Children's catechism classes (2)

I am sure it is correct to state that for Catholics, knowledge of catechism, according to one's age and ability, is the priority, not catechism lessons. Let us not justify the means (as imposed today, totally inadequate, to put it mildly) for a noble end, please.

As a Catholic parent and grandparent, I am definitely in favour of learning as much as possible about our religion from a very young age and with all means possible. The ideal situation is when parents themselves prepare their young children for the Sacraments, supplemented with additional teaching in our Catholic schools - the way it used to be up to some years ago.

Unfortunately, the imposition by the Curia on children to attend catechism lessons (duttrina) twice weekly as a pre-requisite to receive their First Holy Communion or Confirmation is a burden which most parents find too heavy.

Many parish priests are regularly confronted by parents who find it extremely difficult to cope with such attendance, particularly if they have children of different age groups attending on different days and at different times.

Some of these parish priests understand these parents' plight and agree that obligatory attendance of additional lessons, if really considered indispensable, should be reduced to one session per week at most, but all their efforts have fallen on deaf ears with Curia officials.

It is essential for the hierarchy to have a meaningful dialogue with lay Catholics if we want to adapt our religion to today's way of life, doing away with the material fulfilment of these and similar imposed regulations without in any way sacrificing the proper knowledge of catechism or renouncing the fundamental principles of Catholicism.