Clerical abuse!

[ONeill]

Lads you appear to be getting mixed up here. Are you saying that God does not exist?

You seem to be of the simplistic belief that no catholic faith = God doesn't exist.

[Dougal Maguire]

No, far from it. I gave up on the Catholic Church some time ago. I still believe there is a God but I don't see the Catholic Church as the only way of getting to Him.

[ONeill]

I don't understand your previous post then.

[Dougal Maguire]

Well you were making comparisons with believing in Santa and that's what confused me

[Tony Baloney]

But I mean from a father to child. I don't feel aggrieved atall that I went through the FC and Confirmation craic. Looking back, it was a bit like Santa. I'm thinking of doing it because it ties in with the concept of comfort and helps them to understand, at a simplistic level, life and death. (until they can make up their own minds).

Ah right, have you now. Hard one for me to answer, as I don't have kids but the school and the child's friends will have a bigger bearing on it than the parents or the Church. The kid will usually want to do it and I'd say dead on. If the kid says "I don't want to", I would not tell them that they have to.

Is FC optional?!

[ONeill]

Yep.

[Tony Baloney]

Did not know that. Have times changed or has it always been optional?

[Dougal Maguire]

The crimes which the Catholic Church has committed in this country over the years, and indeed the power that it held over the people, are unbelievable. The story of the 1943 Cavan Industrial School fire is one example. The awful part of this sorry story is the case of the McKiernan sisters who perished in the fire. They had been placed in the Industrial school by the local priest who came to their house 2 weeks after their mother died to take them away on the grounds that it was not appropriate for their father to look after them.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/scannal/cavanfire.html

[ONeill]

Did not know that. Have times changed or has it always been optional?

I can't find any online confirmation of that. Can a catholic school expel a child because they won't do FC? I'd be surprised.

[Tony Baloney]

Did not know that. Have times changed or has it always been optional?

If you don't turn up, they don't have much choice....

How can the "Catholic" part of attending a CCMS school be optional? It was the school did all the running when I was a buck, has this changed too?

[ONeill]

Well you were making comparisons with believing in Santa and that's what confused me

That was a simplified version of the debate.

A child will believe in Santa because their ma tells him/her that he exists.
A Catholic will believe in God because the Catholic Church tells him/her that he exists.

It then comes down to trust.

A child will trust his/her ma.
A Catholic will trust his/her Church.

This brings us to what we first disagreed with -

If the Catholic no longer trusts his/her Church, all they were taught by his/her Church is up in the air.

No - that's not my take. Santa and the RC faith are both heavily parentally lead. Your school/church only feed off that.

[ONeill]

Did not know that. Have times changed or has it always been optional?

If you don't turn up, they don't have much choice....

How can the "Catholic" part of attending a CCMS school be optional? It was the school did all the running when I was a buck, has this changed too?

I'm aware of parents with children in CCMS schools (for geographical reasons) who refused FC participation.

[Orior]

Hardstation, you believe because you are told to believe?

Havent you worked it out yourself?

I understand that a priest is only a medium or messenger of the Word in which we believe. And the Church the grouping of believers. So giving up on your religion should have nothing to do with priests. Rather, it is an abandonment of your belief.

[Orior]

Hardstation, you believe because you are told to believe?

Erm, yes.

Had I grown up never hearing about God, I would have worked it out on my own?

What planet do you live on?

Correct. If you lived in the jungle on your own, then you wouldnt have heard of religion. Thats why the Church employs messengers.

*Touches floor*

Hardstation, I'm on planet Carpet Earth

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Hardstation, you believe because you are told to believe?

Erm, yes.

Had I grown up never hearing about God, I would have worked it out on my own?

What planet do you live on?

Correct. If you lived in the jungle on your own, then you wouldnt have heard of religion. Thats why the Church employs messengers propagandists/brainwashers/ indoctrin(e)ators   

*Touches floor*

Hardstation, I'm on planet Carpet EarthOrk