Role of Parents

Parents in Faith Formation

Their "irreplaceable role" in religious education

Parents are the primary educators of the faith. Our youth ministries at St. Mary's are secondary to the primary role of the family. We function as a support system to parents as they live out the Catholic faith at home every day.


This means that we are growing into a parish where parents participate in "Family Catechesis" during the 1st and 2nd grades which will give the parents a "drivers seat role" in their child's formation for 1st Reconciliation and 1st Communion.


Furthermore, we ask that parents accompany their 6-12th grade students to our various "Family Nights" that we have planned throughout the school year.


Finally, we ask that parents and sponsors take an active role in the preparation of their child/candidate for the Sacrament of Confirmation.

"Certainly one area in which the family has an irreplaceable role is that of religious education, which enables the family to grow as a “domestic church.” Religious education and the catechesis of children make the family a true subject of evangelization and the apostolate within the Church… Even when they entrust these responsibilities to ecclesiastical institutions or to schools administered by religious personnel, their educational presence ought to continue to be constant and active."

--Grattissimam Sane, John Paul II

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism states that “parents receive the responsibility of evangelizing their children” and calls them the “first heralds” of the faith (2225). The family is called “domestic church”—the church of the home (CCC 2224).

St. Pope John Paul II, Grattissimam Sane

“The Church wishes to carry out her educational mission above all through families who are made capable of undertaking this task by the Sacrament of Matrimony, through the ‘grace of state’ which follows from it and the specific ‘charism’ proper to the entire family community.”


St. Pope John Paul II Familiaris Consortio

“...the Christian family, in fact, is the first community called to announce the Gospel to the human person during growth and to bring him or her, through a progressive education and catechesis, to full human and Christian maturity.”


Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism states that “parents receive the responsibility of evangelizing their children” and calls them the “first heralds” of the faith (2225). The family is called “domestic church”—the church of the home (CCC 2224).

St. Pope John Paul II, Grattissimam Sane

“The Church wishes to carry out her educational mission above all through families who are made capable of undertaking this task by the Sacrament of Matrimony, through the ‘grace of state’ which follows from it and the specific ‘charism’ proper to the entire family community.”


St. Pope John Paul II Familiaris Consortio

“...the Christian family, in fact, is the first community called to announce the Gospel to the human person during growth and to bring him or her, through a progressive education and catechesis, to full human and Christian maturity.”