Who is Responsible for the Catholic Education of your Children?

Who is responsible for the Catholic Education of your children?   When I grew up it was assumed that the responsibility lay with the priest and the schools.   It seemed to work very well and the parents were satisfied, but then they never questioned what their role was.     They took their children to Mass on Sunday, they talked to their children about the saints in heaven, about the Sacred Heart of Jesus and what it meant, they had statues of Mary in their houses, and many said the Rosary.   But they never saw this as 'education', that belonged to the educated teachers and priests.   But their role as educators was vital.    Now that worked really well however when the Church really was a 'community',  In many parts of the UK children grew up in the same areas their parents had grown up,  their parents had gone to the same schools, their teachers were also living in he same areas and attended and led them in the Sunday Childrens Mass, explaining what was happening on the altar and leading them in prayers and hymns.   There was a very strong Catholic identity.  

It was after the war that things changed.   The provisions of adequate housing, where children actually had baths and inside toilets meant that the Community was broken up and they went to live in different housing schemes, and that close knitted community was in the past.

The Church never really recovered from that destruction of community.   With the new housing came a new wealth and new thinking that attacked the position of the Church in peoples lives.    No longer was religion a priority in the home but rather something old fashioned and irrelevant.  Those who sought to bring 'community' back to the Church were more political minded than ecclesial minded and sought to bring back people by undermining the sacred and presenting a Church which we could fit into our lives, and the priests were initially, though things are changing, taught to agree with everyone while they built a more acceptable Church for the age we live in.   It was of course an absolute disaster, nevertheless they carry on like the King with his New clothes as the story goes, pretending all is well and looking the other way.

But where does this leave parents?   Just as there are 40 shades of Green there are 40 shades of Catholicism.   Parents who want the correct shade can no longer rely on the schools or the clergy.   Until such times as their confidence is regained they will have to be the Educatrs of their Children.   When priests say that we no longer should say "The Catholic Curch alone is the True Church" we should take the Catechism of the Catholic Church and tell them different, or when the practice of Confession is not being practiced we should go to confession and take our children, explaining that when we receive Jesus we should be pleasing to Him in body and soul.    We should take our children to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and tell them that in the Tabernacle there is Jesus Christ and they should make Him their best friend and talk to him about their problems and anxieties at school and with their friends, to ask him for a greater love for him and for their parents and brothers and sisters.   Tell him how sorry they are if they were disobedient, tell him of their hopes in life and ask for his help.  Teach them that Jesus is a friend who listens and because he loves them so much will give them so much help in their lives.

This is Catholic Education at its best, and only the parents can do this.    So parents ask for God's help and teach your children to 'know God, love God, and serve God in this life and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.