"When you're dealing with a deadly virus, ultimately what you're doing is putting people's lives at risk," Donnelly says.

Clerical abuse survivor Andrew Madden says the bishops are placing children at risk of "reckless endangerment. Again."

At least three of Ireland's Catholic bishops have said they intend to resume First Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies in their dioceses, despite the Government's anti-Covid-19 guidelines.

The bishops' stance is yet another COVID controversy between the Church in Ireland. The Church is also arguing with the government about the increase in numbers permitted to attend weddings, which went up from 50 to 100 this week. At the same time, the COVID guideline for funeral attendance remains unchanged at 50 mourners.

In announcing his diocese's intention to resume celebrating these ceremonies, one bishop said he and senior diocesan priests had decided they should be held in line with public health regulations for general religious services.

"The mission of the Church cannot be put on hold indefinitely," he said. The ban is a "guideline" and not a binding law, he pointed out.

Madden, however, says taking public health guidance as advice rather than regulation, reminds him of the late Cardinal Desmond Connell's description of the Church's then child protection measures as "only guidelines" with no authority in canon or civil law.

"That was why Children First [State's child protection legislation] was put on a statutory level," he points out.

In Madden's opinion, the defiance of health guidelines show some bishops "have learned nothing from any of this and are now encouraging people to ignore health and safety ... church before children, old habits die hard".

The Health Minister acknowledges Doran is right to say the communion and confirmation ban is "a public health guideline - not a law" and as such can be ignored by the Catholic bishops.

"But we have a lot of evidence of ‘spreader events' arising out of communions and confirmations. We know this and that's the only reason the public health advice is there not to do it."

Donnelly also says he understands the frustration people of religious faith are feeling and salutes the patience shown by church leaders of all denominations.

"The public health measures have been very difficult for people of faith and for religious institutions. In spite of this, the churches have played an essential role in Ireland's national efforts to suppress COVID," he says.

They are there to keep people safe and ultimately to keep people alive, he added.

"Ireland is doing well and I would ask any clergy considering going against the public health measures to stick with them."

Source

• Irish Times
• Independent
• Image: SkyNews

Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin says after consulting with clergy, baptisms, First Holy Communions and confirmation ceremonies will be held. The regulations for general religious services will be followed.

"The mission of the Church cannot be put on hold indefinitely," he says. He describes the state's guidance as "advice by government rather than regulation."

Three other Irish Catholic dioceses will follow suit. Like Doran, the bishops of Clogher, Waterford and Lismore wrote to the government last week informing it that access to the sacraments "will go ahead from mid-August."

Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin responded, saying he did not approve "any unilateral breaching of regulations no matter what quarter they come from.

"I'd say to the Church authorities that the government's only motivation here in terms of the regulations we have brought in, in respect of gatherings and congregations, is to protect people and to protect people's health."

Last month Archbishop Eamon Martin, who is the Primate of All Ireland, accused the government of communicating in a "grossly disrespectful" way that the baptism, confirmation and communion ceremonies should be delayed due to COVID-19.

The government's decision marked a "complete reversal" of its previous position in June, where the Taoiseach indicated the ceremonies could go ahead the following month.

Martin says he has been "deluged with calls from parishes" and priests and others have been extremely disappointed by the government's change of mind.

By 31 July, Ireland's 4.9 million people had recorded 299,549 COVID-19 cases and 5,035 related deaths. It is currently experiencing a fourth COVID wave driven by the Delta variant.

Waterford and Lismore's bishop is criticising the way the government and its COVID health team saying its communications with the Church "regarding the sacraments leaves a great deal to be desired.

"We are all conscious of the need to remain vigilant. Parishes have been exemplary ... but for any local parish community and their priest who wish to avail themselves of these sacraments, they must be allowed to do so."

The bishop of Clogher, whose diocese straddles the border with Northern Ireland, says the ceremonies will take place in the Republic of Ireland from 20 August.

"The appropriate protocols presently in place in our churches will be maintained, and families are reminded of the need for adherence to public health guidance in relation to social interactions following the church celebration," he says.

He says the diocese will follow the same practice as last year. The liturgies will involve small groups of children. Attendance will be restricted to the child, the parents/guardians, and sponsor."

