Irish priest wants to end ‘specific date’ communions and it has parents divided

Carlow priest, Fr Little, wants to end having Holy Communion on a set date and it has a lot of people talking.

Traditionally the first communion is celebrated on a specific date with the child's entire class, but Fr Tom Little thinks that it is time that this tradition comes to an end. Because of this, he has decided to scrap the set date communion for his parish this year and it has divided the parents of school children. Fr Little’s proposal is that children at Askea National School, Tinryland National School and the local Gaelscoil can make their communion at any Mass in May or June, instead of one particular date. He said he felt that too much emphasis was being put on the 'big day' and not enough on teaching the child about the sacrament itself. He hoped that by getting rid of the one big communion for the whole parish, parents might become more involved in preparing their child for communion but it has caused controversy with some parents. While many in the parish agreed with the idea others were opposed to what they saw as the end of a traditional ritual. According to The Irish Times, Fr Little said;

“I regret the confusion caused. I would have preferred if parents would have seen this as a work in progress rather than a social media frenzy.”

I personally don't think that it is a bad idea. Aside from parents becoming more involved in the communion preparation it can also take off a lot of stress for families. Celebrations like communions are becoming increasingly competitive with huge amounts of money being spent on clothing, hair and even transportation like limos. While it's very much a case of each to their own, for families who are financially strained, the pressure to keep up can be too much. There's more and more talk of removing sacraments from schools altogether and leaving it to parents to prepare their children at home and during the regular mass for communion and confirmation. My son will be entering second class next year so it will be interesting to see what changes have been made in his school regarding these sacraments in the next 12 months and if communion will even be part of the school curriculum anymore.