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As a Catechist in the Latin Church, I tell you its hard to get kids to Catechism classes if not for the Sacraments. I hate the fact that you have to hold the Sacraments hostage to force them to attend Catechism, but that is the reality we are faced with. Some Catechists even want to petition the Archbishop to raise the age of Confirmation by 2 years because they stop going to class after they receive Confirmation.

As for the UGCC, our parish does a great job with the kids. The kids attend, and we do celebrate "First Solemn Communion" which is kind of their first Communion at the age of reason. The Sisters do a great job in teaching the kids and they double it as a Ukrainian Heritage School as well so the kids learn about Ukrainian Culture as well as Ukrainian spirituality which makes the parents want the kids to attend more. Although I don't know how I'd handle it if my kid comes of age to attend. We're not Ukrainians and I'd rather him learn Filipino culture. Plus being a Catechist, I can teach him myself but I think having a teacher reinforce teaching to him would help a lot.

That's a bit strange since Bishop +Peter is a big proponent of returning to the authentic tradition and I know they commune infants at the cathedral in Melbourne. In our Eparchy it was mandated years ago not to separate the reception of the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist from the baptism and chrismation.

Some people do still dress up the kids for the first Confession and one occasionally hears the strange term "First Solemn Communion" for that occasion, wich makes no sense either.

It is hard to expunge Latinizations once they take hold.

Great post.

Unfortunately the problem is that when a Church has moved away from the authentic tradition and then wants to go back to what they moved away from, the problem no one can recall what the authentic tradition is, no one is that old to have experienced it. We still have a whole raft of Latinisations across the board because the clergy and people of the eparchy think their Latinisations are good UGCC Liturgy and Services and the genuine article. Basically they know no better than what they were brought up with. So Liturgy on the weekdays of Lent is all the go, as is baptism by pouring, confession in an RC confessional through a screen and kneeling all through liturgy. In the church I attend only about 1/2 a dozen stand at the kneeling parts out of a congregation of about 55-60.

Its hard to go back to old traditions, truly. The only way to do so is set up a parish where parishioners all want the authentic traditions. You can't force the current parishioners to accept the old traditions over the ones that they are used to. For example, we have problems getting everyone to use the Anthology. Most parishioners are on the upper scale of age and would rather stick with the music sets they grew up with rather than a new standard. If thats already a big hurdle, imagine yanking the pews from underneath their rear ends, literally and figuratively.

What makes it hard is they are taking on current Latin prcatices. In the Latin Rite here everyone goes up to communion but if they dont actually want communion they cross their arms over the chest and the person if a Priest makes the sign of the cross over them or, if a Special Minister of Holy Communion traces the cross on their forehead. This is now done in the UGCC church I attend. The Sister Servants are always going to Mass in Latin Churches and picking up new ideas. The Basilians and the SSMI are a big part of the Latinising problem in the UGCC down under. As one SSMI sister said to me, that after the Council they had to go and do courses on their own tradition, as they really did not know what it is (still dont from all I have seen of them). They after all are a form of religious expression totally out of the Latin Rite in structure and dress.

I'm sure it can be done. Is St. Elias in Ontario did it, why can't others follow? Of course the difference in Ontario is that there are a ton of Ukainian parishes. If people want to stick to something Latinized then they go to another parish not too far away. The problem with areas where there are not a lot of parishes, you introduce the traditional way of doing things at the risk of alienating your current parishioners. Where do they go? And where do you find parishioners who are seeking the traditional way? Its a hard especially for smaller communities.