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Parents miss Mass, kids get ax
NY Daily News ^ | 06.27.05 | NANCY DILLON

Posted on 06/27/2005 1:42:52 PM PDT by Coleus

Parents miss Mass, kids get ax

The pastor of a Staten Island Catholic church is playing holy hardball - kicking hundreds of kids out of religious ed classes because their families aren't showing up at Mass.

The Rev. Michael Cichon, pastor of St. Joseph/St. Thomas in Pleasant Plains, used each family's bar-coded donation envelope to track attendance.

He's tossed about 300 kids from classes and told them not to reapply until next April.

Without the classes, children cannot receive the sacraments, meaning some youngsters who thought they'd be making their First Communion next year will have to wait.

The suspensions, legal under church doctrine, were a shock to many parents with kids enrolled in the 1,400-child program, which caters to kids who don't attend Catholic schools.

"It's hurtful," said Joseph LoPizzo, 38, whose 6-year-old son was booted. "I've been a parishioner at that church for 23 years - longer than he's been the reverend."

LoPizzo said he paid the $150 for his son's Thursday afternoon classes last year, but his father-in-law's illness hampered the family's church attendance.

"I've just never heard of a church kicking you out," complained Lisa Nicol, 36, who got a letter saying her 7-year-old twin daughters had been barred from classes. "They should be more welcoming and sensitive."

The pastor said he suspended kids from the 2005-2006 after-school program because Mass is an "essential" component of the Catholic faith.

The affected families were attending church less than once a month, he said.

Cichon insisted that the move has nothing to do with the lack of a donation.

"There are many families who put absolutely nothing inside the envelopes they submit," he said.

Originally published on June 27, 2005



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; US: New York
KEYWORDS: canonlaw; catholiclist; ccd; children; church; churchattendance; lapsed; mass; nyc; parents; statenisland; whiners
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To: vrwcagent0498

That is the porblem with coming late to a discussion, isn't it?

Sorry.


101 posted on 06/27/2005 2:17:44 PM PDT by It's me
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To: mountn man
"The way I've understood it, I'm to make sure that the parents are doing their job raising their kids in the ways of the church. If anything ever happens to the parents, then I'm to personally take charge of my Godsons religious up bringing."

Can I borrow you to say this to my mother-in-law who has always thought being a godparent was just another event to send money and a card?

102 posted on 06/27/2005 2:18:08 PM PDT by sageb1 (If our nation be destroyed, it would be from the judiciary." ~ Thomas Jefferson)
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To: wideawake
I pushed him

That's despicable. You should ashamed of yourself.

I couldn't agree more, which is unusual for us ;-). Everyone at Mass should show the repsect due to the Real Presence. It is not a come-as-you-are party. The priest was absolutely right, and pushing him was reprehensible. No real Catholic would ever do such a thing, much less recount it proudly.

103 posted on 06/27/2005 2:18:21 PM PDT by Luddite Patent Counsel (Theyre digging through all of your files, stealing back your best ideas.)
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To: sinkspur; Coleus
What about Catholics who don't use envelopes?

I NEVER use envelopes, nor do I give every week (I prefer to write one larger check each month). And I am a little confused here, when did weekly giving become a requirement of church membership.

What this article demonstrates to me is that there is a pastor who is either too busy, or too self-involved to know first hand who is and isn't at mass. And I know that part of this is the "shortage" of priests, but not all of it. When I was a kid, the priest stood outside on the steps after mass and personally spoke to everybody, I don't see that as much any more.

104 posted on 06/27/2005 2:19:01 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: radiohead
I get the feeling these parents aren't going to Mass elsewhere; they aren't going at all.

Yes they are. In our town they drop the kids off at Religious Ed and head off to the Church of Starbucks.

105 posted on 06/27/2005 2:19:44 PM PDT by DonnDe
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To: wideawake

A real Staten Island Catholic would say "Father can kiss my ass."


106 posted on 06/27/2005 2:20:05 PM PDT by Palladin (God Bless America!)
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To: It's me

No problem!

:)


107 posted on 06/27/2005 2:20:11 PM PDT by vrwcagent0498 (Mark Levin and Ann Coulter are my patron saints.)
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To: Dinsdale
My original point was there was no indisputable archeolgical evidence.

Except, of course, there is.

Thousands of papyri, inscriptions, etc.

No, it was in the context of your claim that there is no evidence of the existence of Christian belief before 300 AD.

It was ridiculous then and it is ridiculous now.

LOL!

And by the same token you believe, but do not know, that the US Constitution predates, say, 1820.

After all, there are only a few reported copies of this document dating to 1789, and they could be clever forgeries. Radiocarbon dating cannot eliminate the possibility that they were mocked up decades afterward.

Your assumptions about the origins of the US government are held purely through faith and have no rational grounds, right?

108 posted on 06/27/2005 2:20:15 PM PDT by wideawake (God bless our brave troops and their Commander-in-Chief)
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To: radiohead
Is it still a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday?

The Third Commandment is still the Third Commandment. The Book of Exodus hasn't been rewritten, as far as I know.

109 posted on 06/27/2005 2:21:27 PM PDT by wideawake (God bless our brave troops and their Commander-in-Chief)
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To: mdmathis6
So you are all for the priest to violate Christ's dictum of "Suffer the little children to come unto me"? With the priest doing what he is doing, he is denying the children the right to come into Christ's presence!

First of all, none of these children are being denied Christ's presence because of the pastor's actions. Rather, it is their own parents who are not taking them to Mass. the pastor may be a bit ham-handed, but he is only displaying the truth.

