Why have you never revisited the idea of getting the high school kids to assist in the education of the younger children as one of their "service project" options? They could make a presentation to one of the younger grades, on topics that are pertinent to both age levels... even if the presentation is for one class, it shows the kids what kind of preparation and fore-thought go into the effort... and you might even light a spark in one or two students that will carry on past graduation and develop into a real passion for the teaching vocation.
I am convinced that MY greatest failing while I worked in that program was my lack of enthusiasm to incorporate time and effort in the children's service project efforts. I had a golden opportunity each and every year to encourage the "confirmation"-level teens to experience a degree of responsibility and reward in "teaching"... but never availed myself to it with any regularity.
There is no downside to this plan. The teens fullfil their service project requirements, even if they do not continue as CCD volunteers in the future... but if you get even 1 out of 20 who do feel a calling to education within the parish, isn't that more than you have now?
Monday, April 21, 2008
Laugh if you will...
I know Jambo has no time for ideas that stem from other parishes besides his own, but here's what I have seen done at Nativity BVM in NEPA...
The last weekend of CCD registration is conducted immediately outside the Church exit, after each and every Mass. You cannot avoid the table, and the teachers and volunteers at the tables make sure they have your undivided attention. While you are signing up your children for their classes, our former pastor (a Navy chaplain named Father Steve, who was re-deployed to Afghanistan... that's why he's our former pastor) would question those he thought might make good "volunteers" to assist and back-up the teachers he already had.
When you think about it, the parents of many of these kids have nothing else to do for the hour or so that the kids are in class. How difficult would it be to get even 6 or 7 individual parents to "volunteer" to stay to assist for the first couple of classes? The aim here is to find the 1 or 2 of these parents that LIKE the work, or find the challenge exciting, or (God willing) hear the calling to an educational ministry within the parish. Not everyone is going to work out, or even want to help... but it is one more way to get those unwilling to even try to step up and see what is involved, even if it is for one or two classes.
Now, not every one of the parents that show an interest in the effort will be able to commit to an every-Sunday schedule beyond the Sunday obligation... but if they stay even marginally involved, or show a depth of knowledge in a particular area of education (say, Church history or the Liturgy), then it is one more person within a "group" of parishioners that can be called upon to fill in a gap in the schedule... even if it is only presenting a prepared lesson.
Now, Father Steve got some ribbing for his rather "draconian" efforts to fill spots all over the parish, from the Alter Society to the CCD corps of teachers... but he got them filled. So well, in fact, that by the time I got to the parish, they didn't need any more teachers!
As a former member of the Cathedral's CCD program that Jambo is so involved with, no program could benefit MORE from an aggressive effort to recruit assistance from the parish than the one Jambo is referring to. Why not get MJ and the rest to present the idea to Father Tony? Have everyone camp out after a Mass to try and recruit some additional help... not everyone will stay, and not all will work out... but isn't it worth the effort if you find even one that will stay and does work out?
The last weekend of CCD registration is conducted immediately outside the Church exit, after each and every Mass. You cannot avoid the table, and the teachers and volunteers at the tables make sure they have your undivided attention. While you are signing up your children for their classes, our former pastor (a Navy chaplain named Father Steve, who was re-deployed to Afghanistan... that's why he's our former pastor) would question those he thought might make good "volunteers" to assist and back-up the teachers he already had.
When you think about it, the parents of many of these kids have nothing else to do for the hour or so that the kids are in class. How difficult would it be to get even 6 or 7 individual parents to "volunteer" to stay to assist for the first couple of classes? The aim here is to find the 1 or 2 of these parents that LIKE the work, or find the challenge exciting, or (God willing) hear the calling to an educational ministry within the parish. Not everyone is going to work out, or even want to help... but it is one more way to get those unwilling to even try to step up and see what is involved, even if it is for one or two classes.
