...en route to a Confirmation class where I was due to give a talk. Trying to cross a busy road, I stepped back, realising that I was being stupid and must wait for the traffic lights...a fellow pedestrian grinned and said something about not risking one's life. "It's daft, really" I admitted "But I'm running a bit late - I'm meant to be at a Confirmation class!" "At the church?" he asked, and offered me a lift as his car was parked not far away. Turned out to be a parishioner. Actually, it would be just as quick to walk, so I thanked him and we parted cheerily and I hurried off...but somehow the encounter gave the evening a happy start.
Rows of faces...prayers, with everyone standing up and turning to a great crucifix hanging on the wall, young voices chorusing together. When you begin the talk, you watch as they slowly change and get involved: at first they don't know whether or not it's OK to smile, and no one likes to be the first to raise a hand in response to a question, and they take a while to lose that "oh-I'm-so-cool-I don't-need-to-look-interested" face - but then things get going. It was a good session. But later, in informal talk, it was clear that many were shocked that I had mentioned - in a passing remark - that it was dreadful that the Govt was imposing on us the idea that two people of the same sex could marry. Out came the parroted slogans "But if two people love each other - " "People are just born gay, aren't they?" They find it hard to think in wider terms. They are very young. It honestly all reminded me of seeing a Soviet film which showed children indoctrinated in ideology, brightly parroting slogans "Socialism is the big answer!" "Socialism means justice!" Fortunately, this particular crowd of young people is blessed with fine priests and good catechists, and will learn much and have doors opened to a wider spiritual and moral vision...but, oh, the sadness as one ponders the reality of the future for most young people in today's Britain...
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a few weeks back I was chatting with some friends who are life long Catholics. We came to the consensus we would all have felt the same if we were in our teens now, and suspect we would have felt the same even back in the 70s.
However, we're all still here, as is Mother Church. As you say, our young people have good priests and catechists to guide them.
I have every faith some of them will also guide the young in years to come.
What I do to get participation is "hands up" to some non-threatening question. E.g., "hands up anyone who's a member of a club". Then you pick on one or two and say "what club are you a member of?", again non-threatening.
Then of course that leads to deeper questions about confirmation as "membership".
Is it really they or you who cannot think in wider terms?
Their questions are good ones and deserve to be answered, not just dismissed because they are not orthodoxly Catholic.
Agree with Savonarola. It really does beg the question as to who exactly has become indoctrinated here. You or the children. One can only hope they continue on in the same healthy vein as now - i.e - the charitable, kind, thoughtful human beings they appear to be. And far from what you consider to be the sad future for the young people of Britain - and this from the vantage point of someone now in their sixties - I can only applaud their open-mindedness, and sincerely wish there had been more of that around when I was their age. Plus - in passing - re: your Soviet Film analogy - a little political education might not go amiss as you appear to be getting your socialism & Marxism muddled. I think most reasonable people would agree that socialism, however imperfect, has done far more to bring about social justice and equality around the world than any amount of capitalism or conservative religious ideology, etc -
Dear Savronarola
Oh you silly chap...of course the questions were answered, and will be asked and answered again over the next weeks. That is what a Confirmation class is for! Goodness me...I don't know how you think such a class should be run, but among normal people. questions are asked and answered, with lots of discussion and everyone learning something. The point I was making is that the children did not really understand the issues at all, and were parroting slogans with a sort of sad obedience to an official line. It was distressingly clear that they had never been presented with any other viewpoint until they had encountered it that evening. It is, of course, the Church's mission to proclaim the truth and allow it to become part of our lives, to ponder it, to allow it to refresh our hearts and souls...and that involves encouraging questions, especially from the young...
And dear Anonymous: I printed your Comment because it is so gloriously typical of a tragic mindset. The children may indeed be charitable, kind, and thoughtful - which is precisely why it is so cruel that they are being fed horrid slogans about marriage. It is a joy to teach these young people and to help them to discover the freedom that is to be found in learning about man and God, and how much God loves us all, and why his plans for us are beautiful and liberating.
Hi Joanna. I had the same experience with my Confirmation group. The following week's speaker came- a Deacon who is also a practising pathologist. He gave them scientific and medical facts, research that is printed in medical and psychiatric journals that is never published in the media. And he stated that the Church's teaching is not refuted by science- quite the reverse. The Deacon/pathologist also speaks to the parents alongside a priest who also happens to be a pyschotherapist.But of course in our secular culture the facts which they in their professional capacity can validate are censored in the media.
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