Is there a place for lapsed or lukewarm Catholics?

TP O’MAHONY has been reporting on religious affairs for more than 30 years. He dislikes the Humanae Vitae encyclical and Pope John Paul II (Irish Examiner, April 8) because the pontiff proclaims the gospel and not the meanderings of liberal trendies.

I agree you cannot coerce people into being good or mediocre Catholics, but the same applies to most faiths. As for Bishop Murphy of Kerry, he was pointing out that if parents do not practise their faith, and only use Catholic schools as a means of educating their children, then the only reason the children receive the sacraments is because they happen to attend a Catholic school.

I know of children who were baptised, received first communion, were confirmed, and one or two married and that was the only time they were inside a church, except maybe for a funeral.