Now, not every one of the parents that show an interest in the effort will be able to commit to an every-Sunday schedule beyond the Sunday obligation... but if they stay even marginally involved, or show a depth of knowledge in a particular area of education (say, Church history or the Liturgy), then it is one more person within a "group" of parishioners that can be called upon to fill in a gap in the schedule... even if it is only presenting a prepared lesson.
Now, Father Steve got some ribbing for his rather "draconian" efforts to fill spots all over the parish, from the Alter Society to the CCD corps of teachers... but he got them filled. So well, in fact, that by the time I got to the parish, they didn't need any more teachers!
As a former member of the Cathedral's CCD program that Jambo is so involved with, no program could benefit MORE from an aggressive effort to recruit assistance from the parish than the one Jambo is referring to. Why not get MJ and the rest to present the idea to Father Tony? Have everyone camp out after a Mass to try and recruit some additional help... not everyone will stay, and not all will work out... but isn't it worth the effort if you find even one that will stay and does work out?
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
Ok, bear with me.
It's Sunday, and I have to work at seven. Normally I'd do a switch or lie cheat or steal to get a later start to fulfil my obligation to teach ninth grade Catholic History at my parish. Being that I've missed a boatload of work due to my illness, this week I'm not able to do it. So the inevitable call to my coordinator to say I'm not making it.
Long story short, I lose a very valuable class at (and I cannot overstate this) an absolutely critical time of year. The Second Vatican Council is lost.
The entire process of CCD, youth education within the Catholic Church to students who attend public school, falls under the auspices of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, an organization whose foundation was set in the Council of Trent in 1563. Granted, the CCD we see today has much more to do with St. Pope Pius X and his work during the turn of the twentieth century, but the key to the organization is a confraternity, a group of lay people and clergy dedicated to the education and catechises of the youth of the Church. For reasons apparent to all and far too numerous to individually address, the Confraternity has degenerated to various parish councils, perhaps an overworked and underpaid parish Director of Religious Education, and maybe, (if a parish is exceptionally lucky) a dozen volunteers.
My coordinator, a particularly well read and educated diaconate candidate named MJ, proposed a kind of "team teaching" program to be launched next year. An established teacher will take a partner under his/her wing, and as a team they will cover the year. In that sense if someone can't make a particular Sunday the partner can cover.
So then the inevitable question comes. "Who do you have in mind? Anyone?"
* * * *
Like it or not, heathen as Ryan may be, we are a confraternity. And it seems for the time being that I am a teacher without a peer, or for the immediate future a partner. So over the course of the next few months I will use this blog to bounce my lesson plans off my fellow members. Never has it become more apparent to me than this instant how vital the Confraternity is to individual teachers. Titus will back me up, I learned far more in discussions and conversations with other teachers and coordinators about my Catholicism than I ever did in parochial school or my CCD program in my teen years.
All this done in the light of Pope Benedict's visit is appropriate, but it's also kind of sad. I've got a class that won't get Vatican II hammered into their skulls and no matter how pretty you try and paint the picture, no matter who is at fault or who isn't at fault, it's an opportunity lost. The worst part about the Bund being scattered is that someone, even a heathen, could have stepped in with a prepared lesson and covered. Damn it.
Rant done.
It's Sunday, and I have to work at seven. Normally I'd do a switch or lie cheat or steal to get a later start to fulfil my obligation to teach ninth grade Catholic History at my parish. Being that I've missed a boatload of work due to my illness, this week I'm not able to do it. So the inevitable call to my coordinator to say I'm not making it.
Long story short, I lose a very valuable class at (and I cannot overstate this) an absolutely critical time of year. The Second Vatican Council is lost.
The entire process of CCD, youth education within the Catholic Church to students who attend public school, falls under the auspices of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, an organization whose foundation was set in the Council of Trent in 1563. Granted, the CCD we see today has much more to do with St. Pope Pius X and his work during the turn of the twentieth century, but the key to the organization is a confraternity, a group of lay people and clergy dedicated to the education and catechises of the youth of the Church. For reasons apparent to all and far too numerous to individually address, the Confraternity has degenerated to various parish councils, perhaps an overworked and underpaid parish Director of Religious Education, and maybe, (if a parish is exceptionally lucky) a dozen volunteers.
