Were the Apostolic Nuncio to take the advice of Martin Scicluna (September 6), he would scurry to the Vatican and before he could even catch his breath impress upon the Curia there the urgency and importance of getting over the “historical hangover” of having a bishop guide a flock smaller than those of Birkirkara and Mosta combined.

That, according to Mr Scicluna, is a good enough reason to get rid of the Bishop of Gozo who has this nagging habit of going about “shouting from the sidelines blinded by his own self-righteousness”.

For a “disinterested observer”, as Mr Scicluna declares himself to be, this piece of free advice tends to be a bit over the top.

“The young are deserting (the Church) in their droves”, he then lamented. Judging by the number of tattooed and pierced young people I see in church in their swanky designer clothes, I doubt this is at all correct.

But then the young have been charged with a plethora of misgivings since before the Church even existed. The great Socrates himself is said to have complained that “youth now love luxury... have bad manners, contempt for authority... show disrespect for their elders...”

That was 23 centuries ago and the world has survived notwithstanding the ubiquitous pessimists who seem to think the young are just a crowd of misbehaved, irresponsible idiots. Luckily for humankind (and the Church), they are not.

Understandably, they may prefer to chat on their mobiles and certainly get a greater buzz at a disco than in church, but that is in their nature and it has little to do with how the Church is organised, although it would certainly help if it improved on its communication skills, as Mr Scicluna suggested. Nonetheless the young enjoy one overriding advantage – they have all the time they need to mature and with time most of them do.

Very few mature people who are in the Church desert it. On the contrary, many of those who may have been distracted by other worldly things in their youth tend to be guided by better judgment when they mature. They return to the fold.