CROATIA-L Archives
Archiver > CROATIA > 2007-01 > 1169821768
From: Diane Homza <>
Subject: Re: [CROATIA] Another Croatian Roman Catholic institution to close: p lace blame where should be please
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:29:28 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <7BE6B28B-D209-4E0C-B186-7E26DAEE22A1@alltel.net>
I don't have a comment on the whole "where does the
blame lie for the churches closing" debate, but I do
have one comment to make about the following
paragraph:
--- Natalie Prodan <> wrote:
> Parents are now pushing for first
> eucharist/reconciliation/
> confirmation to be done ALL AT THE SAME TIME in 2nd
> Grade!!! Is that
> a crazy request or what?!? But sure enough a few
> parishes in good ol'
> Cleveland, Ohio are doing it. Their thought is if
> they appease the
> parents that they will retain the memberships and/or
> the donations.
This is how it's done in the Byzantine Catholic
Church. The child is baptized, confirmed AND given
first communion at the same time, when they're only a
few months old!
We also allow our priests to get married, even in
American again (finally!). Guess we must be crazy ;)
These links have a little more information about
Byzantine Catholicism and our crazy ways:
http://www.parma.org/what.htm
http://home.att.net/~Local_Catholic/
OK, I guess I DO have a comment on the debate after
all. If the (Roman) Catholic Church needs to keep
these sacraments "separate" in order for the church to
continue to receive monetary support, is that really
right? It's a form of spiritual blackmail on the part
of the church, "You MUST remain a member until all
these sacraments have been imparted on you over a span
of 16 years, or your child will not be a full-fledged
Catholic!" Whereas on the other hand, if the parents
want their children to receive all the sacraments in
one go solely so their family no longer has an
"obligation" to the church, where has the church gone
wrong? Not with the children, but with those
children's parents when THEY were attending PSR and
receiving their sacraments. How strong is someone's
faith, really, if they're only remaining a member of
the church so that their child can receive the
sacraments necessary to "make" them a Catholic?
There's more to it than that, and somewhere the
message got lost. For families like that, whether
their child receives all the sacraments at one time or
spread out over a span of 16 years, the only thing the
church gains is a few more years of monetary
contributions. Which is grand, but monetary
contributions can only keep a church going so long if
its parishioners are just automatons going through the
motions rather than making their parish a real part of
their lives and the community.
Diane, who is one of the church's youth here in
Cleveland at age 31, and also a prime example of the
white gal with no children yet since I just got
married in June 2006.
We are not gossiping cruelly. We are just trying to understand life.
--Natalie Goldberg
Diane M. Homza
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