My coordinator, a particularly well read and educated diaconate candidate named MJ, proposed a kind of "team teaching" program to be launched next year. An established teacher will take a partner under his/her wing, and as a team they will cover the year. In that sense if someone can't make a particular Sunday the partner can cover.
So then the inevitable question comes. "Who do you have in mind? Anyone?"
* * * *
Like it or not, heathen as Ryan may be, we are a confraternity. And it seems for the time being that I am a teacher without a peer, or for the immediate future a partner. So over the course of the next few months I will use this blog to bounce my lesson plans off my fellow members. Never has it become more apparent to me than this instant how vital the Confraternity is to individual teachers. Titus will back me up, I learned far more in discussions and conversations with other teachers and coordinators about my Catholicism than I ever did in parochial school or my CCD program in my teen years.
All this done in the light of Pope Benedict's visit is appropriate, but it's also kind of sad. I've got a class that won't get Vatican II hammered into their skulls and no matter how pretty you try and paint the picture, no matter who is at fault or who isn't at fault, it's an opportunity lost. The worst part about the Bund being scattered is that someone, even a heathen, could have stepped in with a prepared lesson and covered. Damn it.
Rant done.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Let's talk biased media, okay?
Ryan texts me to say that Bill Maher is going to apologize for his comments about the Pope on April 11.
I knew nothing about these comments, so I went to the sum of all human knowledge and watched the video of his comments on YouTube.
Now, I know Bill Maher, and I know how he operates. The man will say anything for shock-value. He's an eloquent Howard Stern... nothing more. His show on HBO is a poor stand-in for the old Dennis Miller shows that once actually said something. I rank the man right up there with Keith Oberman and Al Franken... bad comedic entertainment.
But Maher did take this one a bit far. Insinuating that the faith of more than one quarter of the globe is nothing more than a "cult" bent on the exploitation of children for the sexual gratification of a perverted clergy isn't entertainment, or comedy... its simply ignorant hate-mongering.
There are two aspects of this story that I find particularly disturbing. One is that the man has no concept of the actual facts of his statements, and the other is his demeaning attitude towards the one man that agrees with 90% of everything he espouses to believe.
First, the facts. Since 1950, there have been 4,392 priests or deacons accused of sexual abuse towards children. The total number of priests and deacons in public service (where they would have had access to children) since 1950 is 109,694. That means that almost exactly 4% of priests and deacons in the Church abused children (and that is assuming each case is guilty as charged... which they are NOT!). Four percent... that's 4,392 pedophiles too many, no question about it.
Maher's comments, however, were a general reflection on the entire Church. So, let's compare the entire Catholic Church to the rest of, say... Bill Maher's home state of California.
Since 1950, 3,644,600 women and 911,150 men living in California have been sexually abused. That's 4,556,000 case of sexual abuse of children. Of these, 9% suffered their abuse in the public school systems of California, 7% suffered at the hands of medical personnel, and 70% (that's right... 70%!) were sexually abused by their own relatives, in their own homes. What this tells me is that all three of these categories exceed the NATIONAL average of 4% of abusive priests and deacons... in California alone. California, the bastion of liberal, new-age, pro-choice, free-thinking policy and progressive life-styles. This is the state that provides the bench-mark of true, liberal mindset. Doubt my figures? Here are my sources: http://www.psych.org/, http://www.census.gov/, http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/
I'm not making excuses for the crimes of these 4,392 predators, or for the men that hid their crimes or covered their tracks. These men are criminals, and if they are convicted of the crimes they are accused of, these men should face the harshest sentences that the justice system can enforce. But to blatantly label the Catholic Church as a cult that promotes and protects that kind of behavior as an institution? That is criminal in and of itself, in my eyes.
