Hallelujah ... there’s one heavenly voice that no churchman can reach

IN A thoughtful homily closing the Knock Youth Festival last weekend, Bishop Donal McKeown of Down and Connor said: “People are dying from a lack of love, a lack of identity and from a sense that the world is meaningless — or at least that their lives have no real meaning.”

No doubt mindful of the age and tastes of his congregation, the bishop went on to pronounce the name of Jesus in the same breath as those of Snow Patrol, Blur and the Killers.

He must also have been mindful of the fact that his congregation was measured in hundreds, while the audiences at the summer’s rock events are measured in tens of thousands.