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"Some Issues regarding the Education of Eastern Catholic children in Latin Catholic Schools"

The Bishops of the autonomous ritual Churches in Australia deliver a frank message to the Latin Bishops re the education of their children.

http://www.catholica.com.au/breakingnews/026_bn_170309.php

Bless, Father Ambrose,

Thanks to you and Collin for posting this! May God grant many years to the God-loving and courageously out-spoken Eastern Bishops of Oceania!!

Many years,

Neil

These bishops, in particular Kyrs Peter and Issam John, are full of spine. They're not turning back.

Thank you for this reference. I'm passing it along to the Director of Religious Education at my parish/parish school.

The problem is that the Eastern Rite children are as ignorant of their faith as the RC children going through so called Catholic schools. The Liberals took control of the Catholic Education system a long time ago and with weak bishops created what is now in place. Catholic kids here could not bless themselves if their life depended upon it. Evangelical Protestant groups openly boast of how when they open a new church they can guarantee the a certain percentage will be recruited from the Catholics and the reason they give is that RC's dont know what their Church is all about. University Chaplains have discussed this at their own meetings and have noted that these churches dont recruit as well among other main stream Protestant churches and in their opinion this is because they are familiar with the scriptures and what their church teaches is their faith. Good luck to the bishops!

Paul,

I don't think the bishops are hoping to reform the Latin Church's school system, rather they are seeking to assure that our children aren't either latinized or ostracized in the course of their progress through it. On those counts, they have spoken courageously and forthrightly - something not done anywhere near as often as it might be. For that, they deserve much credit.

Many years,

Neil

The problem is the Latins are not Latinised let alone Catholic in the Australian Catholic Ed. system. I went through the same system years ago and was one of about 3 who went to Mass at all in yr 12. The school was run by what the Americans call the Irish Christian brothers (Edmund Rice). The Liberals have had control for too long to turn it around any time soon. They get instructions from the bishops and file these in the round filing container. There is a huge gap between what the bishops think is happening and what really happens in the classroom.

Well, that aside, I wonder if we can question how well we've educated our young ones about Christ and His Church? Do remember that Australia too lost a generation due to the overprioritaztion of ethnic culture and love for the old country. I can name many Ukrainian Catholics who don't know of their roots. Sad but true.

We have not lost a generation we have in fact lost a few generations. 3 at least. We know how well the youth have been educated by their absence from church. One teenager serving in a church full of adults most of whome are retired, is often as good as it gets in our town Collin on a Sunday morning. There is much talk about doing things for the Youth. The problem goes so far back that the lost youth are now the parents of todays youth. There are hardly any adults in church under 40. We get the occasional 2 or 3 very young children. Thats it. This is reflected all across the Eparchy. Another thing is all of the eastern bishops came to this country as adults, so they have no exprience of the Catholic education system in this country. This is the country where very few catholics go to church at all the figures are about 20%. The sad reality is for many years Catholic schools did not teach the Catholic faith and the whole Church in 'the great south land of the Holy Spirit' is paying the price for this. It is up to each individual eastern church to teach their own tradition but it seems they dont have any coordination among themselves to get that right. We still have first communion and we still baptise by pouring over here. The priests will tell you they learn one way of serving in Rome and then they put all that asside when they get back here. Servers stand if they are not all in the work sacristy off to the left in the same positions to serve the Trendentine mass. We still have Latin altar candles and so it goes on. No good blaming the Catholic Education people for all that.

I didn't find the document!

Nope, I wasn't bashing the Catholic Education system. I blame ourselves... We, the East too, haven't been doing our job.

Philippe,

Try again. I couldn't get it last night either, but the link appears to be working again now.

Many years,

Neil

Neil,

I could open the link, but I expected to find a document of the Australian Eastern Bishops about the education of their children. But I found a text of other authors about that subject.

Ps.: Haven't u received my private message?

Philippe,

Actually, the document begins at

"Some Issues regarding the Education of Eastern Catholic children in Latin Catholic Schools

A paper co-authored by Fr Olexander Kenez and Fr Brian Kelty"


Just went looking and found it. My guess is that I opened it one of the (many) recent nights when I was having PC problems and that the PC crashed about that time. I'll look at it tonight and get back to you (at the moment, I'm trying to disinfect this dinosaur and see if I can make it functional until I replace it next month.

Many years,

Neil