Being Catholic is not like soccer or piano lessons. It's not something you can contract out for paid specialists to do on your behalf. If you have no desire to attend Mass and teach your children the faith, don't expect the Church to do it all for you.

SD

110 posted on 06/27/2005 2:21:42 PM PDT by SoothingDave
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To: Coleus

Well, "attendance" ultimately translates into dollars. There is also, I think, an element of "control" that enters in with some preachers or pastors. I found myself being shoved out by a preacher who preached several sermons within a two month period consisting of about one Bible verse and then the bulk of the sermon blazing away about how we ought to be attending all the classes offered up there. It is a very small church, my husband is in a leadership position (unpaid position). All well and good, but I have been very ill in the last few years with a heart attack, a TIA stroke, numerous hospitalizations for high blood pressure and then angioplasty, and also have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia neuropathy and other symptoms that hits out of the blue.

I am almost sixty years old. I spent several years of my life in school. When I graduated from high school (with all due respect to those with multiple college degrees) I promised myself I would spend no more time with my legs stuck under a desk in classes. I had attended the preacher's night study classes for two years with my husband before I got really sick, and had also gone to the Sunday School lecture classes. His wife also had a "class" during the week that was more or less a lecture class and I think they both got their noses out of joint that I didn't continue attending after the first few months. (I tried to explain to her that I worked, that I did our statements and that if I didn't do the narrative statements, WE DIDN'T GET PAID, but it seemed to not be understood. My work was piling up and my house was getting to be a mess and I was walking out and leaving it to go to "classes". I finally decided doing my work was also "holy and sacred", as much as being their little pupil was!

At any rate, the last sermon of his that I attended that was short on Bible and long on orders to bring notebooks so that we could "take notes on his sermons", I just didn't go back except for a couple of special activities that my husband was involved in. I just have taken it as God's will. My husband still goes up there and I am going to a different church with no musical "performances and entertainment" which are big at the other church, and I am thankful!


111 posted on 06/27/2005 2:23:03 PM PDT by Twinkie (xpzyxklphtttt !. . . . no one reads taglines and no one will ask me what is xpzyxklphtttt!)
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To: wagglebee; sinkspur
I too hardly use envelopes and write a check a few times a yr. rather then every week, it's just a pain.

but, I suspect this pastor did this as a LAST resort and didn't do it extemporaneously. The envelopes were most likely used as further proof. Now that priests face the parishioners they can see a lot, who comes late and who doesn't come at all.

When I went to catholic grammar school, we used to get cards every week to put in a box during mass to prove we attended.
112 posted on 06/27/2005 2:24:03 PM PDT by Coleus ("Woe unto him that call evil good and good evil"-- Isaiah 5:20-21)
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To: mdmathis6
Ref your: "So you are all for the priest to violate Christ's dictum of "Suffer the little children to come unto me"? With the priest doing what he is doing, he is denying the children the right to come into Christ's presence!"

Well Said! Ditto!

IT is amazing to me that there is a Priest who can deny the Sacraments to these little ones and there is not a Priest in America who can deny the Sacraments to John Kerry or Ted Kennedy!

RamS
113 posted on 06/27/2005 2:24:37 PM PDT by RamingtonStall (Ride Hard and far! ..... and with GPS, Know where you are!)
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To: TwoDogs
Bet he got the parents attention. Furthermore, I'll bet they will start attending more and paying more attention in due course.

That, I think, is the intent of the priest.

Hope it works! My husband taught CCD to Confirmation teens. 90% of them did not attend Mass nor did their parents. We always thought it odd that they'd take time out of their busy schedules to drive the kids over to our house on a Tuesday night and return to pick them up an hour and a half later but could not make it to Mass on Sunday morning. The lack of belief and understanding of their faith astounded us.

Why send them to CCD if they didn't believe in the Catholic Faith??

114 posted on 06/27/2005 2:25:09 PM PDT by It's me
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To: All

story on abc ny tv news right now.


115 posted on 06/27/2005 2:25:23 PM PDT by Coleus ("Woe unto him that call evil good and good evil"-- Isaiah 5:20-21)
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To: sageb1
Can I borrow you to say this to my mother-in-law who has always thought being a godparent was just another event to send money and a card?

I'm not sure I'm a good example of a godparent, as I don't send money and cards. But my buddy does an excellent job instructing, and having his kids taught the ways of the church. And if anything did happen to him and his wife, I'd like to think I'd be right there to help meet there needs. Especially the most important, their spiritual needs.

116 posted on 06/27/2005 2:25:50 PM PDT by mountn man (Everyone brings joy into a room. Some when they enter. Others when they leave)
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To: BobCNY

I agree with you.
See post 114.


117 posted on 06/27/2005 2:26:32 PM PDT by It's me
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To: Coleus

I wonder what Jesus thinks about this...?


118 posted on 06/27/2005 2:26:41 PM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner ("Si vis pacem para bellum")
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To: mountn man
Does attending mass at Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals qualify one as a parishioner?

During my youth I was a parishioner the largest church in the state. The church was much desired as a location for weddings. A former priest of mine like to tell a story about a woman who called to set up a wedding date. The priest, not recognizing her name, asked if she was a parishioner. The woman replied, "oh yes my mother never misses a bingo".

119 posted on 06/27/2005 2:26:47 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (John 6: 51-58)
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To: Dinsdale

"'eat the cracker prep'" is rather vulgar.


120 posted on 06/27/2005 2:26:56 PM PDT by sageb1 (If our nation be destroyed, it would be from the judiciary." ~ Thomas Jefferson)
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