Advanced Catholicism 410 and the Future of Our Country

I go to mass every Sunday and I sincerely wonder how many of the people there really understand their faith. Most appear to have an historic, working knowledge of it, but so few "get it." I was one of the ignorant Catholic masses (no pun intended) about a decade ago, so I'm not casting stones. But our biggest failing as a faith is our ability to teach it effectively to the next generation.

That is huge! That allows for misinterpretation and ignorant and harmful dissidence within the faithful. And it's completely inexcusable.

At mass about a week ago our pastor, Father Bob, was mentioning how hard it used to be to get confirmed. It was more difficult because you actually had to know a lot more about the Catholic faith.

Having been trying to get my head around my faith for over 40 years now, I can tell you the bullet-point overview we get now for confirmation does absolutely nothing in preparing our youth to live their faith in high school and in college. The confirmation training offered now is a joke. We have lowered our standards so far that just having a workable knowledge of basic church concepts garners an okie-dokie from the church.

As I listened to Father's homily something occurred to me that could realistically change our nation.

If I were someone with the means, like Tom Monaghan, for example, I would offer a free college education for any confirmed Catholic high school student who could complete an intensive Catholic course that included volunteer hours, essays, a lot of reading and a lot of prayer. This course would be hard. I mean, really hard.

But if you completed it, on top of of your current school work, and you were able to get a B or higher on the final exam, you would get a college education for free.

What would this do? It would offer a college education to any confirmed Catholic with enough drive and passion to get it. That drive and passion would allow them to learn and deeply understand our Catholic faith. They would then take that understanding and faith into college and later, into the workforce.

Within a few decades these people would end up in positions of influence in society. Think of that. A society where many of the leaders of industry and politics would be well trained and, hopefully, extremely faithful Catholics. People who are proud of their faith and able to articulate it effectively to those who oppose anything even hinting at "religion."

In a few short decades it could effectively change the heart of our nation... and our faith community of the American Catholic Church as a whole.