Ohhh, you're going to get me started on the tech thing. This year at our parish all the confirmation paperwork and assignments are online. This is probably very, very convenient for the people checking up on us, but we're a low-tech family with high restrictions on usage. I do not like, at all, having my child sit down in front of a scre…
Ohhh, you're going to get me started on the tech thing. This year at our parish all the confirmation paperwork and assignments are online. This is probably very, very convenient for the people checking up on us, but we're a low-tech family with high restrictions on usage. I do not like, at all, having my child sit down in front of a screen every week to prove he was at Mass, when our pastor, DRE, and others who are very involved at the parish see him serving (and if they want proof there's a schedule with his name on it), and see our family participating in various parish activities (some charitable, some social, some devotional). We're known people.
If we had to scan QR codes to prove attendance I would probably give somebody a thorough scolding, which is not something I am generally inclined to do. If that did not prove fruitful I would find another way for my children to receive their sacraments, including switching parishes. I can understand the significant administrative burden on pastors and staff, and that there are a lot of families out there who don't care and it's hard to figure out how to get them to, but that sort of tech-based check in seems particularly likely to backfire. A QR code scan says to me, "We can't be bothered to actually check in with you and say hello and get you involved in the parish, but lucky for you, that's not what's important here. Hope you have a smartphone."
Your last sentence is way off base. I volunteer every year to sponsor someone (male adult) I don’t even know. Several of us do. Nothing more technical than scanning a QR code on your way into Mass. Our pastor and 3 deacons all teach OCIA live sessions and devote a lot of time. Deep breath.
If ensuring attendance by some official means is absolutely necessary, why not use a sign in sheet in the sacristy or some other predetermined location? Why does a person need to bring a high tech device into a church just to prove they were there?
I'm not saying you or any of the clergy or parish staff don't actually care, but means like this definitely can give the impression that you don't. It can also place an undue burden on a person who has to ask for an exemption (for such a reason as, "I don't use a smartphone," which is in fact a thing for many people, even young people or those who grew up with that kind of tech.)
Paper gets lost. All of our liturgical ministers sign in to MinistrySchedulerPro. Even that is not a slam dunk since a liturgy coordinator has to monitor it. Technology is not the enemy. Our narthex is crazy hectic before Sunday liturgies.
Technology can very much be an enemy. It can be convenient (I actually like MinistrySchedulerPro, for a group of already committed volunteers), but it can also cause a lot more problems than it solves. (It is not lost on me the irony that I have learned so much about the harms of too much tech by using said tech, but...there it is.)
I'm not a fan of unnecessary tech. A posted sign in sheet on a bulletin board in a consistent location will work most of the time. If one gets lost once in a while, I still think it's the better option. Hymnals in the pews get damaged, but you're not going to persuade me that it's a good idea to install a projector screen into Mass for people to follow along, though some parishes do it.
We can barely keep track of paper registration sheets from our ministry fairs. I’m a retired IT/ERP program manager so paper is admittedly anathema to my skill set and patience. Our QR code probably checks a box in Googlesheets or some back end database. In any event, I am an unpaid flunky and the pastor and paid staff make the rules and set the tools. I’m fast losing my will to push people toward sacramental life and heaven if they don’t really want it. I’m old, tired, and willing to do some of my own heavy lifting for the Lord Jesus. You can’t lead every horse to springs of living water.
Is it? I guess we should not accept non-parishioners either? Call me a Pharisee when the adult strangers I sponsor and gift with a Catholic Study Bible vanish after confirmation and I never see them again. Your criticism is Pharasaic. Provide a solution from behind your smartphone, please.
Overly legalizing mass attendance with electronic tracking is legalistic. Yes. It is a legalistic policy.
No bearing on non parishioners attending I don’t know what that even means. And it is not a personal attack on you or your commitment to serve in your parish.
This is not a loan from a bank. This is nota government agency program with proof of qualification. Conversion requires heart work. Not tech work. If people on rcia or sacramental prep are not invested enough to attend mass that becomes an issue between them and God. We can’t make catechesis so transactional as to require QR codes like a restaurant menu. You can teach and lead and pray but ultimately a conversion is on THE PERSON (or the parents for little ones). Mass tracking is not the answer.
The heart work was supposed to be done by the parents for 7-16 years before Confirmation. Nearly everything that predicts faithfulness through young adulthood is related to the parents. Catechesis is the most non-parental part, and even that ought to have significant parental involvement. It is not sensible to expect catechists to make up, in 2 hours a week for 9 months of Confirmation classes, for years of religious neglect.
Putting lots of effort into people who don't care and won't stay is thoroughly demoralizing. When somewhere around 40% leave as teens/young adults, and the teachers and sponsors can do little about that, I think the only way to get along is to do it heartily for God, and to simultaneously be thoroughly detached from the results.
But there is another aspect that plays into Confirmation: The Confirmation sponsor has an obligation to "take care that the person confirmed behaves as a true witness of Christ and faithfully fulfills the duties inherent in this sacrament." It's not just an obligation to be nice to the sponsee and give them religious things. Perhaps this is the answer: sponsors who are convinced their sponsee is not going to remain Catholic, should refuse to sponsor them.
