A County Tyrone priest has slammed a magazine encouraging parents to splash out on their children’s First Holy Communion. Fr Declan Boland said the targeting of parents by Your Child's First Holy Communion which shows young girls modelling the latest in Communion wear has "inappropriate".
The magazine, which is a spin-off of the highly successful wedding magazine Irish Wedding Diary. carries advertisements for tiaras, fashion accessories and portrait photographers.
Fr Boland said it was time parents changed their focus to the spiritual dimension of their children getting their First Communion and took an approach of “moderation and sensibility” to the occasion.
"The Church and schools try and down play the whole issue of clothing, parties and whatever gifts the children get for their Holy Communion,” he remarked.
But he said it “can be a struggle” because parents get “caught up in the external things”.
“But if this magazine is out there now, I feel we are in danger of losing sight of what we are about and the true meaning of Holy Communion, which is receiving the body of Christ for the first time,” Fr Boland remarked.
He said parents had every right to make their child look nice for the day but the key word had to be moderation.
“If you are going down the road of limousines and fake tan, then we are into something different and I feel it is vital that the message of sensibility and moderation is adopted," he told them.
He said he was reluctant to advocate children wearing their school uniform on their First Communion because of the likely opposition to it.
"The people who would most disagree I think would be the parents - it would need to be a general rule across all schools,” he commented.
“You couldn't have some children taking the sacrament in their uniform and others in special clothes”.
“Getting a consensus on this could be difficult but there is always the danger of excessive money being spent so if there was general agreement, I would be totally in favour of it."
Fr Boland said that the core value of the First Communion occasion should be a family celebrating one of its children getting Christ for the first time.
“The rest is nice but there has to be a balance in the style thing”.
“Parents can't lose the run of themselves in spending huge amounts of money on what is inappropriate”.
“Absolutely, have a party and wear nice clothes, but nothing silly”.
Fr Boland said he hoped that this year, parents would “refocus the whole spiritual dimension of the sacrament” adding that the day “doesn't have to be just a day for the children” but was also “an opportunity for parents to renew their faith and get reacquainted with the Church”. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer
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(Source: CIN)