confirmation, wedding, and funeral, and 4 of those will be at the behest of parents who only want them to do it for the look of the thing. Along with artificially inflating the RCC's numbers.

I think that to teach your children that it's ok to lie about what you believe in order to get money is a terrible thing to do.

I would like to see what would happen with Catholic schools' entrance policy and their policy of exclusion during sacrament preperation if everyone who wasn't a practising Catholic didn't baptise their kids and didn't allow them to make communion/confirmation. My guess is that the schools would change pretty rapid if 90% of kids weren't going to these mass rehearsals.

The problem is with overcrowded schools and being able to have their own admissions policy then yes they can demand a baptism or whatever criteria they like...they all do it, the Protestants also.

In fact when looking at secondary schools, one local one will only consider admitting those who went to an ET primary.

Still, a la carte is way better than fundamentalism. If you look at Italian Catholicism, it's their hypocricy that saved them.

nelly17 · 12-05-2015 12:10PM

keithclancy wrote: »

Forced Inclusion through threatened exclusion.

Personally I find the concept of forcing your kids to follow some religious rituals and say words purporting to believe in something they don't understand as disturbing.

On one side many parents talk about the Christian Brothers, the Magdalene Laundries and The Churches position on homosexuals.

Then in the same breath they say they are getting their kids baptised because it's the "done thing" even though they admit they have no belief in it, talk about sending mixed messages.

The communion and confirmations are like practise weddings and all the kids care about is getting money and all the parents care about is having a pissup.

I would have preferred if they gave me a choice when I was old enough to choose whether I wanted to be a Roman Catholic.

No way I'll baptise my kids, they can pick whatever religion they want when they are old enough, if that happens to Catholic then that's fine too.

I remember a small fella asking me who Chris was and why did they chop him into plastic circles so we could eat him. :pac:

I'm kinda the opposite side I have no "Faith" and my kids are baptised Catholic just like me, someone in their wisdom bought my 7 year old a Kiddie Bible so she wanted me to start reading it at bed time, now I'm going to let her believe what she wants to believe because I think the right for people to believe what ever they want should be respected. She thought the stories were great but thought they were stories not statement of fact. I dont counter any of the teachings she learns at school because I want her to make her own judgement on it when the time comes.

kylith · 12-05-2015 12:56PM

nelly17 wrote: »

I'm kinda the opposite side I have no "Faith" and my kids are baptised Catholic just like me, someone in their wisdom bought my 7 year old a Kiddie Bible so she wanted me to start reading it at bed time, now I'm going to let her believe what she wants to believe because I think the right for people to believe what ever they want should be respected. She thought the stories were great but thought they were stories not statement of fact. I dont counter any of the teachings she learns at school because I want her to make her own judgement on it when the time comes.

I'm sorry, I don't understand; you don't give her any idea of contrasting ideas to what's being taught in school because you want her to make up her own mind? How can any person make up their own mind if they only receive one side's view?

To Elland Back · 12-05-2015 01:00PM

gravehold wrote: »

They should have to buy the assets at current market value to do that. Problem is the government don't have the money

Church property should be confiscated to meet their obligations following the church sex abuse scandal

nelly17 · 12-05-2015 03:54PM

kylith wrote: »

I'm sorry, I don't understand; you don't give her any idea of contrasting ideas to what's being taught in school because you want her to make up her own mind? How can any person make up their own mind if they only receive one side's view?

I did, thousands of others in this country did

Communion season in full flow...parents question

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