Our diocese just changed the confirmation age from 10th grade to 8th. I know that’s the case a lot of places but being used to 10th grade level discussion, I am finding the majority of 8th graders extremely frustrating. There’s a few exceptions, but for the most part I just think they’re not there yet. Most dont have questions, opinions,- they like to play games. Give me a 15 yr old who is mad and wants to argue any day over that. At least they care.

And I do make class active, fun etc.

Im also just mega burned out with my work load right now.

If you love 8th grade- why and what do you do with them?

If you confirm 8th graders- what are your expectations for how much they “ get” prior to confirmation?

• yes I know we don’t earn sacraments, spare me the canon law, I’m familiar. I’m just talking about the experience of it as someone who is more of a high school teacher by nature.

Hey, I'm a 11th grade HS student (in Florida) with 3.8 and 3.9 (Currently taking 4 APs so that will go higher) GPA. I volunteer at my church (over 130+ volunteer hours) I'm in a bunch of clubs at my school, some with leadership positions, and some being Honor club like NHS and Mu Alpha Theta. I want to be a youth minister/pastor as my career and I'm Roman Catholic. I was wondering what colleges would accept me/what colleges should I target (inside Florida ideally or not) ? I like Ave Maria University but I want to go somewhere more competitive. (AMU accepts students with a 3.3 GPA). Anything helps, TIA.

I am a student at Miami University studying Marketing and Entrepreneurship and an active Catholic. I have recently started working with the National Eucharistic Revival to help to rekindle our connection with Jesus and the Eucharist. If you have an extra minute, please help to grow awareness through this survey. Thank you so much and God Bless!

https://storydrive.typeform.com/to/bbNxgzAO#ambid=bennerc&group=Catholic

Context: Reddit or Stackexchange

My previous questions were kind of wrong:

• Why is it harder for Filipino Catholics to get a church annulment?

• Marriage invalid. Would a church annulment require a state annulment or state divorce?

• Why is it not that a state divorce is actually an argument AGAINST a church annulment petition rather than a necessary condition for such petition?

Why they were kind of wrong:

• I supposed that in both cases, namely the case for Filipino Catholics and the case for German Catholics, where both church marriages were of course invalid, that both of the state marriages were invalid as well, and then I asked about the financial aspect of state annulments which supposedly cost more than state divorces.

• I believe I should have been asking about what would happen if while both church marriages were invalid, both state were marriages were valid.

Let me start over:

Case 1: Suppose I am Catholic, my church marriage is invalid, and my state marriage is invalid too.

• Then I could get a state annulment or state divorce and then, if successful in either, I could start church annulment proceedings.

Case 2: Suppose I am Catholic, my church marriage is invalid, but my state marriage is valid, a common occurrence by this.

• By this, it seems I would have to first get a state divorce before I start a church annulment. (*)

Case 2.1: (*) is wrong to think that I would have to first get a state divorce because a state separation is an alternative requirement to a state divorce.

• Therefore, in countries that have no state divorce (THERE'S ONLY ONE: THE PHILIPPINES), there's no issue because those countries (THE PHILIPPINES) have state separation.

Case 2.2: (*) is right, so a state separation does not satisfy the necessary requirement to begin a church annulment in the way that a state divorce or state annulment does.

• Before, I ask the question, let me recap to say that there is no issue in Case 1 and Case 2.1. Then, the following question is on Case 2.2. Of course, if Case 2.2 is wrong and Case 2.1 is right, then please just say so and cite a source.

• Question: How do Filipino Catholics get a church annulment when their state marriage is valid?

• Let me be concrete with examples: Let Jack and Jill be a Catholic couple married in the Philippines, and let Romeo and Juliet be a Catholic couple married in Germany. Suppose both couples have valid state marriages but invalid church marriages. Then neither can get a state annulment to start a church annulment petition.

• Romeo and Juliet don't care because they can get a state divorce and then start a church annulment petition.

• However, this is a nightmare for Jack and Jill, both of whom hope to remarry (well, actually 'marry' because they were never validly 'married' in the first place) outside the Philippines and both of whom are already living separately outside the Philippines. From the church's point of view, it's okay for Jack and Jill to remarry, but bound by the Philippine state's laws, Jack and Jill cannot begin a Philippine Catholic Church annulment petition. And yet

1. This is supposedly a very common occurrence easily remedies by the possibility of state divorce.

2. The impossibility of state divorce is one that the Catholic Church is in favour of throughout the world, in particular, the Philippines.

3. By the 2 statements above, if state separation does not substitute for the requirement of state divorce or state annulment, then it seems the Catholic Church is self-contradictory: The Catholic Church's desire to not have state divorce in the world, in particular, the Philippines, is hindering the invalidly church married Filipino Catholics from getting an annulment, effectively penalising Filipino Catholics because the Philippines is doing what the Church wants. I believe ecclesiastical judicial economy does not apply because these kinds of situations, namely when a church marriage is invalid while a state marriage is valid is common (If it's common around the world, I don't see how it's less common in the Philippines).

• Let me clarify:

1. The Church wants the Philippines to continue to not have state divorce.

2. The Church would want its invalidly church married Filipino Catholics Jack and Jill to have annulments, even if Jack and Jill have valid state marriages.

3. The above statements seem to contradict if state separation does not substitute for the requirement of state divorce or state annulment. How they do not contradict is the answer to the question.

• The following is how I imagine things:

The Church: 'Wow, the situation you described is indeed a church invalid marriage that you beyond reasonable doubt and not merely beyond balance of probabilities. Fine, just get a state divorce and then we can start a church annulment.'

