Sir, - Rev Patrick Seaver has very astutely summed up the attitudes of many of my generation to the Catholic Church in Ireland at the end of the 20th century.
We grew up in the 1960s and 1970s to a stifling Catholicism which offered no choice in formal worship and taught rote catechism. And when, as teenagers, we questioned the absolutes of the Catholic doctrine, our challenge was not met in any intellectually satisfying way. Yet the rituals of Catholicism and the all-pervasive nature of it in our childhoods have meant that we really have not shrugged it off as we might have thought we did.
So, when our children are born, there is a dilemma which is, in my opinion, exclusive to this generation. Do we abandon ship totally and strike out on a new method of teaching morality to our children or do we acknowledge the place of the Catholic Church and expose our children to a formal spirituality which they can then in turn accept or reject?
My point in all this is that the Church has a unique opportunity to fulfil the spiritual needs of their new generation. If it doesn't capture the imagination of these children, I firmly believe that our children's children will never be introduced to the church - even as "associate members". - Yours, etc.,
Anne O'Callaghan, Leeson Park, Dublin 6.