The new regulations effectively criminalise Mass with a congregation, Martin says.

After meeting with Ireland's health minister, he stressed that priests' pastoral work should be "deemed essential, rather than subject to penal sanction" amid the pandemic.

Source

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: Independent.ie

"Some efforts, often well intentioned, run the risk of reducing the administration of sacramental acts almost to the level of a supermarket in which you can drop in and ‘get the sacrament done.'

"This would reduce the Eucharist to a commodity", Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin says.

Martin was responding to the displeasure some parents and grandparents have expressed because First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies have been cancelled because of the Covid-19 restrictions.

Martin says he understands families' disappointment when these ceremonies are postponed.

Martin says he is worried "about parishes taking initiatives to ‘get First Communions and Confirmations done.'

"I appreciate the pressure that families and schools can bring in parishes. We have to remember that First Communions and Confirmations are sacramental acts and must be celebrated in an appropriate liturgical context and catechetical preparation."

"The idea that sacramental acts have to be done quickly and can be done outside the normal liturgical situation is false. There is no urgent need to celebrate these sacraments just because they fit into the school calendar."

Martin is also concerned that many people are underestimating the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic in Ireland.

"The spread of the virus has reached serious levels and constitutes a real risk of radically increased infection within the community," he says.

Although there's no evidence the virus is being spread in worshipping communities, he says Dublin's response to it is appropriate at this time.

Another concern Martin spoke of is what he calls the "serious distortion" of a Vatican document that addresses worship amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I have seen reports quoting a Vatican document urging a rapid return to normal worship. Some are using that as an indication that the official line of the Holy See is to object to restrictions. This is a very serious distortion of what that document says.

"The document . . . strongly supports the application of restrictive measures and ‘painful decisions even to the point of suspending the participation of the faithful in the celebration of the Eucharist for a long period'."

Martin's concern for people's safety is echoed by other faith leaders.

Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson says prospect of churches closing under Level 3 restrictions was "both frustrating and frightening." He added: "It is important that we face this with resilience and hope."

The Islamic Foundation of Ireland mosque on the South Circular Road also opted for safety, having Friday prayers live on Facebook when no-one was allowed in the mosque.

Dublin's small Jewish community says it hopes for some scope this weekend to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The community is staying in close contact by phone and Zoom.

Source

• Irish Times

On June 25 The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation released a new Directory for Catechesis.

Previously catechesis was the responsibility of the Congregation for the Clergy.

The new directory underlines that every baptised person is a missionary called to find new ways of communicating the faith with commitment and responsibility.

It proposes three major principles of action: Witnessing, Mercy and Dialogue.

The new directory also adds new content on contemporary issues like sex, gender, the digital age and medical advancements.

"The need for a new directory was born of the process of inculturation which characterises catechesis in a particular way and which, especially today, demands a special focus," said the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

He says the guiding criterion for the new edition is to deepen the Church's understanding of the role of catechesis in evangelisation.

Fisichella says he hopes the Directory will promote "a pastoral conversion in order to free catechesis from some choke-holds that prevent its effectiveness."

He says the first choke-hold is treating catechesis as if it were a school subject with information a teacher imparts to students according to a fixed calendar and with a fixed text.

Rather, the Directory's focus is on the process of leading a person to a personal relationship with Jesus in the church community and to a life lived visibly with Christian values, particularly through works of mercy and charity.

Timing of Confirmation

According to Fisichella the second choke-hold "is the mentality by which catechesis becomes the condition for receiving a particular sacrament of initiation, with a consequent void opening up once initiation has ended."

He said sacraments, particularly the Sacrament of Confirmation can be exploited in the name of pastoral strategy.

Too often the sacrament is delayed to "blackmail" young people into continuing to come to church, said Fisichella.

He said he would never "go to war" over the proper age to administer the sacrament of confirmation.

Evangelising is not primarily about transmitting doctrine ... it is about making Jesus Christ present and proclaiming Him," the Directory points out.

Digital age

Another issue the Directory covers involves the changes brought by the digital age and warns that if teachers of faith fail "to evaluate these technologies correctly the catechesis "runs the risk of it being insignificant for many people.

