Abusing the sacraments.

ABUSING THE SACRAMENTS, CONTINUED FROM FEBRUARY:

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Allow me, Father, to comment on something in the new issue of C.I.

Please imagine the following: a child of seven, touched by grace confesses to a priest: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, and, that He is the true and living Bread come down from Heaven. Please give Him to me, Father."

The priest asks, "Do your parents go to church on Sunday?"

"No."

"I cannot give you Holy Communion, because your parents are bad."

"But Father, I hunger for Jesus."

"Too bad. Maybe when your parents convert ..."

Such is my initial, immediate impression of the article "Abusing the Sacraments" in the January 2007 edition of Catholic Insight. How is this article in conformity with the right of the Faithful (even if only of a tender age) to receive the Sacraments?

With the natural-law right of human beings to be married, which for Catholics can only be fulfilled in the Church?

Welland, ON

I have to disagree with Father Bedard on this one. I have been married 24 years and we have 11 children. We are practising Catholics and have been throughout our career as parents. Let me share with you the "faithful Catholic abuse" we have been subjected to in our journey.

First, so we understood marriage, we were made to take a marriage preparation class. There we were taught that the Church teaches that birth control was a decision that was up to the couple's conscience. We walked out.

When we were expecting our first son we were made to take a baptism prep class, which we did. Then, again, after our second, then again after our third, at which point we decided that we'd help teach it, and maybe then we wouldn't have to keep on taking it. We taught this for a total of six years in two parishes and on the birth of our seventh only escaped taking it again because we were still in the same parish. With our eighth in a new parish, they were satisfied with an interview. After that one we seemed to qualify as maybe understanding baptism.

In the meantime our first child became ready to receive Confession and Communion. We were home schooling at the time but that wasn't good enough; we had to attend a prep class. We did and were told that there would be no Confession prep next year in grade three. Well, we prepared him for Confession underground, so to speak, in order to avoid a confrontation with the parish authorities. This continued with the next ones and the parish prep course taught that Communion is a wonderful supper where we remember Christ. We said NO! We went home and debriefed the children and taught them about the True, Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

As this continued, our first became ready for Confirmation. Of course, he had to take a prep class. Here he was taught that now he got to make a choice and become an adult Catholic. (And I thought that Confirmation was a Sacrament, and an encounter with God; primarily an Act of His, whereby He gives us Grace.)

Well, our saga continues. Now each sacrament for me brings with it a dread of some sort of incorrect form of education, which we have to undo afterwards, or face an uncomfortable confrontation. We try as much as possible to find a way whereby we can unobtrusively get the sacrament for each child with a minimum of trouble. This year our eighth child received both first Confession and Communion at the Skaro pilgrimage. In this way we bypassed the hoops.

We are trying to get our sixth and seventh confirmed this year but the preparation class is so involved that we are unwilling and unable to attend. Our tenth child, Benedict, has Down Syndrome; and it is hard to let anyone tell our kids that Confirmation is a choice where you get to make the commitment your godparents made for you at baptism when they know that Benedict may never have the intellectual capacity to make such a decision; yet we know without a doubt that he will get confirmed when the time comes. Not because he understands, but because God does.

I do understand Fr. Bedard's concerns, and prudence is warranted, but please, "suffer the little ones to come unto me and hinder them not." I think we must remember that God bestows his grace where he will and if we are going to err, let's err on the side of generosity, trusting in God to work in each soul he comes in contact with. At the very least let us not make it difficult for those sincerely trying to bring their children up in the Church.

Edmonton, AB

... TO BE CONTINUED.