With reference to John Azzoppardi’s letter, ‘People’s present predicament’ (November 19), I go all the way with him in his concern for the increasing loss of important tenets of our Catholic faith by our upcoming generations.

Hypocrisy and failing to practise what we preach have a lot to do with the disaffection for all civil and religious teaching authority they feel. It produces an explosive atmosphere that is easily set off even by the most nonsensical of anti-religious propaganda.

But not all complaints about religion are nonsense. Certainly not for those who make them in good faith. A lot of what atheists say against God and religion is really against a god in whom we should not believe and a religion which we should not practise. Such complaints deserve our attention and dialogue, assuming our opponents’ good intentions.

And we should not be aiming just at their conversion. We should first of all see how much we have to accept of what they are saying and see what we have to update, reform and change. It has always been said that the Church should always be reforming itself. Their criticism could help us see where we have to change. And that’s the best way to help them convert.