. Sometimes the girls in one class would be pitted against the boys : Who could collect the money to name the pagan baby first ? Thanks for a trip down memory lane and validating my recollection. NFL NBA Megan Anderson Atlanta Hawks Los Angeles Lakers Boston Celtics Arsenal F.C. They spoke for an hour and I think that every sentence they uttered had the word pagan in it . The assembly was buzzing . We did that too. Pagan Babies | Commonweal Magazine Pagan Babies By Linda A. McMillin March 12, 2012 I am a Catholic of a certain age, a graduate of parochial school, and a former member of the Association of the Holy Childhood. In Scotland, around 1966 or so, there was something similar in primary school (which one attends from age approx 5 to approx 12, and this school was not R.C. Remember getting a whack across the face at your Confirmatin? Yeah! Stories ensued. Two stories I recall from those days: one boy in my room kept bringing in UNBELIEVABLY large amounts every day (. What was written on the boxes? No one was, in fact, adopted or bought. Hosted a supper the other night for some friends from church. Im pretty sure it was the heavy sell on Pagan Babies and the strong emphasis on the fact that God doesnt like Protestants that caused me to first question the rigid authority of the Catholic Church. I found I really did not have many skills to offer. It was boy versus girl To learn more, Father Andrew Small, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate and National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies talks about Missio on the Catholic Connection (right after the news). "I remember donations that were not enough to "buy" a whole baby we're combined and the . And so I traveled to Guaymas in the Sonoran desert expecting to accomplish great things. . By the way , I was born in SF . Were they some mythic group like the starving kids in China, Hungary, Elsewhere who would have been happy to have your brussels sprouts? Or for the poor, underprivileged kids in the USA? Every month after the money was collected, a students name was randomlypicked out of a bag with the chosen name becoming the Pagan Baby of the Month. Certificates were horizontally displayed above the green & yellow cursive writing examples atop the blackborads. Some Irish nuns were there one day to speak to the students . One guy talked about confession when he was in third grade. My grandmother gave me $5 to buy my A set or two of golf clubs may have been in there . Ransom and Baptism? And the time I put together a shoe box with all the items I needed to go and baptize my Jewish friends across the street, Amy and Kenny Wolpin. I dont believe that UNICEF worries about saving souls. A recent Pew Research Center study revealed that much of Christianity is significantly. Back in the 1950s and early-1960s, and His name is Seth (pretty sure he still has that job, but it cant hurt to check). Drawing its title from Hinckle's parochial education in San Francisco's Sunset District, "Ransoming Pagan Babies: The Selected Writings of Warren Hinckle" released by Berkeley nonprofit. Acts 2:38, 22:16, Rom. MJ, yes, the price was $5.00 and the money was kept in a cigar box, of all things! Thanks . Its a wonderful window on the old days , isnt it ? decided it was no longer a good way to raise money for Catholic missions. kids were allowed to give their baby a Christian name. The beanies covered our heads during morning Mass. I remember the little cardboard boxes and wanting to saving the poor pagan babies. After about a year it didnt seem to grow as fast but I put it down to my own spending habits. PJ. Great sounding rare live tape here by Philadelphia's own PAGAN BABIES from mid 1988. I dont know what state you were in at the time, but I have lived in California for the last 60 years. Here is sister Mary So-and-So in the plane about to fly off to baptize the pagans . Other notable guests included Cardinal Sean OMalley, Archbishop of Boston; Bishop Bejoy DCruze of Sylhet, Bangladesh; actor Andy Garcia, who stars in the film For Greater Glory, which opens June 1; and Noel Campbell, who rode Amtrak for three days from the Coeur DAlene Indian Reservation in northwest Idaho to New York to attend the event. collections to save unbaptized children not taught about God (Pagan Babies). *One of them may have been slightly Asian, but that was pushing things in those days. Through the years, I have often wished I HAD one of those certificates as I have told the story about them to others and NO one seems to BELIEVE IT! All rights reserved. We too raised $$ for pagan babies. Names chosen for each baby were REQUIRED to be the names of bonefide saints, beatified by process through Rome. https://www.ncregister.com/blog/where-did-all-the-pagan-babies-go. Ah , yeah . What does it look like to be conquered by the fire of Christs gaze, as Benedict XVI described? And one final thought: we cant always get our loved ones to practice the faith, but we can offer our alms up for their conversions while benefiting others. Pagan Babies is classic crime fiction from the master of suspense, Ne. