And in pagan lands, there are pagan babies. - Karyn D. Steve, Thanks for the kind comment . time, before cynicism and political correctness found their stride. There were just people who needed another shoulder on their plow. Every time we got 5.00 together, we got to buy and name a pagan baby. The cost of a $1.00 seems to be tucked in my memory; because, I think that I recall that a big thing was buying one on your own and then naturally you could name it. Every month after the money was collected, a students name was "randomly"picked out of a bag with the chosen name becoming the "Pagan Baby of the Month.". Resurrection I think the Catholic church needed better PR people back then. probably denoting how much money was collected. Despite its apparent condescending tone at times, it instilled a radical sense of urgency in children that we are responsible for one another.. When you get to heaven have it in your pocket . Hopefully its from the old days. The one boys name that sticks in my head is Zachary. Steve Stahley. Biographies are listed below: 1. I am not the age youre looking for, though, because I am > 50. Gina and her husband raised their two children in New Jersey and now live in Manhattan. How great ! Sometimes the girls in one class would be pitted against the boys : Who could collect the money to name the pagan baby first ? If my parents would only let me go to public school, the church might have had another nun. Her salvation was purchased for $5 at Holy Name of Jesus School in Fishtown, Philadelphia, PA. If I had to walk down an aisle or through a classroom on my own, I tried to muffle the noise by slowing my step. I also remember something about a bridge And then the certificate was put up above the chalkboard. You know the drill . Did the Catholic Schools consider Jewish People Pagans? Pagan Babies: and Other Catholic Memories. Show. The mission has a Church, Cardinal Dolan reminded his guests in his opening remarks. Ransom a Pagan Baby (late 1950s). Campbell, now retired from the film industry where he worked as a technician, told CNY that hed been enrolled in the Holy Childhood Association since seventh grade and that he remembered adopting babies to get them baptized into the faith. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Pagan Babies at Amazon.com. I was not called to be a full-time missionary. Charlie Bloomquist , of course , had a question . I kept a large plastic Seagrams Seven bottle bank in my room at home that I put all my loose change into to save up for stuff I wanted and an occasional pagan baby. Thank God someone sent this information to me and redeemed my sanity. Catholics practice infant baptism because we take care of our childrens basic needs and what is more important than filling them with the Holy Spirit? Happy Fathers Day! Reading this article and all of the comments has brought tears to my eyes Im laughing so hard. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress. I went to a public school. They were missionaries working somewhere in Africa . I have no idea what spurred me on this morning to do a search for Pagan Babies maybe I was trying to recall my first exposure to racism. Anyway , we never got pictures of our pagan babies . She thought that it would be the greatest thing in the world for me to become a nun. With touching little pictures of hungry children. . I remember those statues . Prizes were given if we were successful. Cover Reveal for My Road Trip Cowboy Romance! St. Paul noted that baptism replaces circumcision and circumcision was for infants. They wore full habits in the old style . Gina Cascone grew up in central New Jersey and is the author of Pagan Babies, Mother's Little Helper, and coauthor of twenty-six books for children. 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. This is a serious problem. BUY THIS BOOK Pagan Babies Elmore Leonard. By letting civility happen, we take better care not only of others and of the world itself, but of ourselves. I thought they would all come in a box and be distributed at the end of the school year. Lets never forget that one day we will account for how we helped others. I went Catholic school in NJ and yes, we had pagan babies! Band Name!! Yup. Yes, as a lesson for us to be generous the Pagan Babies idea may well have been beneficial . But for five dollars we could play Name That Pagan Baby . My parents and the good (well mostly good) sisters tried the best they could based on their beliefs. SubscribeStart your Register subscription today. