A very spiritual and social Catholic lady who has been living in Malta for over 30 years, Anita Kilbride-Jones of St Paul’s Bay, has quoted a well known international preacher who observed that the Gospel needs to be preached in simple words and in such a way that even a seven-year-old child can understand it.

The complicated and obscure language used by some of our Catholic ecclesiastical authorities leaves much to be desired andleads our people to boredom and indifference.

Honesty is the best policy. Otherwise, who are we trying to fool, if not ourselves? Maybe this is why our youngsters, and not so young people, are giving up and abandoning the Catholic Church. They often find it boring, irrelevant and indifferent.

Hence the Church’s message becomes tasteless and easy to reject. And they seek pastures new elsewhere where things make more sense and the message is crisp and clear.

Christ’s Gospel is demanding and is no good for softies. The Ten Commandments too are demanding and are no good for softies either – quite a handful, but those are the rules of God’s club.

Our Catholic churches still function well, but they are getting emptier by the day. What good is it if we have beautiful stone churches full of colourful decorations when good receptive and responsive congregations are missing?