I'm baffled by todays SSPX traditionalist fathers that allow their daughters to dress provocatively, allow their daughters to go out on "dates" or go nightclubing and drinking. Are they blinding themselves to what is really happening, or are they so desensitized that they do not see anything bad in their daughters licentious "hobby"? Or are have they lost their manhood? My speculations lean toward the idea that the parents, both father and mother, met each other the same way as their daughters are "dating" now and they think they turned out alright, so, they rationalize that their daughter will work it out eventually like they did. In almost all cases it will not work out the same way. Sin is sin, if you play with it, like fire it will burn you. I have seen this first hand in many families and it didn't work out well.
Some certainly have lax consciences, but others (I know from speaking to them), have just given in, having gotten to the point where they feel that if they come down hard on their daughters, then the daughters will reject the faith entirely. Once girls have gotten to the point of not caring, or of caring so little about morality and the faith, that they would behave and dress as they do, then often they're at the point where if they had to choose between persisting in their behavior and remaining Catholic, they would go with the former. So it's their parents' last-gasp desperate attempt to keep them at least nominally in the Church, with the implicit mentality of thinking it's better that they be bad Catholics than non-Catholics. They could try to "come down hard" on them, but their perspective is that, if they did, it would build such resentment that the second these girls saw a chance to become independent of them, they would immediately go run off and shack up with some guy, leaving the Church in the rear-view mirror. I think that some of them have a legitimate point. I'm guessing they could have done more to keep it from getting to that point, but I leave it to God to judge them. I've known some kids in home-schooled families who had little or no exposure to the outside world and lived completely immersed in a Catholic mindset and detached from the world, who the minute they got jobs and could support themselves, they ran off, shacked up, and stopped practicing the faith. Sometimes when the kids are somewhat isolated and lonely, all it takes is for some cute boy to come along and start "buttering them up" before they turn into putty in some non-Catholic's hands.
At the end of the day, it's not enough to impose BEHAVIOR. Kids have to embrace the principles of the faith and of Catholic morality interiorly. You can say, "So long as you live in my house, you'll never dress immodestly." But what happens when they no longer live in the house? Only through grace, through prayers, and ultimately through a cooperation of FREE will, will children ultimately continue in living the faith. Imposing behavior works for little ones who haven't reached the age of reason. Once they've reached the age of reason, they must be persuaded to embrace the principles of the faith and not merely made to act as if they do.
To that end, probably the best way to do that is to make sure that the children do a decent amount of GOOD SPIRITUAL READING as they grow up. And I do find that there's a massive shortage of good spiritual reading for children of the in-between ages, from about 9-13 or so. There are childrens' books about the faith targeted at kids about 5-7 years old, and then there's a big gap, and a jump up to things that are complex and difficult to read if you're not about 13 or 14. Take the lives of the saints, for instance. You can find books with little pictures written for 3, 4, and 5 year olds, but then the material jumps up to adult reading. And, ironically, that time between when they first reach the age of reason until their teens are the MOST CRUCIAL and FORMATIVE of all the ages. That's where kids are either won over to the faith or lost ... practically speaking since God's grace of course has no such limits. I have thought about writing some books targeting that age range, but I haven't had the time given my duties in life.
Topic: Indifference to the Faith at SSPX Chapels (Read 5156 times)