Certificate of Religious Practice

[imisslieins]

Hi there,

I am in the process of applying to a Jewish primary school for my Catholic daughter to (hopefully) attend next year. My problem is that as I only moved to the area in August, I have been attending my local Catholic church since then, and now I have to ask the parish priest to sign a CRP and give a reference of some sort on letter headed paper to confirm that he supports our application and that I and my daughter regularly attend mass.

Has anyone experience of approaching a religious leader with regard to a CRP? I am dreading asking the priest as a) will he be offended that I am not applying to Catholic schools? b) it looks like i've only been attending for this reason whereas it is because I am new to the area.

Any help/advice/info on this would be great to hear. confused

Depends entirely on the individual personality of the priest.

I've had to ask for references (not quite the same as CRP but along the same lines) a few times as I work in a faith school. Most have been absolutely fine but one was an absolute nightmare and wrote me the worst reference ever

I would suggest catching him after Mass asap and, rather than shoving an application form at him then, ask if you can make an appointment to come and see him in the week. Then you can sit down and explain things properly & fully. Again, what you actually say depends on personality and the particular circumstances, as does what his opinion of you choosing a Jewish school will be. You might want to mention that you're willing to bring dd to extra catechesis though (which most parishes run for Catholic children attending non-Catholic primaries).

Thanks Fink! He seems quite firm - that's why i'm dreading it!! There's an assistant priest who is alot more approachable but i've a feeling he'd steer me back to the main guy if i asked him!
the only way i can prove i'm not attending mass for this sole purpose is after receiving the CRP i would obviously still attend but i suppose that's down to his judgement call.
i want dd to have the best education on offer in our area and if that happens to be at a jewish school then that doesn't bother me as she obv wouldn't attend jewish worship and anyway i believe in tolerance and respect of all faiths. thanks again. :)

Are you confident your child will be offered a place at the school? The Jewish school in our area is very heavily over subscribed and whilst they do offer places to children of other practising faiths, they would be way down on the admissions criteria order. The chances of a non jewish child attending there are virtually zero.

As far as approaching the priest I'm sure he'll be fine if you explain you're new to the area. Could you also obtain a reference from your previous parish as that would also back up any school application?

hi wildmutt

the jewish school by us is also v heavily oversubscribed but the jewish intake only actually accounts for approx 30 of the 60 places on offer so the following category (children of other faiths) is THE one to get in on otherwise the last category (simply parents preferring this school) is basically non existent because so many apply on the 'other faith' category that they do need to refer to the last category.

yes that's a good idea re previous parish - will look into it. thanks v much :)

Slightly different, but we moved inbetween the baptism classes and the date for the baptism. So our new priest just contacted the old priest to ask about mass attendance and stuff. I'm sure your priest should be able to do that.

different tack - did you know its quite easy to get a CRP from the synagogue - you may not need to attend that many times, and attendance at the children's services may well be enough. ask the school to see what the requirements are and then call the office at your local synagogue.

Hia,

Why not contact the parish priest in the area where you used to worship before moving and ask him to do a letter for you to take to your current priest? He will then know that you are a regular worshipper and are not just attending for a school place ?

Have you checked the period of worship required? It is a year for a lot of schools.

Our Rector signs forms in the hall over coffee after parish mass and does not like to be presented with forms inside the church. Neither will he sign any forms in December as that is a particularly busy month for him.

Hope this helps.

TP

What does the CRP say?

For the school we're applying for dd1, you need to go 8 times on certain shabbat services to get priority. It's very easy to arrange. You just phone up the synagogue and give your child's name. Then on shabbat you go to the service. You should have a card with your child's name. Then you go to the service and after the service you put the card in a box that's passed around. In our area, this all needs to be done by 15th Jan so if you start now you should have just enough time to fit in 8 services.

The same procedure is done for all of the United synagogue affiliated schools.

Which school are you applying to, out of interest?

Oops, sorry. Didn't read your OP correctly. You're applying WITH a CRP from another religion so completely different story.

Thanks everyone. Looks like i am just going to have to bite the bullet and ask him! The school's deadline for admissions is Dec 3rd, even tho the LEA's deadline is actually Jan 17th.
We'll be devastated if he says no as it's our only chance of getting her in but que sera, sera i suppose - trying our hardest but sometimes fate has different plans!
Can't believe we have to wait until April to find out which school she'll be attending too! Thanks again.

She got in - whoop whoop! x