<p>Toledo, I don’t think you should feel obligated to go. If you want to, fine. If not, don’t. In my experience Catholic funerals and weddings are mostly about being Catholic, not about the deceased or the married couple. (I was raised Catholic, but am not one now.) I would expect this pattern to hold for baccalaureates.</p>
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<p>Possibly because so many people take pains to say that one does NOT have to be Catholic to feel comfortable at Georgetown, BC, et al. Look in any thread on the subject on CC, and you will find people lambasting anyone who worries about it.</p>
<p>My D is going to attend a Catholic school in the fall though we are not Catholic. The last event for Orientation is a Mass, and after that the parents are invited to leave and the kids’ orientation starts in earnest. I’ve heard it’s beautiful and emotional and I am looking forward to it even though we’re not Catholic or even very religious.</p>
Certainly one does not have to be Catholic, but does one expect that to mean that there are zero vestiges of religion on the campus or in its activities? Surely, if one is adamantly opposed to such ideas one would go elsewhere? Personally, I wouldn’t lambast anyone who “worries about it” since there are places I would not feel comfortable sending S or D based on their professed ideologies.</p>
<p>If you’ve avoided all masses for 4 years and DS doesn’t want to go, you may not find the most beautiful service possible meaningful even if all the other attendees do.
My daughter’s high school held a baccalaureate mass and it was lovely and far more meaningful than the graduation ceremony the next day.</p>
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<p>This statement really confuses me. If none of the religious aspects of the school mean anything to you, why would you do this?</p>
<p>Certainly not. Nevertheless, people who worry that their non-Catholic progeny might not be comfortable at various Catholic schools are routinely told here that their concern is misplaced. I don’t agree. I hasten to add that I don’t have any problem with a religiously-affiliated school displaying signs of its faith. It is to be expected. (The issue seems to come up mostly with Catholic schools. People don’t seem to expect the Protestant Christian schools to be as inclusive.)</p>
<p>As an ex-Catholic, I find the idea of a non-Catholic participating in communion somewhat disrespectful, even rather shocking. (What, no confession?!? Obviously ingrained training dies hard. Communion is a sacrament, not a tourist affair.)</p>
<p>We are protestant and our church offers communion to everyone. I took communion several times at catholic churches before being told that I shouldn’t. </p>
<p>I am one of those people who says you don’t have to be catholic to go to a catholic school. It really hasn’t been an issue. The purpose of this thread was to find out what this mass is about, in case we may want to attend. Is it mass, with a mention of graduation, or a truly unique mass?</p>