Add to this despicable conduct on the part of Maher the fact that he refers to Pope Benedict XVI as a "Nazi" and a pedophile himself, and I am simply at a loss for words. Here is a man or prominent stature and respect from one corner of the globe to another. A man that endorses the same social acceptance of the poor, the under-privileged, the sick, the dying all across the globe. A man that champions environmentalism as a way of life AND a matter of government policy. A man committed to the end of the death penalty. A man who fights day and night to end torture, war, assassination, terror and violence. A man who teaches and preaches the words "peace" "love" and "charity" with heart-felt conviction with nearly every breath he has.
In fact, the only possible positions that Maher and the Pope could NOT agree on are the defense of traditional marriage and abortion. Other than that, these two men probably agree whole-heartedly on every other topic. Yet, this is the man Maher referred to as a "Nazi".
There is no greater evidence that the far-left of the liberal movement is absolutely as bereft of brains as they are bereft of morals than Bill Maher.
I knew nothing about these comments, so I went to the sum of all human knowledge and watched the video of his comments on YouTube.
Now, I know Bill Maher, and I know how he operates. The man will say anything for shock-value. He's an eloquent Howard Stern... nothing more. His show on HBO is a poor stand-in for the old Dennis Miller shows that once actually said something. I rank the man right up there with Keith Oberman and Al Franken... bad comedic entertainment.
But Maher did take this one a bit far. Insinuating that the faith of more than one quarter of the globe is nothing more than a "cult" bent on the exploitation of children for the sexual gratification of a perverted clergy isn't entertainment, or comedy... its simply ignorant hate-mongering.
There are two aspects of this story that I find particularly disturbing. One is that the man has no concept of the actual facts of his statements, and the other is his demeaning attitude towards the one man that agrees with 90% of everything he espouses to believe.
First, the facts. Since 1950, there have been 4,392 priests or deacons accused of sexual abuse towards children. The total number of priests and deacons in public service (where they would have had access to children) since 1950 is 109,694. That means that almost exactly 4% of priests and deacons in the Church abused children (and that is assuming each case is guilty as charged... which they are NOT!). Four percent... that's 4,392 pedophiles too many, no question about it.
Maher's comments, however, were a general reflection on the entire Church. So, let's compare the entire Catholic Church to the rest of, say... Bill Maher's home state of California.
Since 1950, 3,644,600 women and 911,150 men living in California have been sexually abused. That's 4,556,000 case of sexual abuse of children. Of these, 9% suffered their abuse in the public school systems of California, 7% suffered at the hands of medical personnel, and 70% (that's right... 70%!) were sexually abused by their own relatives, in their own homes. What this tells me is that all three of these categories exceed the NATIONAL average of 4% of abusive priests and deacons... in California alone. California, the bastion of liberal, new-age, pro-choice, free-thinking policy and progressive life-styles. This is the state that provides the bench-mark of true, liberal mindset. Doubt my figures? Here are my sources: http://www.psych.org/, http://www.census.gov/, http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/
I'm not making excuses for the crimes of these 4,392 predators, or for the men that hid their crimes or covered their tracks. These men are criminals, and if they are convicted of the crimes they are accused of, these men should face the harshest sentences that the justice system can enforce. But to blatantly label the Catholic Church as a cult that promotes and protects that kind of behavior as an institution? That is criminal in and of itself, in my eyes.
Add to this despicable conduct on the part of Maher the fact that he refers to Pope Benedict XVI as a "Nazi" and a pedophile himself, and I am simply at a loss for words. Here is a man or prominent stature and respect from one corner of the globe to another. A man that endorses the same social acceptance of the poor, the under-privileged, the sick, the dying all across the globe. A man that champions environmentalism as a way of life AND a matter of government policy. A man committed to the end of the death penalty. A man who fights day and night to end torture, war, assassination, terror and violence. A man who teaches and preaches the words "peace" "love" and "charity" with heart-felt conviction with nearly every breath he has.
