Sir, - Reading the accounts of the celebrant of a graduation Mass asking non-regular mass going participants not to take Communion, it strikes me that maybe using the Mass as the centre of such a school-leaving ceremony is becoming a sham for many pupils.
As a teacher, I have been involved for many years in the preparation of such a Mass in an all-boys school. Of late I have noticed an increasing lack of interest. After all, a high proportion of Leaving Cert boys don't go regularly to Sunday Mass; if these are to be asked not to receive Communion, surely the whole thing runs the risk of becoming meaningless.
It is their end-of-school celebration not ours; of late I feel I am imposing my way of doing it, with quite a call on tradition to support me. - Yours, etc.,
Noel Casey, Christian Brothers' School, Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary.