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I've been growing steadily less happy with my parish for some time now. It isn't a single thing, but more an accumulation of little irritations that have left me feeling that the parish really isn't a good fit for me. I've been tempted to just attend mass elsewhere, but with my daughters enrolled in CCD classes*, it is generally more convenient to attend the mass right before the classes on Sunday morning.
Last week, I opened the registration package for next year's CCD program and was rather irritated to find that there will be NO Sunday CCD classes next school year. According to the letter "it is an untenable position to teach our students that missing Holy Mass on Sundays is a mortal sin while tacitly accepting the fact that some CCD students habitually miss Holy Mass or come in at the end of Holy Mass in order to attend religious education". So, those parents who conscientiously take their children to the earlier or later Masses to ensure that they can attend CCD will be punished because some parents can't be bothered. I'd be willing to bet that many of the children in CCD that don't attend Mass under the current schedule will continue to miss Mass under the new schedule.
Next school year, CCD classes will only be offered on Monday and Wednesday evenings. While our evenings are not entirely filled with other activities, we have no way of predicting when our daughters' soccer teams will have their practices scheduled next fall (let alone next spring), and there is at least a 1 in 4 chance we will have a conflict regardless which class we enroll in. I do not want to be placed in a situation where I have to choose between CCD and other activities, especially when it is perfectly possible to schedule CCD on Sunday mornings when we would have zero chance of conflicts.
This has brought me to the point of exploring other parish options. If I can find a nearby parish that offers a Sunday CCD option, I will be seriously considering changing parishes, which will be a hassle and will probably increase by travel time each week. However, the ability to ensure that my daughters can continue to attend CCD without having to deal with conflicts with other activities may well be worth the effort. Unfortunately, my older daughter has become active in our current parish's Classical Youth Schola and is enjoying learning to sing Gregorian Chant, so that becomes yet another complication in this decision.
My first step is to make some calls to the neighboring parishes to see what my options are. If none of them offer Sunday CCD, then I guess I'll have no options. Otherwise, I'll have a tough decision to make.
[*Note to non-Catholic readers: CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) is the name used by the Catholic Church for its school-aged religious education program]
Last week, I opened the registration package for next year's CCD program and was rather irritated to find that there will be NO Sunday CCD classes next school year. According to the letter "it is an untenable position to teach our students that missing Holy Mass on Sundays is a mortal sin while tacitly accepting the fact that some CCD students habitually miss Holy Mass or come in at the end of Holy Mass in order to attend religious education". So, those parents who conscientiously take their children to the earlier or later Masses to ensure that they can attend CCD will be punished because some parents can't be bothered. I'd be willing to bet that many of the children in CCD that don't attend Mass under the current schedule will continue to miss Mass under the new schedule.
Next school year, CCD classes will only be offered on Monday and Wednesday evenings. While our evenings are not entirely filled with other activities, we have no way of predicting when our daughters' soccer teams will have their practices scheduled next fall (let alone next spring), and there is at least a 1 in 4 chance we will have a conflict regardless which class we enroll in. I do not want to be placed in a situation where I have to choose between CCD and other activities, especially when it is perfectly possible to schedule CCD on Sunday mornings when we would have zero chance of conflicts.
This has brought me to the point of exploring other parish options. If I can find a nearby parish that offers a Sunday CCD option, I will be seriously considering changing parishes, which will be a hassle and will probably increase by travel time each week. However, the ability to ensure that my daughters can continue to attend CCD without having to deal with conflicts with other activities may well be worth the effort. Unfortunately, my older daughter has become active in our current parish's Classical Youth Schola and is enjoying learning to sing Gregorian Chant, so that becomes yet another complication in this decision.
My first step is to make some calls to the neighboring parishes to see what my options are. If none of them offer Sunday CCD, then I guess I'll have no options. Otherwise, I'll have a tough decision to make.
[*Note to non-Catholic readers: CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) is the name used by the Catholic Church for its school-aged religious education program]
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