Does the Church Value Children?
In my last post I was quoting from Mark and how the disciples scolded the parents who tried to push their children forward to be taught by Jesus, and how Jesus rebuked the disciples. Jesus really really valued children. But dos the Church of today value them?
This lack of care really struck me during the Synod on the Family and the subsequent criticism of Amoris Laetitia. Oner section of the Church was only interested in whether or not divorced and remarried people could go to Holy Communion and another section was upset by the thought that perhaps because the Pope asked priests to accompany the divorced and remarried to open the possibiity of a return it meant there was a conspiracy to change the teachings. Yet the Pope spoke about this in relation to children. I never read the document that way. I was concerned about the suffering of children that I have often been derided for before the Synod and after the Synod. But in all the discussion I read, talks that I heard, the children were never mentioned. So the members of our communities, clergy and laity, are no more interested in children than the disciples were.
Yet there is much in Amoris Laetitia which could help us understand the needs of these children. In 239 the Pope talks bout the psychological immaturity that adults often bring into a marriage because of their experiences in childhood of hurt, frustration and unfulfilled needs. They lack the maturity for marriage. In 240 he talks about the problems of children leaving childhood without having had the experience of unconditional love. It is a good professional approach to the issues but perhaps we need to give the bones of the theory flesh and blood to help us recognise just who he is talking about. This I have done in my previous post and indeed just put your head outside the front door of any Church and you will find them.
But what can we do? We did not create this situation? But, yes, we did!! We changed the teaching of the Catholic Faith and the teachings of Christ on morality in the Catholic Schools. After ten years of teaching 95% of Catholic Children find that the Church is of no importance. It does not speak to them about anything that is really important in their lives. And having lost them at an early age why should the Church be concerned that they do no want to marry in a Catholic Church? What can they do to change this. The majority just live together, separate, share the children in some situations but not in the majority of cases. Solutions to anything are only found if we look at, examine, and really get to the heart of a problem. Unfortunately over the past forty years nobody wants to look at the problems, especially since we may find guilt, so we huff and we puff, we pretend everything is well and we are all doing a wonderful job and people like us, etc, etc, etc, Unfortunately there will come a day when we will have to explain to Jesus why we made a mess.
This lack of care really struck me during the Synod on the Family and the subsequent criticism of Amoris Laetitia. Oner section of the Church was only interested in whether or not divorced and remarried people could go to Holy Communion and another section was upset by the thought that perhaps because the Pope asked priests to accompany the divorced and remarried to open the possibiity of a return it meant there was a conspiracy to change the teachings. Yet the Pope spoke about this in relation to children. I never read the document that way. I was concerned about the suffering of children that I have often been derided for before the Synod and after the Synod. But in all the discussion I read, talks that I heard, the children were never mentioned. So the members of our communities, clergy and laity, are no more interested in children than the disciples were.
Yet there is much in Amoris Laetitia which could help us understand the needs of these children. In 239 the Pope talks bout the psychological immaturity that adults often bring into a marriage because of their experiences in childhood of hurt, frustration and unfulfilled needs. They lack the maturity for marriage. In 240 he talks about the problems of children leaving childhood without having had the experience of unconditional love. It is a good professional approach to the issues but perhaps we need to give the bones of the theory flesh and blood to help us recognise just who he is talking about. This I have done in my previous post and indeed just put your head outside the front door of any Church and you will find them.
But what can we do? We did not create this situation? But, yes, we did!! We changed the teaching of the Catholic Faith and the teachings of Christ on morality in the Catholic Schools. After ten years of teaching 95% of Catholic Children find that the Church is of no importance. It does not speak to them about anything that is really important in their lives. And having lost them at an early age why should the Church be concerned that they do no want to marry in a Catholic Church? What can they do to change this. The majority just live together, separate, share the children in some situations but not in the majority of cases. Solutions to anything are only found if we look at, examine, and really get to the heart of a problem. Unfortunately over the past forty years nobody wants to look at the problems, especially since we may find guilt, so we huff and we puff, we pretend everything is well and we are all doing a wonderful job and people like us, etc, etc, etc, Unfortunately there will come a day when we will have to explain to Jesus why we made a mess.
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