Oh i couldn’t agree more! But this requirement was specified to be for RCIA too which would be adults new to the faith. Aka even more absurd to legalize attendance bc if they didn’t want to be there why would they? But yes for children prep I second your points 1000 percent
Ohhh, you're going to get me started on the tech thing. This year at our parish all the confirmation paperwork and assignments are online. This is probably very, very convenient for the people checking up on us, but we're a low-tech family with high restrictions on usage. I do not like, at all, having my child sit down in front of a screen every week to prove he was at Mass, when our pastor, DRE, and others who are very involved at the parish see him serving (and if they want proof there's a schedule with his name on it), and see our family participating in various parish activities (some charitable, some social, some devotional). We're known people.
If we had to scan QR codes to prove attendance I would probably give somebody a thorough scolding, which is not something I am generally inclined to do. If that did not prove fruitful I would find another way for my children to receive their sacraments, including switching parishes. I can understand the significant administrative burden on pastors and staff, and that there are a lot of families out there who don't care and it's hard to figure out how to get them to, but that sort of tech-based check in seems particularly likely to backfire. A QR code scan says to me, "We can't be bothered to actually check in with you and say hello and get you involved in the parish, but lucky for you, that's not what's important here. Hope you have a smartphone."
Your last sentence is way off base. I volunteer every year to sponsor someone (male adult) I don’t even know. Several of us do. Nothing more technical than scanning a QR code on your way into Mass. Our pastor and 3 deacons all teach OCIA live sessions and devote a lot of time. Deep breath.
If ensuring attendance by some official means is absolutely necessary, why not use a sign in sheet in the sacristy or some other predetermined location? Why does a person need to bring a high tech device into a church just to prove they were there?
I'm not saying you or any of the clergy or parish staff don't actually care, but means like this definitely can give the impression that you don't. It can also place an undue burden on a person who has to ask for an exemption (for such a reason as, "I don't use a smartphone," which is in fact a thing for many people, even young people or those who grew up with that kind of tech.)
Paper gets lost. All of our liturgical ministers sign in to MinistrySchedulerPro. Even that is not a slam dunk since a liturgy coordinator has to monitor it. Technology is not the enemy. Our narthex is crazy hectic before Sunday liturgies.
Technology can very much be an enemy. It can be convenient (I actually like MinistrySchedulerPro, for a group of already committed volunteers), but it can also cause a lot more problems than it solves. (It is not lost on me the irony that I have learned so much about the harms of too much tech by using said tech, but...there it is.)
I'm not a fan of unnecessary tech. A posted sign in sheet on a bulletin board in a consistent location will work most of the time. If one gets lost once in a while, I still think it's the better option. Hymnals in the pews get damaged, but you're not going to persuade me that it's a good idea to install a projector screen into Mass for people to follow along, though some parishes do it.
We can barely keep track of paper registration sheets from our ministry fairs. I’m a retired IT/ERP program manager so paper is admittedly anathema to my skill set and patience. Our QR code probably checks a box in Googlesheets or some back end database. In any event, I am an unpaid flunky and the pastor and paid staff make the rules and set the tools. I’m fast losing my will to push people toward sacramental life and heaven if they don’t really want it. I’m old, tired, and willing to do some of my own heavy lifting for the Lord Jesus. You can’t lead every horse to springs of living water.
Yes & we always keep our phones in our car’s glovebox. If we brought them in our small kids would try to play with them or throw them around.
Yep. I got my first smartphone a couple years ago, never bothered to learn how to scan a QR code, and I'm in my 30s and write code for my job.
But I don't see why providing a sign-in sheet for us luddites should prevent others from using a QR code.
Right there with you. Proof of mass attendance by smartphone no less is … disgustingly transactional and pharisaical.
Is it? I guess we should not accept non-parishioners either? Call me a Pharisee when the adult strangers I sponsor and gift with a Catholic Study Bible vanish after confirmation and I never see them again. Your criticism is Pharasaic. Provide a solution from behind your smartphone, please.
Overly legalizing mass attendance with electronic tracking is legalistic. Yes. It is a legalistic policy.
No bearing on non parishioners attending I don’t know what that even means. And it is not a personal attack on you or your commitment to serve in your parish.
This is not a loan from a bank. This is nota government agency program with proof of qualification. Conversion requires heart work. Not tech work. If people on rcia or sacramental prep are not invested enough to attend mass that becomes an issue between them and God. We can’t make catechesis so transactional as to require QR codes like a restaurant menu. You can teach and lead and pray but ultimately a conversion is on THE PERSON (or the parents for little ones). Mass tracking is not the answer.
The heart work was supposed to be done by the parents for 7-16 years before Confirmation. Nearly everything that predicts faithfulness through young adulthood is related to the parents. Catechesis is the most non-parental part, and even that ought to have significant parental involvement. It is not sensible to expect catechists to make up, in 2 hours a week for 9 months of Confirmation classes, for years of religious neglect.
Putting lots of effort into people who don't care and won't stay is thoroughly demoralizing. When somewhere around 40% leave as teens/young adults, and the teachers and sponsors can do little about that, I think the only way to get along is to do it heartily for God, and to simultaneously be thoroughly detached from the results.
But there is another aspect that plays into Confirmation: The Confirmation sponsor has an obligation to "take care that the person confirmed behaves as a true witness of Christ and faithfully fulfills the duties inherent in this sacrament." It's not just an obligation to be nice to the sponsee and give them religious things. Perhaps this is the answer: sponsors who are convinced their sponsee is not going to remain Catholic, should refuse to sponsor them.
Oh i couldn’t agree more! But this requirement was specified to be for RCIA too which would be adults new to the faith. Aka even more absurd to legalize attendance bc if they didn’t want to be there why would they? But yes for children prep I second your points 1000 percent