Friday, February 08, 2008

Ash Wednesday School Lunch: Turkey

Moaning about our local Catholic Secondary Schools seems to be becoming a habit of mine but one or two parents were a little shocked that their children were offered turkey on Ash Wednesday.
If they can't even get abstinence right, we might as well just give in, open the gates and let in the barbarian hordes in and go home. Not much point in talking about the Trinity or the Incarnation, if the very air of an institution is filled with roasting flesh on a Fast Day.
It most probably explains why most of the younger people who attend Mass here on a Sunday have had nothing to do with a Catholic Secondary School in this country, I am beginning to think most are actually counter-productive, a danger to the faith.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

As always, Father: nail-head-hit!

The majority of teenagers who are at Mass here on Sundays are those who are attending secular schools.

Of course, they also decline to have anything to do with events organised by the Diocesan Yoof Thingie (it keeps changing its name in accordance with the latest fad that the ageing hippies who run it have embraced).

Hopefully, they will keep the Faith and pass it onto their heirs!

Fr Ray Blake said...

Anonymous, I put my name to this blog, have the courage to use yours!

Adrienne said...

Well now I want to know what Anon said!

Our local Catholic school does not have a catechism on the premises because it is too "devisive"

You know how it goes - some of the kids (alot) come from divorced homes or their parents don't take them to church on Sunday. We sure don't want to make the kids feeeeeeel bad, do we? So, they color pictures and are told Jesus looooves them - yes He does. Bleh!

Anonymous said...

The schools are a constant worry..

Anonymous said...

This is all so very sad. What an example to the children. Trying to be kind to the authorities, I wonder whether there was a choice of food for the children and this gave them the opportunity of refusing the meat?

Anonymous said...

The turkey seems pretty bad but of more concern are the moral choices behingd the recent saackings and resignation at the "local secondary school".
Here is a nasty bag of morals and actions which are far from Catholic.

gemoftheocean said...

Father if you'll supply the name of the school in question, I'd be delighted to see they get a coveted "HA Award."

Karen

Anonymous said...

This is sad - assuming it wasn't a genuine mistake. My sister has started home schooling with her oldest son because she wants him to grow up in his Catholic faith instead of 'jumping up and down' at what passes for the Holy Mass and singing silly songs - they were being taught to do this at school. Home schooling is not an option for everyone, but if you are able to do it, give it a go. Bro. Anselm (sorry can't work the 'google blogger thing')

Fr Ray Blake said...

Karen,
Names are not helpful.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know about Catholic homeschooling in the UK? What support is there?

Anonymous said...

Only "beginning to think"?

Must not have been thinking about it very long.

Anonymous said...

I'm personally very against homeschooling for several reasons.

(1) you go to school not just to learn education but also to learn the social skills of mixing and getting on with randomly selected strangers with all its ups and most importantly downs.

(2) Unless you are very rich you will struggle to match the resources the school has.

(3) I get the impression that homeschooling types are trying to pretend the modern world does not exist. I don't want my kids to be Catholic Amish.

My kids are going to secular schools plus sunday school at church. I think this is a better way to prepare them for life when they are over 18 when they will find they are in a small minority of catholics in the world.

Admittedly I live in a rural area and the schools are good but I grew up in an inner city "catholic" comprehensive.

Physiocrat said...

Most of my neighbours are of the usual secular persuasion and they are not keen on sending their children to any of the local schools and neither would I be if I had any children. For a start, the children get into bad company and Gresham's Law applies - the bad drives out the good.

Schools just indoctrinate the younger generation into the currently fashionable stupid thinking. And drive out their natural creativity and make them into obliging docile employees who won't cause trouble. Nothing new about that. I have got my uncle's excercise books dated 1912 and it is obvious that the children were having their heads filled up with rubbish so that a generation would be willing to become cannon fodder and march towards the machine guns in the trenches a couple of years later.

Fr Michael Brown said...

At our curial offices on Ash Wednesday there was a large spread of food in the tea room. This sometimes happens if there has been a meeting with lunch and food is left over. Needless to say the spread included meat. I could only assume that it was put there to test the diocesan employees and win them more merit by resisting such grave temptation.

joannaB73 said...

I remember my Catholic junior school - we always ahd fish on FRidays or cheese pie - but it was long time ago, so I can't rememebr what we had on Ash Wednesday and after that I went to a secular secondary school.

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