I read the report on the interview with Fr René Camilleri.

I can see from where his reasoning is coming and I fully agree, in concept, with the fact that many aspects of the Church – as an institution – have been reduced to pure ritual and that sacraments like baptism and Holy Communion are being administered to members of the Church who do not fully understand their deeper and more intrinsic meanings. However, what struck me most was his assertion that while people’s attitudes were changing, the Church continued to offer the same product it had done for decades.

But what is this ‘product’ if not God Himself? I can perhaps understand Fr René’s issues with the Church but, in my humble opinion, the Church is not God but a bridge towards God. A physical bridge built in the form of an institution for those who need something tangible with which to relate in their quest to reach out to God.

This is not about marketing and making the Church more flashy to attract more people to Sunday Mass. I would rather have a half-empty church with people who are there because they really feel the need to be there.

The product is God and those who truly believe won’t look for other ‘products’. Having said that, the Church remains an institution and needs to be administered and treated as such. If people have personal issues or grudges with ‘the institution’, let not these issues become a grudge with God.

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