"The real question is not about knowing how to use the new technologies for evangelisation, but how to become an evangelising presence on the digital continent," it explains.

The new Directory looks "realistically at the heterogeneous family realities, with their lights and shadows, in order to accompany them adequately" as well as migrants' pastoral care, the environment, capital punishment and any type of abuse.

It includes the great contribution of women to catechesis, the formation of catechists and affirms "it is important that through catechesis each person discovers that it is worth believing".

Source

• La Croix
• The Tablet
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholics & Cultures

Sicilian Archbishop Michele Pennisi, an outspoken Mafia critic, says he wants to challenge the idea that crime bosses have a paternal side.

"The Mafia has always taken the term godfather from the Church to give its bosses an air of religious respectability," he says.

"They are actually incompatible."

Pennisi has decided to enforce the ban as much as is possible, though he's realistic about this given the silence that protects Mafia members.

However, in cases where the person's membership is confirmed as against the subject of rumour, Pennisi says they may not participate in these sacraments.

Pennisi's firm stand was determined last month when a well-known Mafia "godfather" was allowed to stand as godfather at a baptism. The officiating priest was a relative of the "godfather".

Pope Francis has already made his views on the Mafia clear. He excommunicated all members in 2014.

Nonetheless, Pennisi stresses that the Church is open to all who seek reformation, including criminals.

"If one of them admits to having done wrong, asks to be pardoned for the bad they have done - in that case we can discuss a path of conversion," he says.

Source

• Newsline
• BBC
• Image: Frontpage Mag

Father Smith smiles and says, "Don't worry. I have found the perfect solution. I had the bishop come to confirm the bats . . . and they never returned!"

Unfortunately this joke is as sad as it is funny: It accurately reflects the experience of so many pastoral ministers in the United States.

Confirmation—when celebrated during the teenage years as a rite of Christian "maturity"—often marks the moment when adolescents set aside their faith practices, sometimes for the rest of their lives.

In September 2015 the Pew Research Center reported the sobering statistic that more than half of adults raised Catholic have left the church at some point in their lives. Although a significant number of these Catholics eventually return, 4 in 10 do not. In another September 2015 article, "U.S. Catholics Open to Non-Traditional Families," the Pew Research Center reported that nearly one tenth of the U.S. population is made up of former Catholics—many of whom likely have been confirmed.

Despite this reality, many pastors and youth ministers genuinely fear that if confirmation is conferred at another time—say, at the moment of first communion—an even higher percentage of young people will be lost to the church.

They contend that two- to three-year confirmation programs that require attendance at catechism classes and service projects seem to keep at least a percentage of young people engaged with the church through their teen years.

It is time to openly acknowledge that this approach to the sacrament of confirmation—that it is a "mature decision" on the part of adolescents to live as committed members of the church—is no longer working.

Instead this approach to confirmation seems to mark the end of catechetical instruction, serving for many as a "graduation" from the practice of the faith. The reasons for this are historical as well as pastoral and theological. Continue reading

• Father Mark R. Francis, C.S.V. is superior general of the Clerics of St. Viator in Rome.

In a pastoral letter, Bishop Larry Silva said Confirmation is "often experienced more as a graduation from the Church than as a free gift of God's grace".

He cited Pope Francis's 2013 description of Confirmation as a "sacrament of farewell" for many.

So Honolulu diocese plans to return the sacraments of initiation to what Bishop Silva called their proper order, that is: Baptism, Confirmation, and then First Holy Communion.

He invited parents, priests, deacons, youth ministers, faith formation staff and school staff to be part of education during this transition.

Continue reading

Despite protests from the boy's family, Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the Archbishop of Palermo, banned the confirmation of the 17-year-old son of jailed killer Giuseppe Graviano in the city's famous Norman cathedral at the weekend.

The 17-year-old was due to be confirmed along with 49 other students of a private Jesuit school in Palermo cathedral on Saturday. But the Archbishop ruled that the mobster's son would have to receive the sacrament in a private ceremony, elsewhere. Continue reading

I can only imagine the apprehension of any church youth leaders using this activity last Wednesday. The Daily Mail headline, 'Minister: My fear for boys warped by porn' could have produced a rather uncomfortable conversation.