Jack and Jill: 'Um, we live in the Philippines.'

The Church: 'Oh, that country's great! Predominantly Roman Catholic, has no divorce, has great beaches and food, etc. Cool people. Cool country. It's more fun in the Philippines. Anyway, just get a state annulment then.'

Jack and Jill: 'Um, our state marriage is valid.'

The Church: 'Wait, your state marriage is valid, but your church marriage is invalid?'

Jack and Jill: 'Well yeah, based on the situation we just described to you.'

The Church: 'Hmmm...I don't know. Can you prove it beyond reasonable doubt?'

Jack and Jill: 'You just said we did.'

The Church: 'Oh right. Then get a state separation.'

Jack and Jill: 'Oh, a state separation substitutes for a state annulment or state divorce and is not "an abomination of the moral order"?'

The Church: '_ _ [so what's the answer?] _ _'

Hello,

I'd like to prepare a presentation for my youth group to give them some basic info about various schisms/separations in the history of the Church - a kind of who is who thing. So I was wondering if any of you could recommend a good resource dealing with this topic, perhaps with some ideas to present this whole thing more interactively. Thanks in advance.

(also pls excuse any of the mistakes I made in the post, englis is not my native language)

I'm new to scouting, and I've been appointed by my PP as "chaplain" to the scouting group. The group is catholic in theory, but actually very few of the scoutmasters and kids are. I try to drag them to Mass when we are camping, and to use the "spiritual activity box" made by the national movement, but I feel rather powerless as I get to see them only once a month. One of the scoutmaster says she is catholic, but she has major issues with the moral teaching of the Church and is very lefty.

Hello! I'm currently trying to start up a new Peer/Youth ministry in my diocese. Me and several other close friends of mine are tossing new and old ideas around to try and make real impact on the youth. I thought it'd be a great idea to collaborate with fellow youth ministers by trying to start a trend of sharing ideas and activities. I've come to realize that when you're running a youth or peer ministry, you're doing it to bring youth closer to God! Mods, please let me know if this is ok to do!

I've been the coordinator of confirmation and youth ministry at my parish for a little over a month now and have been trying to "re-brand" it all to be more modern. Here is the new website (not 100% complete) and here is the instagram my attempt at the "re-brand" is only the first post.

I would love feed back and to see what others do on their social media!

Any Franciscan University students or grads here?

In my experiences with youth ministry it has always seemed that the primary goal of all the programs I was a part of was catechesis. This was and is still often the most boring and dis-interesting part any youth gathering because it is, for all intents and purposes, school. I think many teens view youth group that way, like school (except, in many circumstances skip-able). Sure youth group can be fun, loads sometimes, but so can school.

Youth ministering to me seems to be most concerned with the spiritual health of kids and not (primary) the intellectual health. Youth ministering should be more about getting teens to adoration or Reconciliation, than teaching the basic 2nd grade knowledge of the Eucharist.

Now, here comes the big question? Is is practical or even possible to separate catechesis and youth ministry. Ideally catechesis would be taught in school, but this probably not (currently) being an option, another method must be devised.

Does anyone else agree (or disagree) with me on this issue?

We know there's 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit, but there's lists out there that omit a couple of them which list them as "Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control". I had listed this but also included Chastity on the list but our director said that we shouldn't show it to Jr. high teens for some reason. What's you guys' opinion about using the complete list or just using the list of 9? Of course Chastity needs to be taught, albeit in the best environment when appropriate; but I felt that it should be included.

I was just told by a friend in youth ministry that some bishops have disapproved of yms involving themselves in certain forms of social media. Are there prohibitions in your diocese? What are the reasons? How have the youth in your parish responded?

Hey guys, im searching for a decent movie about Jesus. I've just finished watching "Son of God" witch a youth group I lead and I felt it was a bad movie in many ways. I feel "The passion" is very well done but its focus on only a part of the life of Jesus fails to serve as a way to grasp a good idea of his life and surroundings, which is what I was aiming to find.

thanks

Random idea occurred to me: Would you be at all interested in a weekly thread where we discuss how our activities went each week? Like, what attendence was like, what you did, how well did it go over, did anyone say something especially profound?

Hey all! During our weekly readings discussion an idea struck me: do some Bible study with my teens on the history of Israel, since that period seems to get skipped a lot when we tell Bible stories. I feel like they know Genesis and Exodus fairly well, but when we get to Joshua we just kinda go "eh, whatever, let's skip ahead to Jesus!" This leaves us in the odd position of not really knowing who Eli and Samuel are, to use this week's readings as an example.

My biggest question involves scope. If I want to start this in about a month (probably the week before Ash Wednesday), what time period do you think I could cover if I go for about an hour a week? Would Joshua-Chronicles be a bit much? Could I maybe make it as far as Maccabees?

Additionally, do you have any suggestions for resources I could use? Obviously I have Bibles in spades, but do you all have suggestions on supplemental materials?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

I'm starting a youth ministry at our parish and one of the people helping me suggested a weekly "family dinner." I thought it was a great idea. We would encourage kids to go to our late Sunday mass and then afterwards host an hour-long sit-down dinner with adult leaders interspersed to encourage discussion/bonding, then after dinner end with a half hour activity. It could be a talk, a holy half hour, a team building activity, etc.

What do you guys think? Pros? Cons? Suggestions?

Thanks!

And am I crazy for wanting more than eight days between getting the new curriculum and the first day of class?

Hey all, thought we could maybe use an introduction thread. What's your role in youth ministry? Are you a youth minister, assistant, or just interested?