DEAR EDITOR: When I was a child, most adults cherished their Catholic faith. My mother was a Catholic but my father belonged to a different religion.

They had seven children and he insisted that every other baby had to be baptised in his religion. My mother was forced to agree, but made sure to take the non-Catholic babies to be baptised secretly in the Catholic Church.

 I was the last child in our family and my father was baptised in the Catholic faith on the same day with me. He died nine months later. Of course, such events took place many years before ecumenism.

Right or wrong, that was the kind of passion most Catholics had for their religion in the small island where I was born. The nuns played an active role in preparing children for their First Holy Communion, and these children were taught the doctrines of their faith from the “Penny Catechism” book.

At the age of six or seven, there were many things they did not understand but gradually, as they grew older and practised their religion, they appreciated and understood it better.

It is true that life cannot remain stagnant, so there must be changes. But why do we have to change for the worse? Why don’t we continue to teach our children the doctrines and traditions of such a great religion?

I was a catechist for ten years. I taught for six years in my parish and four years in a Government school. I found that some parents in the parish did not take their children to weekend Masses.

Two sisters told me that they couldn’t attend Mass because that was the time their father read the newspapers. I sent a note to their mother, informed her of the time Masses were held and added how nice it would be if she accompanied her children.

On that occasion, I was happy with the results. I also made sure to take the addresses of the children who missed classes, and visited their homes or called their parents on the phone.

The Government school was much more difficult. Some catechists came once or twice and never returned. My first year was spent trying to settle down the children.

Sometimes, my husband or a friend accompanied me just to try to stop their disorderly behaviour while I taught them. Instead of supervising the children, the teachers chose the one day a week when catechists came to the school to hold their meetings.

We were strangers and the children took full advantage of that. Most of them seldom went to Mass and knew nothing about the Catholic religion.

There are too many children who don’t get a good foundation in their faith, not in their homes and not even in some Catholic schools.

 It is true there are those who, in spite of having a sound foundation, still stray but some of them do come back to the fold and become fervent Catholics.

As parents, it is our duty to instruct our children, at an early age, about the importance of Holy Mass. That they must receive the Eucharist with great reverence because it is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

Teach them the importance of the Sacraments and many other doctrines than can be found in the “Penny Catechism” book. How do we expect to get vocations to the priesthood and religious life if our children don’t know their religion.

We Catholics have a precious and unique treasure in the Holy Mass, so why should we want to water it down or exchange it for something else!

I quote Padre Pio:
“Every Holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvellous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we, ourselves, do not know.
It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

Dorothy E Jolly, Valsayn North

DEAR EDITOR: This is a reply to the letters of Sr Marie Thérèse, OP and Thomas Lall which appeared in the Catholic News of March 4 and 11 respectively. Both wrote in response to my article published in the February 25 issue of the Catholic News.

Allow me first to congratulate Sr Marie Thérèse on the honour bestowed on her by the French government for her many years of untiring service. We too salute her work in this nation especially her monumental work, her book Parish Beat.

Both Sr Marie Thérèse and Thomas Lall have chosen to side step the real issue of the great exodus of Catholics out of the RC Church in this nation especially between 1980 and 2000.

Whereas in 1980 we had 347,700 Catholics, in 2000 that number had dropped drastically to 289,700 – a loss of 58,000 Catholics. These are the figures from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) of Trinidad and Tobago.

Still, we must realise that those who actually practise the Catholic faith (judged by weekly Mass attendance) is a whole lot smaller. In fact, one should not be surprised if the recent parish census conducted by the archdiocese reveals a Mass attendance of 20% or less. The lapsed Catholic Church far exceeds the active Catholic Church numerically.

Now, as to Pentecostalism in Trinidad and Tobago, whereas in 1980 they were only 36,400, in 10 years they had more than doubled their numbers (130% increase) to 84,000.

This represented a numerical increase greater than even the absolute population increase for Trinidad and Tobago, 47,600 as opposed to 45,300 – more than 2,000 beyond the national population growth in 10 years!

