Warnings for boys who have enrolled in some congregation or oratory.
Don Bosco encourages the young to frequent the sacraments in their regular parish or oratory/youth centre, “since this will contribute much to good example and will encourage others to frequent the sacraments,” and to establish a childlike confidence in the spiritual director there; he recommends that youths show particular respect to priests.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law, another major reform for implementing the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, affirms that Catholics have a responsibility to fulfil their Christian duty towards “the particular church to which they belong according to the prescripts of the law,” and to “promote the growth of the Church and its continual sanctification.” Without prejudice to their own conscience, Catholics are “bound to follow with Christian obedience those things which the sacred pastors, inasmuch as they represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith;” they should feel "free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones,” always acting with reverence towards them.
The theological principle being appealed to here is the communal nature of faith. While faith is something which each individual must personally own, no individual’s faith is strictly their own possession or achievement: each individual’s faith is a participation in the faith of the community founded upon Jesus’ Apostles and their successors. As such, every individual must appreciate that their faith is ultimately a gift which has been handed onto them, and that nobody has the right to individually dictate the faith life of their community (except, of course, the Pope when speaking ex cathedra). This means that pastors do not have the right to personally dictate the faith lives of the community entrusted to them; indeed, the lay members of the faith community “have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church,” and “to receive assistance from the sacred pastors out of the spiritual goods of the Church, especially the word of God and the sacraments.”
In the same respect, the laity should not take their faith lives for granted, appreciating that there would be no sacraments at all were there not men willing to sacrifice their lives for the Church and this ministry. Truly, when one considers how blessed they are to belong to the Church, and to have a faith community with whom to worship and receive the sacraments, the only suitable response is gratitude, and the best way one can show their gratitude is through generously contributing to the growth and sanctification of their particular Church as best they can.