I was baptised Catholic. Raised Jewish. Long story family dynamic. Became Christian at 25, Catholic now. Love your site, thanks man, every morning, I look on youtube for you. May our Lord bless your work.
Queer old world we live in, I was baptized Catholic, left when I reached the use of reason and I slowly began to realize the Jews have had it right all along, right from the very beginning Christianity was a fraudulent Roman, Greco fabrication established as the religion of the old Roman Empire after the Roman, Jewish war 70 c.e. and goes without saying, the victors always write history and they were willingly and ably assisted by a bunch of disillusioned Jewish renegades and collaborators when the promised Messiah failed to materialize, Josephus, Paul, Marcion and the rest of the so called ''Church Fathers''. Constantine then later established the new religion throughout the empire and if persuasion failed dungeon fire and sword did the necessary.
We sent our children to Catholic schools on the UK in the 70's and 80's thinking they would be taught the faith just as we were in the 50's and 60's but we were sadly mistaken. It seems all they were taught in religious education was to be nice to each other. I'm convinced this is one of the major reasons for the falling away of so many people from the church. They just don't know what the church teaches because they were never taught it.
I heard a killer line on daily exogenesis on the hallow app that goes something like "Only those who actively seek christs face will understand Gods will and how to please God as a true disciple of faith"
@@mufc99ok its not only knowledge but the heart. When Moses saw how hard the hearts of the Israelís had become like pharohs he felt sorry for them and warned them. Our hearts have changed. OSX a preacher asked a woman if she saw Jesús descending from the Clouds would she follow christ. Her response "No because I like my life just the way it is". Again a hard heart. All we can do is pray. Draw closer to God and let God do the impossible which is shattering and remaking the heart of man.
I’m praying we all open our hearts, minds, ears to Christ, to hear Him. Barriers of pride need to be knocked down. Saints Anna and Simeon,, so faithful and persevering in prayer for years in God’s temple, please pray we have the same steadfast hearts, so we will not miss seeing Christ today in our world!!! 🙏
In my parish in the UK we are already preparing for churches within our Pastoral Areas to be closed. We will then have one Priest and we won't have Mass every Sunday. Not everyone will be able to get to Sunday Mass every week - particularly the elderly. Those of us who are lucky enough to drive will have to, and I know they will, make sure, as much as possible, to get people to Mass. O my God, we have offended You and we are so very sorry - please come to our aid.
We are spiritual beings in a physical world. We all need to be fed spiritually, if not from the Holy Spirit, people will turn to other things. Evil has blinded people and they turn to Google Internet etc, the new age etc. It saddens me to see and hear. God will not let this go on forever. Unity, repentance, reparation for sins.
Here in St. Louis, Missouri we are witnessing the mass merging and closures of parishes this year. I hurt deeply when I drive by an empty church for sale by our archdiocese. I am lucky to attend a TLM Oratory, full of crying babies- a handful of which are my own. Lord, help us.
Pray with your kids daily !! If the domestic Church is not strong then the parish won’t be strong. Especially important that both parents are committed in the faith and pray with their kids
One will not fill the Church ny dumbing down its teaching and rich heritage. That is counterproductive as is the dismantling of the parish structure which beggars belief. People need God and the Church and teaching Christ's message in all its fullness.
As a person who nearly always went to mass daily and never missed Sunday or Holy day masses, said the rosary nightly while my four children were young I cannot understand how my four children now are non believers. It started with each one of them when they went to secondary school they all of a sudden decided that they did not believe in God. I have tried over the years to encourage them to pray a little but to no avail. I am still wondering to this Day what happened in Secondary school that turned them off their religion. all that is left for me now is to pray that our good Lord will fill their hearts and by the way they all have great hearts when it comes to doing good for the less well off as they can be extremely helpful to their neighbour. I believe that the priests and faith groups should be very much present in the secondary schools and maybe save the future generation.
I know you recently said something related about this but I think we should also support Catholic businesses like Benedictus Books. If we don’t, and they disappear, we’ll only the the worse, ultimately.
Hello Robert, I'm not sure if you are aware but there is a case in Spain where a priest, Father Custodio Ballester is charged with a hate crime for writing an article regarding Islam titled "El imposible diálogo con el Islam"/The Impossible Dialogue with Islam back in 2016. Charges brought in 2020. His case is still unresolved. The prosecutor is asking for three years in prison. Perhaps we can have your observations regarding that case. For a people that was conquered by Muslims and had to pay jizya and had their Christian religion heavily regulated and then fought 800 years to rid themselves of Islamic domination, it is astonishing.
