If your child is not Catholic

[Tiredallthetimeneedsleep]

And attends a Catholic school, do you go to Holy Mass? I'm not Catholic and have received an email invite to attend Holy Mass. I'm not sure I can go as an agency worker so not sure if I'll be working anyway. Wwyd

Not if you didn’t get in by claiming to be Catholic - anyone can go if the school isn’t over subscribed. And many children with EHCPs go to faith schools without claiming to be of that faith.

@Tiredallthetimeneedsleep You can choose to go or not, but I’m sure you’d be very welcome if you did. No one is likely to judge you either way.

My DD went to a catholic secondary school and everyone had to attend every Mass and assembly and religious festival etc it’s part of the school community

I understand what you're saying. Realistically, there have been all sorts of horrible opinions. floating around in history. It's not just the Catholic church. Society as a whole has changed.
I dont believe RC schools in the UK are teaching anything like that.

Happily lapsed Catholic, Ireland, have never in my life heard anyone call it Holy Mass. Might be different in UK.

DS is Catholic but I’m not. He went to a Catholic primary school and I went to all the services that parents were invited to.

Don't believe it.
If any school said such a thing, parents would be livid.

I agree. I can't think of anything more likely to mess with you children's heads than sending them to a Catholic school and then later tellling them yiuu hate Catholicism.
If something traumatic has happened to you, concerning Catholicism, it's important you keep it to yourself. Parents don't generally inflict 'exactly how' they have been affected by trauma on their children.
After they have left the school, it might be appropriate to hint at something of what has hapened to you. But you need to get help first to deal with yur hatred.

I also sent my child to Catholic school in Ireland, though am an atheist. I just totally ignored any religious bits and pretended they weren't happening. It was grand! If he mentioned God or anything he heard in school, I'd just say, some people do believe that, mum and dad don't.

The old time I've ever heard it called "Holy Mass' is in an old Irish tv programme from the 1960s called 'The School Around The Corner' where they interviewed very young children to basically laugh at how the kids misinterpreted things. The very young children called it 'Holy Mass' and that would have caused the audience to laugh.

There is a feast day called Holy Thursday though?

In a Catholic primary school it's like attending a class assembly. Not every parent will attend, but it's nice for your child if they do have someone there. Secondary school is different, more working parents etc, and I'd say no need to attend.

That would not be in lessons in a RC school - all the RE schemes are available for parents to see.

Have you heard that preaching in a Catholic Church?

People do say holy communion. But not holy mass.

Personally, I struggle to see how a person can make up their own system of morality. It's a lot more complicated than that. I'm sure many people who consider themselves atheists are relying on religious beliefs without realising it. After all, in our culture most rules of social morality do originate in Christianity.

I haven’t been to a CofE service but the difference is that RCs believe in transubstantiation so it’s not just a representation or memorial of Christ but his actual body and blood.

I don’t need religious rules and punishments to be a good person.

Do you live in the Uk?
It's a mainstream thing in the churches I know.

@Ponderingwindow I honestly think that’s unusual nowadays. DD (20) went to a school where there were openly gay students, it wasn’t a big deal at all. Our married gay neighbors (late 50’s) attend a local Catholic Church.

Like most religions, I imagine that there are some people with extreme, outdated beliefs and others who think differently.

DD ended up.in a Catholic school (not my first choice) and it was exceptional, the pastoral care was 100% (and made all the difference to DD).

Things like a carol service - love them, and can take part as a shared cultural experience. Mass for the sake of mass, no didn't attend and although all parents were invited there was no expectation to attend - not only faith reasons but also the practicalities of work.

DD didn't get brainwashed, we had a lot of interesting conversations and there were times we didn't agree on some things, but that is part of raising a child to think for themselves. She was exposed to different opinions and thought them through for herself, making her stronger in dealing with working it out for herself.

Yes I was thinking about bringing it up at the next parent/ teacher meeting face to face. The reason I don’t see any reason to bring it up asap as I know a couple of the other kids have opted out but they still seem to be picking up a lot of the prayers etc anyway. They say prayers at the start and the end of the day and there are crucifixes and statues all over the school so they are aware of it regardless. There are about seven or eight of them in the class that aren’t christened and won’t be making their communion but still do the religion classes so it’s not uncommon in the school.
At the moment what they are learning is very basic. God created the world, god loves his children etc. It’s not specifically catholic as yet, just Christian. I don’t believe what they’ve learned personally as an adult (although I’ve put a lot of thought into it over the years) but I’m fairly open minded and obviously I don’t know for certain that it’s not true, plus I think a lot of people really benefit from having religious beliefs so I wouldn’t tell my dc that it’s categorically untrue because I don’t know that. Maybe they will be religious when they get older and if they are and they get comfort from that that would be great for them.

Do you live in Ireland?

No just ask for your child to sit out.

You are not obliged to attend mass everyone will be welcome regardless of their religion. It just seems strange to choose a faith school if you are not Catholic.

Hahaha I was thinking that.

im a practising Catholic but my children are at a non dom school.

No, what's that got to do with it?

Agree you probably don't need formal 'punishments'.
The problem with making up your own religion is that it's completely self-centred. People are often overly kind in judging themselves , though not always. They can be blind to their own faults. We actually do need authority outside of ourselves to help us become better people and have the courage sometimes to say that what we are doing is wrong.
It's the contemporary denial of this which lies behind some social problems, like children, where parents can't say 'no'.