"I can’t do this anymore. I believe it is morally wrong."

Fr. Richard Simon, Pastor of St. Lambert’s in Skokie, Illinois, is passionate about the faith:

The sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation have become graduation rituals, rites of passage, instead of the beginnings of a life of faith and commitment. We have turned sacrament into sacrilege.  When you “get your sacraments” you’re “outta” there.  (“Out of there” for those who don’t speak Chicagoan.) The Sacraments are an ending instead of a beginning. I can’t do this anymore. I believe it is morally wrong. The last time I brought this problem up, angry parents called the bishop. I remember one agitated parent who railed at me for questioning his Catholicism. He said that he was perfectly good Catholic. He went to Mass every single Easter and every single Christmas without fail.

...

 

I  no longer intend to prepare children for First Communion and Confirmation. There will no longer be First Communion and Confirmation classes. How and when will the children receive Communion and Confirmation? They will receive when they are ready. When are they ready? They are ready when they want the Sacrament. How do we know they want the Sacrament? When they understand it, can tell the pastor what it is and why they want it. If they are not in ongoing religious education and they are not coming to Mass on regular basis, they don’t want the Sacrament.

I am tired to distraction of having to chase young people down the aisles in church to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament because they have no clue what it is. A year or so back, I was offering a funeral Mass and a teenaged girl came up for Communion, took the host, looked at it, turned it over and began to walk away holding it in her palm. I followed her and asked, “Have you made your First Communion?” She said simply, “I’m Jewish.” I smiled and said, “Perhaps I should take that from you.” Quite a few of the mourners were furious with me for my discourtesy.

At another funeral not long ago I saw a passel of tattooed and pierced adolescents coming down the aisle at a funeral. It was a large funeral so a number of priests were helping with Communion. I had finished my line so I stood about ten paces from the celebrant, a visiting priest. The first of the young Goths received the host, looked at it curiously and as she passed me I asked, are you Catholic? She said, “no.” I said “Perhaps I should take that.” So there began a curious ritual, of clueless youths. One priest would say “Body of Christ and the second priest would say “I’ll just take that.”

I’ve had it. My efforts will be directed to preparing people for the Sacrament of Conversion (Maybe you call it Penance or Reconciliation. Whatever.) Then maybe the little dears will understand that Communion is more than an edible poker chip. 

The Church needs to be infected by Fr. Simon's zeal.

 

Comments

[Ed]

You're not a real 'goth' until you sack Rome..

sorry, couldn't resist..:)

[RandomThoughts]

Oh Ed, shame on you for making me laugh.

Rick, you keep posting things like this, you're making it harder and harder for me to ignore the tug of the Church on my heart.

Did I just type that?! A dozen or so generations of my Protestant ancestors are turning in their graves.

[Rick]

Uh oh RT, you're on to my schemes, what will I do now?

:)

[Truthteller3]

Wow.

The priest is right on the money.

A thought to consider: marginalization and persecution is coming for real Catholics, which will greatly shrink the number of people coming to Church and coming for sacraments. But the ones who come will be people who are on fire for Christ and willing to give their lives for Him. And that will change everything...as in the days of ancient Rome.