So very true and I have exactly the same warm feeling. We are very lucky to have a lot of young families in our parish (extraordinary coincidence that they are mostly home school families). Another coincidence is our ties to a much more traditional Mass.
Almost no children in Mass in Germany. My five kids go but often there are no others there or maybe one. There is a lot of negativity about kids as they can cry or act up, but we desperately need more of them attending Mass.
When our children were Uranus, we dreaded that one of them would start crying because the pp would stop dead and say something like “would the parents please take that child out”. -What goes round comes round.
As an American of Irish descent let me say the answer to this problem is Eucharistic Processions and Rosary processions all over Ireland.If the clergy and bishops in Ireland are as bad as they seem I pray the SSPX,ICKSP and FSSP pick up the banner and begin!❤️
Our church has a new priest 😅 So so happy he has incorporated latin into the new order mass. He uses incense/candles and he is so reverant (I actually cry a bit behind my glasses 😂 mass is now Alive again (like years ago!!!!. But what is important is the church is now Packed Solid no where to sit!!!The church has come alive again (what does this tell you?) You know he will now probably be cancelled by our pope,for making the mass holy again😢 no I shouldn't say that ❤
Vatican II actually asks for Latin to be used in the Mass. The Church is concerned with schismatic TLM leanings. They will not cancel your mass. There's some misunderstanding about all this.
Bishops and priests aren’t brave enough to tell the laity - Then we the Laity, need to tell our brothers and sisters. Our family transitioned to homeschooling 3 years ago, it was the best decision we could have made regarding the FORMATION of our children’s faith, and building and becoming part of a community of likeminded families. 95% of the children attending mass in our parish are homeschooled kids. My two oldest boys are going through confirmation classes right now, and 13 kids are attending (which is REALLY high), but only half of the families in attendance actually attend mass. We NEVER see the other families in church except at baptism, first communion, now confirmation... it’s obvious where we are heading. One of the many reasons we pulled our kids from the ‘Catholic’ school was after our oldest attended his beginning of school year Mass, and proclaimed to me the following Sunday that he didn’t want to go to Mass because it was ‘boring’… an obvious influence from his peers when they attended to church together. School Masses - based on my experience growing up, and now as a parent, are one of the quickest ways to use negative peer pressure from non-church attendee students AND teachers to influence otherwise faithful kids to not want to attend Mass, to influence them to believe it’s useless, dorky, and completely unnecessary. Contrary Advise - if you are a faithfully practicing Catholic, and you cannot homeschool - at least keep your kids home on days when you know there will be a school Mass, and attend another daily Mass with your child/children instead. Our kids now really look forward to going to Mass as ALL of their good friends are also homeschooled, and faithfully attend. Build community that is centered on our faith, and not merely a boring thing you’re obligated to do once a year…. I’m of the opinion that publicly funded Catholic Schools in Canada need to be led by bold bishops who will stand up to atheist teachers unions, and that the bishops need to simply pull their support. The church needs to rebuild from a faithful core - and we do definitely need to be willing to literally die for our faith, and to truly evangelize and tell the truth.
No. The Latin Mass isn’t a magic solution to our Problems. But everything around it helps, such as catechisis, community, formation etc.. we really can’t go back, because we also had issues prior to Vatican 2, we need to purify and move forward
I was just thinking that idea because I perhaps had the mistaken idea we had more people in trad seminaries than novus ordo one’s. Completely agree with all your points. I must do better.
FSSP in Spain: 1 priest & 9 Spanish seminarians (in Germany) FSSP has 569 priests, with over 200 seminarians. What is the regular diocese ratio? The average age of FSSP priests: 39. You do the math spykezspykez7001.
@@thecatholicman I don’t want to disagree with you, but since we adopted a more traditional Mass (not a TLM, but much more traditional) we are seeing a growing congregation. For example, I’d estimate 40% of our congregation kneel and receive Communion on the tongue. Our confession lines are long and we even extended the hours for confession. We did lose some parishioners to the more modern churches, but gained far more new families and young families.
