EIN HARGLWYDDES SEREN Y MôR –
OUR LADY STAR OF THE SEA – LLANDUDNO
Fr Jones’s Newsletter - Sunday 18 January 2009
Dear Parishoner,
There was a lot of talk about Aunty Mary at the Pastoral Council meeting last Tuesday. She’s a “rum lass” (as they say in Lancashire) is Aunty Mary. She often lives in Ireland or Australia or the USA; there’s just no telling where she will be coming from. She hasn’t done the parish a lot of good, hasn’t Aunty Mary.
You will remember that I called this Pastoral Council meeting to discuss the Parish’s Year of the Child, to enquire into why the majority of the children of the Parish are not attending Mass and what we can do about it. It was, as always, a very good meeting and some promising decisions were reached.
We decided to focus our attention particularly on the reception of the Sacraments of Baptism and First Holy Communion. Both these Sacraments involve not only the children but, in a sense more importantly, the young parents. The Council was unanimous in its conviction that it is the parents whom we must influence if their children are to practise their Faith.
Baptism is the key Sacrament, but Baptism is the victim of a double whammy these days. It is being clobbered by the general lack of faith in so many of our young parents; and it is being misused by some of them as an opportunity for something else.
With the general decline in marriage, both inside the Church and outside, many, perhaps a majority of young people are simply cohabiting, living together with their partner. One partner quietly moves in with the other and the thing is done. No fuss. No ceremony. But, equally, no public recognition. The opportunity of making a public showing of their relationship presents itself when the baby comes along. Sometimes , therefore, the baby is baptised, not because the parents really care much about the effects of Baptism, but because they want to be seen publicly together as a couple. The result is that the reception afterwards, a scaled down wedding reception if you like, is the more important element in the proceedings.
Many guests are present, not because they are there to witness this astonishing thing that God does to us, but to attend the reception afterwards. This is a terrible abuse of a Sacrament. This is certainly not always the case, but it is certainly the case frequently.
Baptism must be recognised for what it is and celebrated accordingly. The Pastoral Council therefore decided that we will revert to a practice that I introduced soon after I came here, but which was sabotaged by Aunty Mary.
In those days, and from now on, baptisms will take place on the last Sunday of the month, with two preparatory sessions beforehand. If Aunty Mary can’t make it from Manchester, or Ireland or Portugal for that Sunday, then, God bless her, we will have to go on without her. It was the good heartedness of your Parish Priest who always tried to accommodate Aunty Mary which made the system collapse. If the Baptisms are all on different Sundays then the community preparation for the Sacrament cannot be sustained. And this is precisely what happened.
In the course of the month, the family seeking the baptism of their child, will be visited by me in their own home. Then, in the course of the month there will be a second session in Stella Maris, with myself and our, soon to be formed, Baptism Team. The child will be received into the Community on the Sunday before the Baptism (as we do now) and after the Baptism, one of the Team will take the certificate to the family when it is ready and try to keep in touch, supporting the family in whatever way he/she can in terms of the Catholic upbringing of the child.
Several children baptised together is in accordance with the mind of the Church. It creates friendships and community and expresses the fact that Baptism is never a private affair but a wondrous entry into the whole family of God.
I have run out of space to tell you what the Pastoral Council decided about preparing our children for their First Holy Communion. I will tell you about that next week.
God bless you,
Fr Antony Jones