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To: CatherineSiena
I have already written the Cardinal's office, the Diocese of Boston and discussed this situation with my confessor. He reminds us of the following: All four gospels come down to two words: Take Action!

And giving aid and comfort to the spiritual enemy is not action but appeasement. In my view, it would be better to act in truth and be wrong, than to fail to act and be wrong. To be condemned by history is one thing; to be condemned by the truth is quite another.

Consider James Ch 1:

2. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials,

3. for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

4. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him.

6. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

7. For that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord.

I feel strongly on the subject as I have been sending my granddaughters to Catholic School for years. I do not live in this particular diocese, but must believe this is not unusual. It reminds me a a couple instances which were dismissed by me in the past. For example, a lay Religion teacher telling the one in high school there is no reason for women to be denied ORDERS as they were allowed in the early Church--deaconess. This one also spoke of an assembly with abortion as the topic. She said many of the girls told the priest giving the talk that women "had the right to choose." The eight grader said she had never heard you could sin in THOUGHT, WORD, and DEED. Said she knew nothing about the THOUGHT thing. Or how about avoiding sex because they were TOO YOUNG; nothing about SIN. I did question the principal regarding the last--it was denied, and I was assured it was discussed as a sacramental matter. I will admit the other things mentioned, and more I chalked up to "sleeping in class". After reading of Fr. Murr's situation I really do wonder. Perhaps the time for presuming, or assuming the children are receiving the same solid teachings we received as children is long gone.
71 posted on 04/14/2004 5:09:13 AM PDT by RitaP
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To: RitaP
Welcome!

Perhaps the time for presuming, or assuming the children are receiving the same solid teachings we received as children is long gone.

It's long gone. I was educated in Catholic HS in the 70s and we learned very little about the Catholic Church. It was the same among my peers - in all different schools, same archdiocese - Boston. In fact, my freshman religion teacher (a lay man) told us that the Virgin Mary wasn't a virgin and she and Joseph had other children. I knew it was untrue then and I always remembered it (30 years later! YIKES!). At least that led me to study the issue but I always wondered about the kids who accepted what he said on face value.

My daughter is in Catholic HS as a freshman. All of her classes are beyond reproach except for religion class which is a joke content wise and also among the students. Assigned reading is "Joshua" by Joseph Girzone (book basically says all religions are the same) and to illustrate family ties the class sat through the movie "The Lion King" - I could go on, believe me. Only two kids in the class have seen "The Passion" and the teacher has made it plain that he will not go and see the movie until it is a $.99 rental and then maybe he still won't rent it. No discussion of the content of the movie and no move to put it in larger context.

The good news for me is that I know what this teacher teaches and what he doesn't and so I can fill in at home - which is my job anyway. We recently found a true shepherd priest who is holy and who my children love. Thank God!

It's tragic that you can't trust a Catholic school to teach Catholicism - worse yet, most parents really don't care anyway.

72 posted on 04/14/2004 5:41:10 AM PDT by american colleen
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