Getting into Catholic Secondary school next year, how will the priest know who she is?

[kitya]

DN baptised and Holy Communion. Went to catholic primary (attached to the church) for first three years then the whole family left the school and went to a none catholic school in a different education authority. For reasons that have become clear over the past couple of years (headmistress has been replaced)

She goes to church (on her own or with grandma) the forms have been sent. Because she is at a non catholic school now, how does the senior school know she goes to church? I dont think shes ever spoke to the priest will it go against her coming from a non catholic primary?

My DD's went to a non catholic primary and it wasn't a problem for admission to the catholic secondary because the criteria was living in the relevant parish. Whether its a problem for your niece depends on the schools admission policy and whether they have feeder schools. The same for the mass attendance, some schools want a priests reference, others just ask the questions without needing evidence. I presume she didn't need a priests reference or he would have to have been asked. The priest would probably recognise most of his congregation by sight but he wouldn't necessarily know their names.

thats what I thought so, how would he beable to sign saying that he knows her?

A catholic secondary school will have children from a different diocese or church I would have thought, it is unlikely that there are that many catholics living locally! (waits to be corrected ), so the priest won't know everyone personally anyway.

Fingers crossed for that one then!

It's a priest that's only been there six months. She slips in and out if she's on her own though.

don't they have some sort of holy communion where he gets the chance to eyeball her every week? i mean, give her the sacrament or whatever?

our vicar knows all the kids - particularly the ones that queue up for a bit of free wafer.

Ours would shake hands but, I never got asked who I was.

oh, i don't think they ever ask you personally. but x's brother's wife's sister's babysitter's nan would know you're y's ex-wife with the boys, whose mum was married to w before he got poorly, and who used to live at mile end before they put the factory there.

the priest probably knows what you had for dinner, really. if you've ever set foot in the church, the mice will be going through your handbag. anonymity is the least of your concerns.

I was a slip-in slip-outer in a big church as a teenager so I know it's possible to slip under the radar, but I'ld suggest you go and talk to the parish priest and explain. You would probably find he recognised your dd even if he had no idea who she was.
(I live in a smaller parish now where it would be impossible to get away with out being noticed, but it's possible to be anonymous in even a medium sized parish if you're quiet and shy and keep your head down).

hocuspontas In some parts of the country catholic secondary schools are very oversubscribed. In others, not.

cat64 Again, in some parts of the country mass attendance is massive, due to the size of the parish. My parish is pretty large, I think, in terms of people served, plus we are a university and tourist city, with a large population of people with east European backgrounds (many of whom work either at the uni or the hospital/medical school). There are 3 masses every weekend, and the church is full for two of them and normally half full for the Saturday evening shopping mass. There is no way our priests know everyone by name although they prob do know regular communion recipients by sight.

This school is completely oversubscribed as its the only decent school in the area.

There is a large turnout and not just to get children into the school. Especially since the population of people has increased from countries like the Phillipines and Poland, I think the priest would be doing very well to remember every childs name!

At DCs secondary school we have to complete an additional form stating why we want the DC to attend the Catholic school, and also say how often they attend mass.
That list of names is passed to the local parish priest (school serves 5 separate parishes) who will then confirm that they know the family.
In the case of not recognising a name, the priest has been known to turn up on your doorstep in the hope that he will recognise your face rather than disagree with your admissions form.
This happened to my neighbour as she and her family worship at the next town and is known to the priest there but because she lives in this parish so it was the local pp who came to see her.
BTW we live in an area where the school is very over-subscribed.