AIBU to think weekly mass at Catholic schools feels quite intense?

[Endoftheway]

My DH and I have 3 children, we are going to be moving after summer to a new town, quite far from where we are right now.
Our children are baptised Catholic but really we don’t go to church much, I’d say it’s very much cultural Catholicism more than true belief.
Anyway the town we are moving to has one secondary school with a very good reputation, but it’s hard to get into as it’s a Catholic school, the admissions criteria right now has

1. Baptised Catholic Children attending a feeder school (any of the about 7 Catholic primary schools in the wider area)

Since that is the first line of the admissions criteria we are looking at the Catholic primary schools. Our children are currently in a Catholic primary school and I’d say the religious element is notable not all consuming, they have lots of children in the school who aren’t Catholic and many who are other religions.

What has shocked me is, the Catholic primary school we are looking at has a weekly mass, that is open to the public and all pupils attend, the above mentioned secondary school also has a weekly mass open to the public.

This has shocked me, one as the secondary school is losing a period a week to mass and as I find it hard to believe enough of the children are actually Catholic!
I understand that these are Catholic schools and I am all for prayers in assembly, and a general Catholic culture but weekly mass seems quite unavoidable for any children who aren’t Catholic or who are questioning religion.

AIBU to think this is quite intense? Even my schools growing up weren’t like this!

Normal

I had a friend who went to Catholic school. She had to go to Mass three times a week!

She said there's a huge shortage of Catholic priests, and that was actually cut down from what it used to be.

Its a faith school. Don’t apply if you don’t like the religious aspect.

Have you moved from England to Ireland by any chance, OP? My friend who had the thrice-weekly masses was Irish, and she seemed to think English Catholics were a bit lightweight compared to what she was used to 😂

Maybe it's a cultural difference? Seven Catholic schools in one area sounds like you must be in Ireland

Well @Endoftheway mustn’t have been too concerned about her “issue” as she hasn’t returned to the thread. It makes me wonder if she was just trying to stir up a bit of controversy about a Catholic school that seems to be actually embracing its ethos rather than the supposed Catholic schools filled with “Catholic” teachers who don’t display any of that ethos in their classroom. Before I get anyone’s back up, I’m Irish, teaching in an Irish Catholic school and speaking from experience, re some of my colleagues.

Sex education at our convent was only in human biology and an elderly nun selling tuck (cakes) and yelling “s e x spells sex and it is bad and evil”. At least 2 girls got pregnant in 5th form. We would never have dared to mention sex to our teachers. We were however encouraged to go to discos or religious study groups locally, the local boys school was Catholic so the boys there were considered suitable.

If you are content for randoms to be in with your kid then crack on. Hope they don’t get taken or abused given the past history of the Catholic Church. Especially small boys.

It sounded like they did mass in the school. I’ve worked at Catholic schools and mass was done in the school hall. I wouldn’t be happy with the public just walking into a school.

if it’s in a religious building then it’s just like a regular school trip out. So usual safeguarding.

Yes, but the poster you’re responding to is talking about her own education. My own experience (did Leaving Cert in 1990) pretty much mirrors hers. Communion and Confirmation did pretty much eat the years in which they occurred, and religion was a major component of every day in primary. In secondary, there was morning and evening prayer and Angelus over the PA, and most teachers began class with a quick prayer. I’m sure this no longer happens, but it was certainly my experience in the late 70s and 80s.

I sent my own child to an Educate Together, because I have no patience with the bouncy castle Catholicism that sees parents still paying lip service to FHC and Confirmation, and keeps so many schools under the technical control of a dying institution.

Oooh, no one can just walk into that surely? I'm picturing it like my experience where the chapel is right next door to the school and it's a two minute walk for the kids to join the usual 10am Mass.

That's nice. So who's abusing the kids in your scenario? Randoms or priests? Because the vast majority of both manage to say/attend Mass with beasting the kids.

I’m sure the school leadership team would welcome your input on just how much Catholic content you deem acceptable and convenient…
Honestly, please don’t send your children there. Having worked in Catholic education for a long time, I’m sure there will be plenty of families only too happy to take their places and happy for their children to attend Mass regularly.

For a school aligned to a specific religion this sounds like a fairly minimal commitment, and one with potential educational (aside from spiritual) benefit, at the very least a glimpse of a different view of the world.

Why on earth did you get your children baptised Catholics? Weekly mass is part of being at a Catholic school. Would you be ok with them going to a mosque?

There’s always one.

Whatever you do, don't send them and then complain about it incessantly for 10 years. If you don't like the weekly mass, don't send them to a school where they have weekly mass.

I'm a supply teacher, across a huge range of primary schools. I can't speak for Catholic schools as such, there aren't many around here, but I've visited a number of CofE primaries where a weekly church service is quite common. Especially if the church is very close by, as it often is with CofE schools.

If you're not in favour of the religion, then you'll just have to look elsewhere.

Not just me then!!! Lol, many years of Catholic education didn't move me at all but it gave me a vivid imagination!

We had Mass daily at my Catholic secondary school. It wasn't mandatory though. Just a lovely way to start the day (it was a twenty minute version).

Catholic prep school here - weekly mass, weekly celebration of the word (like a mini mass minus communion) led by different year groups with the priest, and 4 x prayers said throughout the day (morning, breaktime, lunchtime and hometime).

if you don’t know want your kids going to weekly mass, then send them to a secular school instead and leave the place at the academically better school for a child whose parents actually value the faith aspects of the Catholic school.

Catholic schools make up over 50% of the options in my local area, and there isn’t the same amount of people who identify as Catholic or who go to the empty churches that have had to combine masses due to poor attendance. They need to cut down the amount of schools offered that are religious, and they need to be funded by the church and not the state.

If mass was every day l would agree but once a week is totally to be expected …as others have said - you are choosing the school and when in Rome etc….

My primary school had mass every morning and extra services on holidays 😊 I loved shrove Tuesday when the teachers made us pancakes 🥞

I went to Catholic schools as a child and we had mass regular, we said a prayer as a class at the end of the day, I can't remember if we did the mornings too?
When i was in the infant school we said a prayer before we ate lunch.
I think it is normal to have a weekly mass in a Catholic school. I agree if you think it's too much don't send your children to that school.

When i was at school (A convent ) we went to a weekly mass for each year group then monthly as a whole school, we also did other services ( Benediction, funerals) etc where the choir was used . I came from a very Catholic household so it wasn't out of the ordinary for me or my friends.
Personally, I wouldnt send my kids to a religious school if you dont like the rules , just to get into a good school, it seems very hypocritical to me .
I became atheist after school so didn't send my children to a faith school and they did ok. .