Passing on the faith . . .

Matthew Warner of Fallible Blogma has an excellent post on passing on the faith.

He discusses the question which is often debated, whether or not parents should pass on their faith to their children.

I know it's not much debated by those who practise their faith but I've heard arguments from non-practising friends and family members about the 'damage' done to children by parents 'indoctrinating' them from an early age.

As Matthew says, it seems obvious that if you believe something to be true and valuable then naturally you wish to share that with your children as parents obviously wish the best their sons and daughters.

He draws a comparison between teaching children road safety and providing them with healthy food etc. and passing on the faith.

I remember when our children were born, hearing some friends say, 'we're not going to have our child baptised, we want him/her to have the freedom to choose whether or not to be a Catholic (or anything else) and be baptised when they are older.

Call me dense, but I can't understand how anyone can make an informed decision about anything if they have no prior experience or knowledge about it.

I put these sort of remarks in the same category as, 'We don't believe in taking children to Mass until they're old enough to know how to behave in church.'

What amazing children they must be, I think, if they are suddenly able to understand what's happening in the liturgy and respond appropriately on their first visit to church when they're about five years old.