Two thumbs up for Fr. Gary LeMoine from Assumption Church in Barnesville, MN. He apparently delayed the Sacrament of Confirmation for a 17-year-old boy who posted this photo on Facebook.
The ignorant Huffington Post called the Sacrament a "rite of passage" and is attacking the priest, of course. But Confirmation is a lot more than that. It is the strengthening of our Baptismal promises to reject Satan and all his empty works and promises.
It is the duty of the parish priest to affirm that a candidate is ready for the Sacrament and prepared to fight for the faith. How could Fr. LeMoine, in good conscience, say that this young man is ready to defend his Catholic faith when he is publicly defending evil and showing that he either does not know the faith or rejects a particular doctrine (which is the definition of heresy). He is not doing God's work and is obviously proud of it. No matter how sincere he is (his faith may have been formed by cafeteria Catholic parents), he is sincerely wrong, and no priest worthy of the name disciple of Christ should let this young man receive Confirmation unless he repudiates his heretical belief, a belief he is publicly professing in this photo. Pray for his conversion and for his mom who proclaims her "shock." I wish I thought she was shocked by her son't behavior, but I suspect she was shocked that any priest would dare to say her child isn't ready to receive the sacrament. After all, these days we are supposed to be the Church of Nice where everyone can do whatever he wants and call it holy.
If you would like to send a message of support to Fr. LeMoine, and I urge you to do so, go here.
Especially pray for the mom's repentance. Her soul is in grave danger of damnation for dereliction of her duty as educator to this poorly-educated boy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in charge of RE for the 7th - 12th graders (which included Confirmation prep) my pastor always listened to me. If this young man had been in my class, I would have recommended that he wait for Confirmation and my pastor would have agreed.
ReplyDeleteHuff & Puff getting something wrong? Be still my beating heart. /sarc
Well, this is a hot topic at my house as our 8th grade son has informed us that he does not want to be confirmed and while he continues to attend religion class and will attend Mass with us "out of respect for our beliefs" he no longer participates (his grade is a Zero, which is pulling down his whole GPA and he does not receive Communion). Reasoned discussion, prayer, and meetings with our DRE and priest have all been to no avail. I'd like to know exactly what Restore DC thinks the mother should do or what WE should do in this situation. As our Pastor said, you can lead a child to the Altar, but you can not make him partake. He is not alone. There are 8 kids out of a class of about 95 who have stopped preparations. And it is worth noting that our older children are all confirmed abut who knows how this will affect our younger children?
ReplyDeleteSad situation in all of this . I have 4 adult children , over 30 that no longer participate in the Catholic Faith and no longer attend Holy Mass, well 2 of them "might" go on Easter and Christmas , I don't ask anymore!
ReplyDeleteBut there is always HOPE and I continue to PRAY daily for there re-version back to the Holy Catholic Church and for there Eternal Salvation and beg the intercession of St. Augustine and St. Monica! To God be the Glory .
Let us continue to BEG the good GOD for Mercy on all of mankind!
Dear Mom,
ReplyDeleteI hear the cry of your heart. I'm glad I read this before I went to Mass because I offered it for your son and your family. You sound 180 degrees away from the mom in the story who clearly does not accept certain teachings of the Church. So she has trained her son to dissent. Very sad.
As for your own situation, sometimes we moms can only pray, fast, and suffer for our children like St. Monica did for St. Augustine. Your son is obviously not a hypocrite. I'm presuming he goes to a Catholic school since you talk about him getting a zero in religion. Assure him that if he is searching for truth he'll find it, but searching is serious business.
We are living in challenging times. Of my own five children only one did not struggle with accepting the faith. I asked him once if he ever went through a period of not believing and he did not. Why? I have no idea. But we went through some very difficult times that your comment brought back to mind -- painfully. Now our children are all parents themselves raising their children in the faith, thank God.
I don't know that you want any advice from me; forgive me if I'm overstepping. But I would ask your younger children to pray for their brother. If you are not saying the family rosary, perhaps you could have an evening decade before bed. I also think our kids are lacking heroes. Having a movie night with films of the saints might help. I love The Reluctant Saint (http://www.amazon.com/The-Reluctant-Saint-Maximilian-Schell/dp/B002QXOYQK) about St. Joseph of Cupertino. There are great films about St. Damien de Veuster. Song of Bernadette is a classic. The film about the Cristeros, For Greater Glory, is violent but appropriate for parents to watch with older children and explain.
The times we live in are confusing. Why would our children not be confused? The role of parents is demeaned by all the institutions that used to respec them. Prayer,, perseverance, and the sacraments are a parent's mainstay. And remember, "If you raise a child in the way of the Lord when he OLD he will not depart from it." Remember how long St. Monica had to pray for St. Augustine and don't lose heart.
One last thought. I think our commitment to the pro-life cause was an anchor. One of my daughters mentioned that when I asked her why she thought she and her siblings still practice the faith. Perhaps praying at an abortion mill with your younger children during a 40 Days for Life campaign would help cement their love for the giver of life.
I'm asking our Poor Clares to pray for your family.
"Be ye hot or cold"--which is worse? Refusing to receive the sacrament of confirmation or receiving it as a "rite of passage" to please adults with no real fervor? I would think of this as an opportunity for the whole family to take a good look at what Catholics believe and maybe even what others believe. I think most children are much more capable of total dedication of themselves than adults, even heroism. What I've noticed though is most lack the knowledge to truly love God and their Catholic faith.
ReplyDeleteIf this were to happen with one of my children, I think we would step back and focus on learning more. Religious education should be a requirement as much as any other education so while a child must decide about whether or not to receive the sacrament, in my opinion, he should be required to learn about the faith every single year he is living at home. After all, the first catechism question "why did God make you?" was answered with, "to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next". A parent's job is to build that foundation of knowledge and model God's love so that a child can choose to love and serve out in the world. Be encouraged--if your son feels secure enough in your love to choose his own path right now, he has already learned a lot about the love of his heavenly Father. AND those who are "cold" are much more likely than those who are lukewarm to catch on fire for the Lord!
One more thought: the world is a seductive place for us all, but particularly so for a young person. Dr William Marra (RIP) was a wonderful apologist for homeschooling and used to say, when asked why someone might consider such a step that the first moral principle is to "do no evil." Therefore, if there is no good school available to a family, letting your children sit around the kitchen table playing cards all day (OK, a bit facetious) is preferable to keeping them in a harmful environment. This won't guarantee there will never be a rebellion but it will certainly cut down on the percentage of children who do.
ReplyDeleteI just read about this on the news on my computer. Sad to say some young people just get confirmed for the gifts and the party. The bishops made a big mistake, though, when they let notorious pro abortion politicians and others take Communion and act like they were Catholics in good standing when they were pushing just about every vice the Church forbids. I guess, nevertheless, clamping down on allowing the Sacrament to those who do not really believe in Church teaching and dissidents is better late than never.
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