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Use a knife, horseshoe, or other piece of iron. Gina and her husband raised their two children in New Jersey and now live in Manhattan. I went to a public school. The novel begins in Rwanda.The protagonist is a priest named Terry Dunn. In our class it was the boys vs the girls. Well I am hurt that you would think I would steal your money to Buy and Name more pagan babies. catholic school 1978-1991. Its to raise money for the school , the salesman countered . While clearly titillating and voyeuristic, these presentations revealed a larger world and highlighted our own privileged place. Remember what he said? There is in the heart of every priest, and I hope in the heart of every Christian, the longing to be a missionary, to be a proclaimer of the good news to the ends of the earth, he said. Im still not so sure . Even though I later went on to become a Catholic priest (and later resigned and married), my robust suspicion that Catholicism did not have all the answers began to take root way back in my young Catholic boyhood. Premium Powerups . I served lunch to old people and I received so many compliments from the old people that I thought that I was a goner . Maryknollers, Franciscans, or Missionaries of Charity, these men and women told riveting tales of adventure and hardship. Each pagan baby cost five dollars. Yet, I wonder, if I had not saved those pagan babies, would I have had the confidence and motivation to go to Mexico? If you want, you can contact the director of music programming at Hawaiian Public Radio, and ask him if hes still using it, though. One guys said one time he was examining his conscience and realized he had tried to act like an adult, so he confessed to his priest that he committed adultery!!! That reflects a certain dignified sincerity on your part , I think . Steve, Thanks for the kind comment . Her latest books are What Would Monica Do? There have to be plenty of them around somewhere . Sign-up for E-NewsletterGet Register Updates sent daily or weeklyto your inbox. No , Sid , Im pretty sure that Jewish people were not considered pagans - but , who knows with some of those nuns . I think most of them were in Africa and India. Many of those kids still have their adoption certificate, like Bob Pagan baby names continue to be popular name choices for many new parents. The teachers all smiled . . I told some Catholic friends about collecting money for Pagan Babies at Dover (Ohio) St. Josephs and they had never heard of such a thing but Im sure we did it. There must be a lot of pagan Davids running around out there, bought with purloined funds. We all worked hard to buy four boy pagan babies so we could name them John, Paul, George, and Ringo. . That $5.00 bought you naming rights. ETA, not such a dimly remembered memoir after all; google remembered it for me. My Jewish neighbors always bought a packet of the Childhood Catholic Christmas seals. At times, it seemed like the nuns in the Catholic School I was attending, would really pressure the students to contribute to the pagan babies. The whole Pagan Babies thing was a big deal every year and resulted in a lot of competition among the 50+ pupils in Sr. Madeline Sophies 2nd grade class. At every Catholic school in those days were I dont remember what exactly the certificates were certifying Im assuming that little Christine Marie had been duly baptized but I know when we were younger we were told that we were buying the pagan babies. Charlie waited for an adequate answer . What did we kids know ! I cant remember now if they ever answered Charlies question . With names like Annan, Bryce, and Kegan for boys and Ashling, Darra, and Kelsey for girls, beautiful names that are based on a pagan or Wiccan origin may be perfect for your child. Back in the 1950s and early-1960s, and possibly before that, the Catholic schools sponsored an ongoing drive to raise money for missions in foreign lands. Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who once said, My greatest love has always been the missions of the Church, was very much a spiritual presence at the dinner, where his name was invoked several times. If you register with MISSIO by noon February 2, 2017, youll be entered for a chance to join the Pontifical Mission Societies on their pilgrimage to Rome in May 2017, and an audience with Pope Francis. Our principal determined that Hush Puppies were insurance against black scuffmarks in halls and classrooms. Herman . I went to Marymount Jr. School in the 60s too. These babies needed to be baptized, and so they needed missionaries, and the missionaries needed money. The concept, To some of us Catholic school old-timers , pagan babies is a secret code , I guess, that gets us entry into some somewhat sardonic memories . I smell the mendacity in this room ! Its funny no one knew about Pagan Babies , though . Something good came from Corpus Cristi. Once the amount was reached, all the names were added to the blackboard and we voted. 1961 66. we collected for pagan babies, but we never got to name them, and there was no box that folded out. Starving kids in Africa or something. Pagan babies may have disappeared from collection boxes but they started showing up in our families. I told that I learned math through confessionit had been two weeks since my last confession, I was mean to my brothers every day, so that was fourteen times, I disobeyed my parents almost every day, so that was about ten times, etc., etc. I remember the rice bowls but no actual rice. I hope my Pagan Baby, Elizabeth Cecilia, is alive and well. Boys usually purchased boys, and girls purchased girls. Then Father Small asked for a second show of hands. She went to Catholic school too, and I dont know if they had pagan babies then, but I bet they did. Ill bet you remember those . American Women Quarters 2023 Rolls and Bags - Bessie Coleman MULTI (D) (P) (S) $40.00 - $60.00 Shop Now 22EH American Eagle 2022 One Ounce Gold Uncirculated Coin West Point (W) $2,670.00 Add to Bag 17XA American Liberty One Ounce 225th Anniversary Gold Coin West Point (W) $2,765.00 Add to Bag Coin Sets A collection of writing that wrestles with contemporary spirituality, within and without the doors of the church, 2023 Commonweal Magazine. Hopefully its from the old days. I got JUG in high school - Jesuits a few times. I should have asked them if they had ever run into any pagan named Herman . So, does anybody remember the plastic prizes (not for pagan baby collections). Girls purchased girls and I received so pennies for pagan babies compliments from the master of suspense,.! Horseshoe, or missionaries of Charity, these presentations revealed a larger world highlighted... 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