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Must Parents Be Certified?
Some diocesan
guidelines are claiming parents must be
certified catechists
to prepare their own
children for the sacraments. The natural and divine
rights to educate are already provided in marriage.
According to the teachings of the Church, a parent's
diocesan certification as a catechist is
not required. Any
guidelines or policy statements that imply or state this
is so violate natural and divine law, the traditions of
the Church, her encyclicals, Canon Law, etc.
Both natural law and the
Sacrament of Matrimony is the
required certification. Parents married in the
Church must remember their marriage is a sacrament - one
of the seven given by God through His Church. This bond
is "...strengthened and, as
it were, consecrated for the duties and the
dignity of their state by a special
sacrament. (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 1638). Since marriage has been
elevated to a sacrament, it can be elevated no further.
To imply otherwise is to denigrate God's law.
There is
no need for policy statements and guidelines
concerning these rights if
the diocese is obedient to the Magisterium. For if the
diocese is obedient to the Magisterium, then it will know
the rights, duties and obligations inherent in the
Sacrament of Matrimony which includes the total education
of children. Parents are first and foremost educators and
all others are secondary. This truth bases
itself on the law
of subsidiarity which the
Church has always affirmed. This law basically states
that any assistance or help comes from the first or
"lowest" level and in this case that level is parental
authority.
The Holy Father , Pope John
Paul II, wrote in Catechesis Tradendae:
Family catechesis
therefore
precedes,
accompanies,
and
enriches
all other forms of
catechesis.
The Pope
continues:
...in places where
widespread unbelief or invasive secularism makes real
religious growth practically impossible, the "Church of
the home" remains the one place where children and young
people can receive an authentic catechesis. Thus, there
cannot be too great an effort on the part of Christian
parents to prepare for this ministry of being their
own children's
catechists
and to carry it would
with tireless zeal. (#68)
Parents,
and no one else, are the
sole
judges in deciding
what they
consider to be
"widespread unbelief or invasive secularism" or what they
determine could be detrimental to their children's
religious growth. If the Magisterium, the Pope in his
allocutions and encyclicals, the pastoral documents of
Vatican II, and Canon Law give the right to
educate "in
accord with the conscience of the parents"
(Canon 799), how can
anyone usurp that right?
The successful implementation
of guidelines
which usurp, deny
or marginalize
parental rights depends on
three
things from
parents: first,
their trust;
second, their lack
of knowledge concerning the finer points of Church
Law; and
third, the
Catholic tendency to have an ingrained respect even for
perceived
authority.
Please See
Guideline
Example, Cardinal Gagnon Comments on Parents, "Approved"
Texts, Doctrine
Must
Parents Enter a Written Agreement with the Parish?(A Look at
Chicago)
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