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Gal 3:27). Yet, I wonder, if I had not saved those pagan babies, would I have had the confidence and motivation to go to Mexico? That fits , I suppose . Great mix of early US HC punk & the then emerging "Youth Crew" sound. Two stories I recall from those days: one boy in my room kept bringing in UNBELIEVABLY large amounts every day (.75 here, $1.16 there). The Irish nuns in their full habits immediately looked around at the teachers as if to say , Arent you teaching these children anything ? MISSION CALLArchbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, right, was among the notable guests at the first World Mission Dinner. After about a year it didnt seem to grow as fast but I put it down to my own spending habits. Wowi do remember that now that you mention it. EWTN News, Inc. is the worlds largest Catholic news organization, comprised of television, radio, the salesman said . - Donna B. Maybe the kids of today are more savvy . The principal was standing nearby wondering if he should intervene . You stir up a lot of old memories for me , too . Everywhere a pagan pagan . They took me down to Carmel Hall when I was around 10 or 11 and had me volunteer with the nuns. All good saints names . . Really thought I was saving a baby!" When Father Andrew Small, O.M.I., asked who remembered them at the inaugural World Mission Dinner May 2 at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan, a few hands went up, mostly belonging to people with gray hair. In Common Good Constitutionalism, Adrian Vermeule argues with straw men and cites blog posts. He chose Herman . I seriously want to start a band now, just so I can name us that. Neil Getz on February 21, 2021 at 9:52 am. So then there was an ethical issue that , in some elementary way , even we students recognized . Does ANYONE know where the money did go? Pagan ,pagan, pagan . We, the four oldest who got those tiny banks with a coin slot in the top, were convinced that our small amounts of money (most of which we found on the street while walking home from school, a lot of pennies) would buy us a Little Brown Pagan Baby that we would name Harry (I don't remember why) and that Jesus would love us for that purchase. Please email comments to [emailprotected] and join the conversation on our Facebook page. Yeah , Charlie had a question . - Sharon S. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. When I gave my pennies to the missions, I could make a difference. The pagan baby he purchased was named Daniel James and his $5 gave him a Certificate of Adoption as a Souvenir of the Ransom and Baptism of an Adopted Pagan baby named Daniel James. My imagination was also captured by the missionaries who came to speak to us at least once a year. There were no poor pagan babies to be pitied in Guaymas. To get the bike we have to sell nine million thirty six thousand three hundred and eight candy bars .. Somewhere in the beachhead dump of stuff I call a filing system I have an adoption certificate which states that our class rescued some poor benighted child from the toils of Satan. I still find myself wishing THOSE people had relatively lackluster and unsuccessful lives. "I remember donations that were not enough to "buy" a whole baby we're combined and the Those who would like to know what became of their pagan babies will soon get a chance to find out when Pontifical Mission Societies formally launches its Great Works Campaign in the coming months. Acts 2:38, 22:16, Rom. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1202140.htm, http://asksistermarymartha.blogspot.com/2006/08/announcing-pagan-baby-reunion.html. Along with the Pagan babies does anyone remember selling books of small stamps people could use on envelopes? Anyway, I attended Catholic grade school from 1962 - 1970, and we collected money for pagan babies during Lent. Needless to say, Zachary stuck. A freshly sprung ex-con turned stand-up comic, Debbie needs some fast cash, too, to settle an old score. Ah , maybe it taught us some basic values , anyway ( or maybe it screwed us up so badly that we dont even realize how much ) . Now I am teaching fourth grade in a little Catholic school in Venice . Watch for these changes, Eight more pro-life activists for FACE Act violations. I had my little yellow UNICEF box, and they asked if it was for the Pagan Babies. Then we got a certificate and the children got a medal. Please log in to comment by clicking here, Fordhams Greenhagen Finalist for National Scholar-Athlete Award. I had one certificate for I remember Green Stamps . Each was presented with a medallion featuring a representation of the papal keys. I attended Dominican High School (1966 to 1970) and actually it was in those years that I started my wayward path. But they do a lot of things for children like provide food and clean water and mosquito nets. I believe it helped me get through this crazy life :-)) kids were allowed to give their baby a Christian name. We were never quite sure what a pagan was . It was pretty obvious he was showing off his flawless French accent. Never heard the term. ETA, not such a dimly remembered memoir after all; google remembered it for me. I can still see the certificates posted above the blackboards. For every $10.00 collected you got name the baby. Remember it like it was yesterday. I was beginning to think I had created this whole idea of Pagan Babies myself. My grandmother gave me $5 to buy my class voted on names. They were befuddled . And the fact that you great people, so distinguished, so esteemed, would be here this evening to rally around this sacred responsibility of missions, what a source of inspiration and joy.. Each time I hope to combine for them the Holy Childhoods call of responsibility with the lessons I learned in Guaymas: the difference between pity and solidarity, the complexity of the global structures that create poverty and need, and the smallness of our efforts at making a difference. They folded out . 