OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH

THEY ARE THE CHURCH – The Rev J. Glenn Murray SJ

You who have been with Adam’s Ale for awhile know that the parish in which I grew up tended to be about ten to twenty years behind the rest of the Church. At times this served us well and inadvertently made us cutting edge and sometimes just made us out of step.

Up until my high school years we were mercifully behind the times in the way CCD was taught. While most of the rest of the country had declared the Baltimore Catechism one step away from heretical and got on with the important business of making felt banners, we were still forced to learn why God made us. (To know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and be happy with Him forever in the next.)

Father Ozimek would brag from the pulpit that we had the best attendance in the diocese (would you want to explain to Fr. O why you weren’t there) and the whole kit and caboodle was run pretty strictly. We had examinations and report cards and the support (or perhaps threat) of the community.

Then in high school, with all the good intensions in the world, some well meaning people came into save and modernize our CCD program. The name changed to Confraternity of Catholic Dogma (CCD) to Parish School of Religion (PSR) and we gradually slipped out of a school environment into something between therapy and art class. We began to split up into discussion groups and talk our feelings about Jesus and His teaching and then gather around tables and make banners, which mercifully never made it into our little English Gothic Church. I understand the effort. I understand the well-meaning intentions. But we as students knew full well that we had stopped learning anything except that Jesus loved us and how each of us happened to feel about it.

This was not unusual in U.S. Catholicism. It just happened earlier in most places. The worst part of this great American experiment in religion education is that two generations (maybe three) of parents came of age not knowing their faith. Whereas at least before there was a snowball’s chance in July of parents being able for fill in gaps in religious savvy, now many times the parents are equally as uniformed about their faith as their children.

There is a perspective out there that many people believe that says youth gatherings of any type must be entertaining in order to draw people in and that they need to be social and accepting so that all feel welcome. These are nice ideas but not as primary objectives especially if that means sacrificing substance so that we end up with pizza parties and dances instead of kids knowing what the Eucharistic elements are or knowing how to answer the bishop (and our bishops in this diocese are becoming much more serious about this) when he quizzes them at confirmation. Pizza parties and dances are the job of the local recreation center. We can do such things but they must be clearly subject to the completion of our primary mission: the catechizing of our children. If we fail at that, we fail at our reason for being. Period. We might as well close our doors and send everyone to the pool.

We can’t suck kids in to Church by doing bad catechesis and entertaining them into sticking around until they are adults and hope that they will learn their faith by osmosis and be persuaded to put a few bucks in the collection basket. There are plenty of Churches that do that. We cannot be one of them. Our message is too important. Eternity depends on it. Everybody is willing to serve children candy. It is our business to give them meat.

Then, after they are fed, have the dance. But you won’t be failing your mission statement if you do not have one.