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Priest’s mother: ‘Speak often and loudly about God…’

AMY FERRARA SMITH | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 03.14.08

The mother of St. Rita pastor, Father Tom Collins, questions why she didn’t speak sooner and more often about God to her children as they were growing. Father Collins is second from the right in this Collins’ family photograph from 1982.

PANAMA CITY | Not too long ago, one of Mary Kay Collins’ four grown sons approached her — twice — about God. He wanted to know why she had kept silent her thoughts about religion when they were growing and developing into men.

“I just can’t figure out what possessed me to keep my mouth shut,” said Collins, “and not share with my kids all that I had been blessed with as far as knowledge and love of my faith goes.”

A parishioner of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Panama City, Collins is a product of Catholic school education from first grade through high school. She attended a Catholic women’s college for two years before spending another two years in the novitiate of a teaching order. After she left the convent, she married a fellow Catholic and had four sons.

For her children, she continued the cycle of Catholic education when it was available as they traveled with her husband’s Air Force job, leaving the teaching of God up to the nuns and priests. But now, she realizes that doing so isn’t enough.

“Historically, Catholics were in the habit of not supporting the church because they didn’t have to: Religious did it for free, because they had dedicated their lives to God,” she said. “And, historically, parents left the teaching about God, the church, the Mass, the Blessed Mother, etc., to the nuns and priests through the parochial schools,” she said.

The son who approached his mother to question her silence about God is now Father Tom Collins, pastor of St. Rita Parish in Santa Rosa Beach.

“It’s the parents’ responsibility to initiate the conversation about God,” said Father Collins, “or to speak about matters of faith.” Parents can’t rely on Sunday Mass and CCD classes to teach their children, he added.

“Our son has been ordained for 16 years,” Mary Kay Collins said. “He graduated from a rigorous university in chemical engineering. He is able to do the work of the priesthood efficiently and well without time-wasting struggles, yet he is beginning to feel overwhelmed with being unable to find a way to get people to have a greater understanding and love for the Catholic faith and to share it with their children and grandchildren because he can’t do it all by himself.”

According to Father Collins, lay ministry in the Catholic Church is becoming much more necessary, as there are fewer priests and religious to take on the task of teaching young people.

“Sound the alarm in your parish,” said the priest’s mother. “There is so much that can be done immediately and so much that can be done as soon as the people of God understand the seriousness of the situation and increase their donations so that people with credentials and knowledge of our faith can be hired with a living wage to help the priests teach our youths.”

Msgr. C. Slade Crawford, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Perry and director of vocations for the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese, emphasized that profound parental involvement is key to encouraging children to be involved in the church, either through lay ministry or a call to the ordained life.

“There is no substitute for parents teaching the faith to their children,” he said, “and giving witness by their practice.” Parents need to teach their own understanding of the faith, he continued.

“Either we take on the task of teaching our children and grandchildren about our loving God, our church, the Bible, the good news, etc.,” said Mary Kay Collins, “or we seriously support our church with our treasure.”

Father Collins agreed that it requires hired staff and additional resources to offer more religious education to parents, who, in turn, offer it to their children. And that, he said, requires money.

“Speak often and loudly about God in our lives and in theirs,” Mary Kay Collins said. “Don’t leave it up to the CCD volunteers who have your children and grandchildren for maybe an hour a week.”

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Priest’s mother: ‘Speak often and loudly about God…’

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