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. Order Bulk SubscriptionsGet a discount on 6 or more copies sent to your parish, organization Your email address will not be published. Marianne Bruce is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Edgardo Gonzalez Pagan. Right, but there must be some type of guidelines that must be met for that to happen. I mentioned pagan babies and Im still not sure if they believed me. Pingback: A Poor Church For the Poor | Vox Nova, Pingback: Remembering a Different A-to-Z Challenge | No Facilities, This was too much fun. Bonus question: Did children in Europe collect coins for the pagan babies? So it had to be pretty official, like our nun just couldnt pull a certificate out of her drawer and fill in the name.no, I think that it had to be signed by the big Catholic mucky-mucks. We boys , I think , had a sense of accomplishment somehow because even though he had been caught Cary still had the satisfaction of knowing that a pagan would go through life named Herman because of him . Their adopted Pagan Babies were then given the Sacrament of Baptism. Some Irish nuns were there one day to speak to the students . Names chosen for each baby were REQUIRED to be the names of bonefide saints, beatified by process through Rome. I remember the little cardboard boxes and wanting to saving the poor pagan babies. We'd all suggest names, and then vote for the one we liked best. (After Vatican II beanies were no longer necessary.) There must be a lot of pagan Davids running around out there, bought with purloined funds. Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? There were milk cartons to hold the money. There was excitement in the air . Linda A. McMillin is a professor of history at Susquehanna University. Im still not so sure . I guess this went on everywhere. It sure wouldnt work on the savvy kids of today. I attended St. Judes Grade School in Detroit, Michigan (1958 to 1966) and as I recall Pagan Babies were a big thing. Those were the days , eh ? Good luck. Thanks for checking out my blog about my fathers WWII service on the PT boats. And my mother prayed. The teacher had a stack of them . For a boy we were expected to choose a name like Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. - Nancy K. Take a look and see why Im so excited about this app and will be promoting it every chance I get. Sometimes disabilities don't fall along "guidelines" and some people just need a little extra help. If we sold a certain amount wed get a plastic statue of Mary and Jesus. The campaign will celebrate the legacy of love and support the program offered, and recall the babies with whom American children once connected through the Holy Childhood Association. I Googled it because of my conviction that it was an acronym and I just couldnt quite figure out what the E stood for. Thanks for the comment ! The idea was to collect money from students , nickels and dimes , for charity . Oh my, what a great story. Of course, there was always the show-off who bought a whole pegginbebbie for themselves and got to name it without any of OUR help. Bonus question: Did children in Europe collect coins for the pagan babies? Those who would like to know what became of their pagan babies will get a chance to find out when Pontifical Mission Societies formally launches its Great Works Campaign in the coming months. Except in the case of fourth grade, 1964, just after the Beatles hit America on Sullivan. 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. Read 283 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. My dad was in the Navy out in the Pacific in WWII . Seems like 100 years ago , doesnt it ? Save that document. Id give my expected nickel or dime each week . We didnt get a chance to vote on a name because he could name him himself. No longer just an auxiliary fundraiserthis was my chance to be part of the action! With missionary nuns and pagan babies for starters. They changed the name because it had grown beyond the initial save the war-torn orphans mission. In the book, Pope Francis also addresses corruption at the Vatican, abuses committed by members of the Church, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russias invasion of Ukraine, among other topics. possibly before that, the Catholic schools sponsored an ongoing drive to raise money Oh my goodness! But I assured her that my Karen went straight to heavenMonsignor had said so and celebrated a Mass of the angels in white vestments rather than the usual funeral Mass in her honor. I still have the ransom certificate to prove it. Youre too late. You :-)) My vocation has been in education, and in the thirty-plus years since my summer in Mexico I have accompanied students on many short sojourns to the front lines in Tijuana, Nicaragua, El Salvador, East Los Angeles, New Orleans. "I named my Pagan Baby Patrick. We went to Blessed Sacrament Grade School in LaCrosse and pagan baby buying was fierce and rampant; Within grades, boy / girl and between grades. 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