Twenty years ago as I started my teenage years, the internet didn't exist so the only access to hard core pornography would have meant me overcoming my embarrassment to purchase a top shelf magazine from the newsagent.

The rapid growth of the internet has changed that for young people today.Porn is everywhere. In fact, it's only recently that social networking has taken over pornography as the most popular use of the net.

With research showing that 97 per cent of boys have viewed online porn, many by the age of 11, the fear is that instant access to pornography, including extreme and violent images, is leaving boys with unrealistic expectations of sex and hence undermining future relationships.

The Church is not good at addressing these issues with young people. Where sex is taught it's usually in confirmation, and linked to marriage, ie it can be doctrinal rather than an exploration of young people's reality.

We cannot afford to shy away from conversations about sex and sexuality, because outside our classrooms and youth groups and away from family members, our young people meet the issues in the riskier surroundings of the playground, the media, and in the isolation of their bedroom with a computer. Continue reading.

Danny Curtin is the former National President of the Young Christian Workers, and continues to support their International Council. Danny writes and advises on youth ministry, and is a catechist and youth worker working in the United Kingdom.

Source: The Tablet

Image: Author's own

Lennon Cihak, 17, was on track to be confirmed at Assumption Church, Barnesville — until parish priest Father Gray LaMoine saw the teenager's photo in a same-sex Facebook post.

The photo showed Lennon beside a defaced sign intended to support a state constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Lennon had written "NO!" over the "Vote YES" message.

The proposed amendment was defeated in the November 6 ballot.

Lennon's mother, Shana, said she was called into a private conversation with Father LaMoine soon after the same-sex Facebook post was discovered and was told her son wouldn't be allowed to be confirmed.

"You kind of know the Catholic beliefs, but I never thought they would deny somebody confirmation because you weren't 100 per cent. I guess that's what shocks me," she said.

Her husband, Doug Cihak, agreed. "[Father LaMoine] was talking about ‘God doesn't believe in this'. Well, God created Lennon," he said.

Still, Doug Cihak insisted he was not mad at Father LaMoine, calling him just a "messenger" of the Church. The same could not be said for his wife, who told a reporter she didn't plan on returning to the church ever again. Her son nodded in agreement.

At the same time, Lennon said his faith had not faltered. "I don't want the Church to be put down. I don't want the Catholic religion to be put down," he said. "It's just the way the priest has things running. He's so strict. He won't loosen up about things."

In a letter to parishioners, Father LaMoine said Lennon chose to withdraw from confirmation after being confronted about his Facebook post, which rejected a central teaching of the Church.

Furthermore, the priest said, "even if he had not withdrawn from confirmation, there would be no choice but to remove Lennon, given his rejection of marriage as we understand it".

Sources:

Inforum

Park Rapids Enterprise

WDAY TV

Image: San Francisco Chronicle

Clarence House announced that Miss Middleton was confirmed on March 10 in a private ceremony. The sacrament of confirmation was celebrated by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres in a private ceremony. Bishop Chartres will give the address at the April 29 wedding.

Already baptised, Miss Middleton decided to be confirmed as part of her preparation for marrying Prince William. The ceremony confirms the point where baptised Christians make a firm commitment to their faith.

British law forbids a Catholic, or anyone married to a Catholic, from taking the throne.

Recently, the Anglican and Catholic Bishops released prayers for the couple in preparation for their marriage.

Church of England Bishops' prayer for the Royal Wedding
God of all grace,
friend and companion,
look in favour on William and Catherine
and all who are made one in marriage.
In your love deepen their love
and strengthen their wills
to keep the promises they will make,
that they may continue
in life-long faithfulness to each other; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Catholic Bishops Conference Prayer for the Royal Wedding
Heavenly Father,
we ask your blessing
upon his Royal Highness, Prince William and Catherine
as they pledge their love for each other in marriage.
May your love unite them through their lives.
Grant them the strength to serve you, our country and the Commonwealth
with integrity and faithfulness.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen

Prayer for school children praying for the Royal Wedding
Dear Jesus,
we pray for Prince William and Catherine Middleton
as they get ready for their wedding day.
Keep them safe,
make them happy
and help them
to look after each other always.
Amen.

Sources

• Huffingon Post
• The Guardian
• The Telegraph