Saint Frances Cabrini Parish

Father Kleppner - January 28, 2007
The following by Greg Erlandson is well worth a thoughtful reading by anyone concerned with the faith formation of our children and youth.
GROWING UP CATHOLIC
Raising our children in the faith takes more than a prayer; it takes some solid education.
When my children were young, my prayers for them were relatively simple. I appealed to God to protect them from misguided forays into the street or unwise tastings of any kind of toxic matter (Twinkies being an exception.)
As my children have grown older, exchanging crayons for text messaging and Barbies for Bratz, my dad prayers have grown no less protective, but the requests are much more profound. Now I ask that they be spared the casual apostasies and heresies of our age, that they survive high school and college with an ever-deepening relationship with God and with the Church.
My wife and I see Catholic education as an ally in this cause. We have been fortunate to have access to good schools that reinforce and deepen what we teach at home.
We are a minority of Catholic parents, however. Less than 15 percent of Catholic children go to Catholic schools. There are many reasons for this, but the simple fact is that the Church needs more than just schools.
Most Catholic children, if they are receiving any formal Catholic education at all, receive it in religious-education programs in their parishes. Too many, of course, receive almost nothing. Now it must be admitted that a sizeable number of the next generation of Catholics may not get much education after second grade, when the required courses for first Communion and first reconciliation are complete.
Others do continue on, at least through confirmation, and they rely on parish catechists for whatever systematic training in the faith they will get.
I have had many opportunities over the past several years to get to know parish and diocesan educators and the challenges they face. When I talk with them, I am often struck by their sense of mission and their enthusiasm for their work. But their task is daunting. In the face of well-funded evangelical youth programs and the general tidal wave of secular values that flow freely into every household, they often receive only a fraction of the funding and the clerical attention that the schools get. They may report to pastors who are distracted by many other priorities.
While they work with many parents who are dedicated to the faith formation of their young, they also encounter parents who attach no importance to religious education at all. The doors of their “domestic churches” are bolted shut. Fewer and fewer DRE’s (directors of religious education) at the parish level have bachelor’s degrees, in theology or catechetics. Many directors are themselves volunteers or make only a pittance. They spend enormous amounts of time recruiting, training and then saying goodbye to the volunteers who stop teaching when their children outgrow the program.
What is most disturbing about this is that these parish-based educators and their catechists are themselves the guarantors of the Catholic future of our children. If we are ever to renew the Catholic family, it will be dependent in large part on our catechists. To judge from the resources, the priorities and the focus of our Church today, however, we are in a world of hurt.
All of us as parents and grandparents need to be praying that our children will grow closer to the Lord and his Church in the years ahead. But we must also remember that it is our Church.
Whether we are school parents or religious education parents or homeschoolers, whether our kids are grown or yet to be, we need to commit ourselves to the best parish education possible for the majority of Catholic children. We need to stand up for our children together – or they won’t have a prayer.

A Pennsylvania Charitable Trust

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www.sfcabriniparish.org