Mr  Lall has raised the “decrease” in Pentecostal numbers from 84,000 in 1990 to 76,300 in 2000. What needs to be realised here is that unlike the Roman Catholic Church, Pentecostalism is not a monolithic whole.

 It is fragmented into several different and independent denominations that often do not carry the name “Pentecostal”. Among them would be the Full Gospel churches and several bearing the name Evangelical and many others.

Let us note that unlike in previous years, the CSO in 2000 adopted an unusually large designation called “Other” which accounted for as many as 120,600 persons.

One can reasonably expect that several of those in the supposed “decrease” are to be found among this large anonymous designation. Indeed, the actual numbers of Pentecostals are more likely to have augmented beyond 84,000 than to have decreased.

Let us also realise that Catholic global increases are deceptive since Catholic growth is principally biological. That is to say, children born into Catholic families are baptised.

However, we know only too well globally, that after the sacrament of Confirmation a large percentage of our youth do not return. Some have labelled it the sacrament of graduation.

On the other hand, Pentecostal growth is principally by conversion. In other words, by choice. And, while it is true that Pentecostals see no problem in Church hopping, they usually stay within the Pentecostal denominations and practise their faith.

As to the Americas, at a special meeting of the world’s cardinals called by John Paul II in April 1991, Cardinal Obando of Nicaragua revealed to the cardinals that a “Protestant Explosion” was occurring in Latin America with growth from 4 million in 1967 to 30 million in 1985 (L’Osservatore Romano, April 15, 1991, pp 7-8).

 By 1991 it was greater than 40 million. Now, well over 10% of Latin America is Protestant. It is estimated by contrast, that practising Catholics are only about 15% (The Protestant Challenge in Latin America, Jan 19, 1991, p. 37).

Note that the great Protestant Explosion in Latin America is of the Pentecostal/Evangelical strain. Again, let us not be deceived by biological growth. The real question is, “who is actually practising?”

Cardinal Arinze in an interview on the African Synod of Bishops (Inside the Vatican, April1994 pp. 41-43) had this to say: “We have to accept that the (fundamentalist) sects are really saying to the Church ‘Please do your homework, please look into your house, ask yourselves why do we attract quite a number of your members? What is it that we have that attracts them that you don’t have?’…Why is it that these Independent Churches succeed?”

In 1986 the Vatican issued a report, “Sects or New Religious Movements: Pastoral Challenge.” In one of its conclusions in its self-examination, a startling and humbling admission appears: “The Church is often seen simply as an institution, perhaps because it gives too much importance to structures and not enough to drawing people to God in Christ.” (L’Oss Romano, May 19, 1986, p. 5 sec. 5 par. 2).

In my February 25 article I made a point of the fact of religious experience through the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as the power of the Early Catholic Church and of Pentecostalism.

Cardinal Arinze underscores the need for this. He says, “The dimension of religious experience should not be forgotten in our presentation of Christianity. It is not enough to supply people with intellectual information.

Christianity is neither a set of doctrines nor an ethical system. It is life in Christ which can be lived at ever deeper levels” (L’Oss Romano April 15, 1991, pp 5f).

He goes on to state that in the face of the challenge of these new religious movements, “the pastors of the Church cannot go on with ‘business as usual.’ The phenomenon of the new religious movements is a challenge and an opportunity.”

Yes, Sr Marie Thérèse, the Catholic Church is the Church founded by Jesus, the Mother Church, and the Mass and the Sacraments were instituted by him. Nevertheless, despite the lack of these in the Pentecostal churches, it certainly seems that they have done much more with less.

Why? They have grasped and aggressively promoted a few essential truths. These are, the uniqueness of Jesus for salvation and that this life in Christ must be lived in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, this Good News is not to remain intra-mural but must be preached “to the ends of the earth.”

Fr Ian Taylor, St Francis Parish, Sangre Grande