That's harsh, Dulc.
By and large, I don't think many go there to "run away" from anything. I'd say most go to large Trad areas for the school. Raising a Catholic family is hard. Toss in homeschooling and it might just be more than most can handle. So, what do you do? You make a choice. Send your children to a local school or move to where there is a Trad school. What would you do?
But moving to such a place for reasons of necessity is different than moving there because one thinks it's going to secure them in their Catholicism. I was only speaking of people who have no logical, rational reason to move to a far away place, but who do it because they have unrealistic ideas about how it's going to be, or what impact it'll have on their faith. Eg, if there's a trad Catholic school much, much closer, but they want to go to only the biggest Catholic place they can find. As though somehow that's better.
The topic has come up in my own house a few times, and it's never even "oh, lets move to somewhere where there's an SSPX chapel!" It's "lets move to St. Mary's". As though all of the other, smaller Traditional Catholic communities aren't worth a hill of beans, but this one, Catholic "oasis" ... oh! Well, THAT'S different! Everything would be PERFECT there!
Yeah, except the million little things that are not perfect, because people, Catholic or not, are still human beings.
And think of it this way... Those other, smaller chapels/places actually NEED the support of families moving in from other places so that they can afford to be there. Some of the schools at those smaller places need that in order to survive. Why is it that people irrationally want to migrate to the largest, already fully established place, rather than support another such place growing up somewhere else?
I was only speaking only of those who make those kinds of pointless, irrational decisions, as though it really will make them and all of their kids automatic saints, if they just move to the biggest and best Catholic watering hole out there.
Of course, when you're a parent, you have to go wherever your kids are going to get the best shot. But still, the parents need to realize that the schools are having problems, too. LOTS of parents are getting the same idea at once, and that means LOTS of kids who used to go to public schools are also going to be there. Parents may get there and breathe a sigh of relief, thinking as long as there are traditional Catholic teachers involved, their children's faith is secure... but that also seems to be one of the biggest problems facing the trad Catholic schools right now... all these parents just plopping their kids into the trad schools, and then washing their hands of them, so to speak, as though it's a done deal.
Of course, parents do the best they can. Necessity plays a part in that, as you say. But my dismay was aimed more at those who don't have to move quite as far as they plan to, simply because they think it's some kind of insurance for their faith, or some kind of Catholic cure-all for them and their children. The fight is inside of each one of us. If we're not willing to fight outside of one of those big Catholic centers, then when we get there, we'll be just as mediocre Catholics as we were anywhere else. Our external performance may pick up a little, but for the Catholic who just doesn't want to fight anymore, that can easily become an excuse to go home and say, "ok, I've fulfilled my Catholic quota for the day..." and switch over to worldly mode, living like everybody else does in the rest of their time.
It's things like that that worry me about the whole "lets move THERE" thing. But if families were determined to do it, the least they could do is support the places that are struggling. Isn't the goal for the whole world to be Catholic? We're not helping it if we all keep moving to the same, already established places. At least they could be zealous and try to move in and support smaller places, so that those could become larger and succeed.
I certainly didn't mean to say anything bad about those parents who find their hand forced, and make a decision to put their kids into the trad Catholic schools. If you're forced, you're forced. But those who have a choice WHICH ONE... might do well to look to smaller ones that really need the help, so that those options will continue to be there for other Catholics.
If these places are taking donations, that means there aren't enough Catholics sending their kids to those smaller places, helping them become self-sufficient. That's pretty worrisome for the future of Catholics in those areas who also don't have the choice to home school. So why do people continue to move all the way across the country to some "mega-center" ... instead of supporting something a lot more local so people don't have to leave their whole lives behind just to get a Catholic education?
It's a bad trend. Every part of the country (and the world) needs to have it's own "Catholic heart". Every state... heck, every CITY... should have something of it's own. Instead we're rushing to one or two places, leaving everyone and everything we know behind, and letting everything else rot. I just can't see the wisdom in that. Are we all praying for an 845th mass in St. Mary's? Or would it be better if every state got another traditional Catholic church? If people think those places are the answer, good... then lets make a lot more of them in other places where there aren't any!
We're not tomato plants. We're human beings. There's just something a bit wacky about tearing up our roots and plopping down somewhere else after generations of family have lived in the same place. And it certainly isn't going to fix anything.
Topic: Growing Up Traditional (Read 24107 times)