In fact, the only possible positions that Maher and the Pope could NOT agree on are the defense of traditional marriage and abortion. Other than that, these two men probably agree whole-heartedly on every other topic. Yet, this is the man Maher referred to as a "Nazi".
There is no greater evidence that the far-left of the liberal movement is absolutely as bereft of brains as they are bereft of morals than Bill Maher.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
One more point...
Benedict XVI. How can you not love this little Bavarian?
81 years old today, and he is so spry and energetic! Are we Catholics just so used to seeing the vibrant and enthusiastic mind of John Paul II trapped in a failing body, that we are so delighted and excited by the image of an 81 year old man that can stand up, speak clearly, and even turn a little skip as he watches the children dance?
All those people that said he was too old, too feeble for the Papacy... I have this to say to YOU:
Bite me.
81 years old today, and he is so spry and energetic! Are we Catholics just so used to seeing the vibrant and enthusiastic mind of John Paul II trapped in a failing body, that we are so delighted and excited by the image of an 81 year old man that can stand up, speak clearly, and even turn a little skip as he watches the children dance?
All those people that said he was too old, too feeble for the Papacy... I have this to say to YOU:
Bite me.
Point of order, and a question...
Did anyone notice the flag directly behind the President during the White House ceremony?
Wisconsin. That's right...
Question: When was the last time that the US Joint Service Color Guard flew all 50 US State flags along with their 5 Service flags? In fact, when was the last time the White House saw an official State Visit of this magnitude? 10,000+ guests, and another 2 to 5 thousand outside of the grounds on Pennsylvania Avenue... who else but the Holy Father draws crowds like that? Gorby never did... even Maggie Thatcher never saw a crowd like this.
Honestly, who did see the last event like this?
Wisconsin. That's right...
Question: When was the last time that the US Joint Service Color Guard flew all 50 US State flags along with their 5 Service flags? In fact, when was the last time the White House saw an official State Visit of this magnitude? 10,000+ guests, and another 2 to 5 thousand outside of the grounds on Pennsylvania Avenue... who else but the Holy Father draws crowds like that? Gorby never did... even Maggie Thatcher never saw a crowd like this.
Honestly, who did see the last event like this?
USCCB spin?
I did take Ryan's advice and watched the video... wonderfully full of symbolism and pageantry... and we all know how much I love pageantry!
However, referring to John Paul II's first visit to the US as pontiff as a "delightful meeting between President Jimmy Carter and the Pope" was a big stretch, even for the USCCB spokesman giving the commentary. I mean, you expect a graceful slant to such a commentary... he is speaking from the South Lawn of the White House, so you'd expect a large degree of "pc" right?
I just can't imagine that anyone that was there could have described the visit as "delightful". It is my understanding the JPII read Jimmy the riot-act... too soft on Communism, to neglectful of the poor of America and the world, and far too liberal on topics like all the "pro-life" issues in America.
Anyway... is it just me or does it seem nearly impossible that the last papal visit was 29 years ago? My God... it boggles the mind when you really consider how long that JPII actually reigned.
However, referring to John Paul II's first visit to the US as pontiff as a "delightful meeting between President Jimmy Carter and the Pope" was a big stretch, even for the USCCB spokesman giving the commentary. I mean, you expect a graceful slant to such a commentary... he is speaking from the South Lawn of the White House, so you'd expect a large degree of "pc" right?
I just can't imagine that anyone that was there could have described the visit as "delightful". It is my understanding the JPII read Jimmy the riot-act... too soft on Communism, to neglectful of the poor of America and the world, and far too liberal on topics like all the "pro-life" issues in America.
Anyway... is it just me or does it seem nearly impossible that the last papal visit was 29 years ago? My God... it boggles the mind when you really consider how long that JPII actually reigned.
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