Last year we had a nightmare when school families all selected the Saturday afternoon Mass. It turned into brouhaha because they didn’t see the larger picture.

I understand the desire to put families together that know eachother but what a great way for families to bond with others – to be a part of this special day for their children?

Not glad anyone else faces this but… glad to know it’s not just parents here that need education on the PARISH process.

The biggest stumbling block (in addition to the parents not understanding the community nature of the sacraments) that we have had to integrating the students from the school and the RE program is a sense of entitlement among the Parish school parents. Some, certainly not all, feel that because they pay tuition and make sacrifices for their children to attend the parish school that they should be treated specially. I understand this impulse because my son is in the parish school, too, but this notion that somehow because a child goes to the parish school that they are “better” than their public school counterparts is a frustrating thing to have to deal with.

A DRE cannot effectively shift attitudes alone. The pastor of the parish needs to be the one who initiates and explains this change, addressing these issues in his homily, at parent meetings and in his bulletin columns. It also cannot be overstated how important the full, unequivocal support of the school principal is. If the principal of the school is not vocally supportive of this type of intiative it can fracture a parish–maybe not seriously–but there will be a fissure.