Francis

 

Confirmation Day

   When I was growing up, Catholics did not have Sunday school classes, just Mass. And our public schools had one day of the week with a shorter schedule so the Catholic kids could leave early and actually go somewhere else for religious instruction! 

     In grade school, it was Thursdays, and bizarre as it sounds now, we walked from Boston Valley Elementary down Back Creek Road to Zimmerman, then to the old Route 219 past the law office where Mom worked and then we had to cross 219 to get to the North Boston Fire Department where we had our religious instruction classes. I seem to recall there was an adult or two along with us for the walk, but there was not really a lot of rigid structure for the walk – I can remember it being rainy sometimes, and of course, cold in the winter – but I do not think there were ever any injuries or complaints about the whole thing being unsafe. I can't imagine anything like this going on these days – parents allowing their children to walk along country roads during school hours in inclement weather and/or using tax dollars to carve time out of the public school week to accommodate some of the kids' religious instruction!

     Each grade had its own class in the fire hall, and one year I remember my class was in the little tiny hall for the lavatories, folding chairs crammed in every which way and the volunteer teacher acting like it was not at all strange.

     In Junior High, we walked about a mile down sidewalks in Hamburg to get to St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church on religious instruction day, again on Thursdays. The church had a school – it was where I took Saturday classes at the age of seven to prepare for First Holy Communion. So we had regular classrooms and nuns for teachers.

     In eighth grade we were getting ready for the sacrament of Confirmation. I do not remember this as vividly as I do the catechism drills and confessional stresses of First Communion. All I do recall is that the ceremony would involve walking up to the altar with a sponsor – kind of like a godmother when getting baptized, and the Bishop himself would give a blessing and then a traditional slap on the face! Confirmation is the time when we supposedly have thought things through on our own – as opposed to Baptism and First Communion – and commit ourselves to our faith and religious community. We even take on a new name – a Confirmation name!

     What would my new name be? Who would my sponsor be? Well my sponsor was a friend of the family named Fran. Her husband, Sam, had been the postmaster at the post office in North Boston when it was attached to the law office where my Mom worked. And then after a while Fran worked there with him, and later it was just Fran – I don't remember if Sam then had another job or not. But they became friends with Mom and Dad, going out socially. They were Catholic – and so it was a good choice to ask Fran to be my sponsor.

     At the altar, the Bishop asked my new name to which I replied Francis – then he slapped me – just a tap on the cheek. And that was it.

     After Confirmation, Mom said that the important part of my religious instruction was complete and it was my choice if I wanted to continue going to classes after eighth grade. Well I was so curious to find out what all the other kids were doing at school when we Catholics walked down the street to church on Thursday afternoons, that I opted in ninth grade to not go to religious instruction anymore. And on those Thursdays, when the Catholics left, we sat in our homerooms and had study hall – which meant I mostly goofed off.

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