Most parishes are dying in the Netherlands, the only one that are growing are the ones with the Latin mass. But why? it's of course a long story. it can be summed up at what the woman says at @4:24. the subtitles mentioned the Mass, but she called a service intead of the Holy mass. And this is at its root the problem in the Netherlands. A protestant culture mixed with Catholicism. Most Catholics in the Netherlands act like protestants. ''sacarments are a symbol, Church is not important you can do it at home, and instead of The holy mass it is a service. this decline came of course after the 60s when the church removed reading and teaching the catechism, child masses and reverence in the church. After the so-called reformation the Catholics in the northern part of the Netherlands faced persecution. it was illegal to be Catholic for 400 years all the Churches were taken. so they had to build there own beautiful hidden churches, protect there bibles, and priests had to be anonymous. during that time they were so virtuous. But look at state of Catholicism now. God have mercy on us.
Take your point Robert (this is a good video); the greatest strength of the VO, & corresponding weakness of the NO, is respect for the Eucharist. No going back once this is noticed. It goes against everything
The now infamous Ml Voris once mentioned that, after hundreds of years of trying to remove Catholic faith from Ireland, all it took was divorce and abortion to achieve in one generation what our neighbor failed to do over hundreds of years…….he has a point!
the powers that be learnt how to crack Ireland by money. in the uk, its been by swamping institutions with the politics of „nice“ ie nasty. in france, aggressive republicanism. in germany, via saying the church was in with hitler. … but there hasbeen one overwhelming attack on Christianity. all Christians unite. drop the divisions. ask what do we have in common.
@jonathanstory6802 a good analysis there Jonathan. In the parish where I grew up there was Mass offered every Sunday on the hour every hour starting at 07.00hrs and the last Mass started at 13.00hrs. Attendance across 11.00, 12.00 and 13.00 saw full pews (500 people per Mass). This was the case up to early 1990s. The decrease in attendance since has been very steep. The real question I think is was Mass attendance simply a cultural thing? I see the same people who used to attend in the local shops/pubs/restaurants. So the same people who attended are still around, they just don't attend Mass anymore.
I suggest we start focusing more on Bishop Barron, whose whole thing is EVANGELIZATION, and on appealing to people who actively distrust the church, and see no need for a church in their lives. This, sadly is how most people are today. I suggest that focusing on things like the Latin Mass, Communion rails, etc are basically wasting time. True, the TLM should be re -established and communion rails re -installed. But those things merely speak to those who already possess a desire to go to church. We need to be focusing on telling the world WHY being Catholic or Christian will make their lives infinitely richer. The whole world is going pagan on us, out of extreme ignorance. All media and TV hate Christians. Most governments hate Christians. You need to break the wall to young people and offer them something that will make their life better. More evangelizing, like the Apostles and great Missionaries. Less obsession with the form of the mass and minor things like communion in the hand. Put first things first, and we can create a better more reverent mass along the way. But the way things are going, we will have reverent masses with nobody at them. Evangelize. It's our job, not someone else's
The problem with your perspective is that none of that conversion can happen without the grace of God and the world is not going to have God's grace unless and until the Church stops offending Him. But if you have novel ideas on how to "reach out" to worldly people and sell the message, I'm sure everyone would love to hear it. The big unresolved issue is that you're going to have a hard time selling the sacrificial message of the Gospel vs. the world's message which is "do whatever pleases you".
@user-tx3ht2te1t Exactly. There is a concerted effort to destroy Ireland. It's faith, people, families and culture. Certainly the country went for the materialism and seemingly through their faith out the window but outside forces used the Church scandals to destroy the social fabric using anti-Christian journalists. Every single day the Irish times spews it's Catholic hatred and the readers eat it up. Mass immigration is another ruse to destroy culture.
I always said the abortion referendum was the final straw, and many voting yes for killing an unborn baby opened the floodgates to all kinds of evil. These last 6 years in Ireland have been proof of that. Our ancestors are turning in their graves.
@user-tx3ht2te1t I remember that, it was during lockdown. It was deeply upsetting to see how and why this happened in Gods house and Our Lord present in the tabernacle.
You may want to take your family on a family outing to God’s Cottage! It looks like a wonderful place! I really like Fr. Thady! You both seem to bring calm in storms!
Good podcast. And a lot of food for thought. Yes, the clergy are hugely stretched at the moment trying to administer the sacraments, doing pastoral work, doing parish administration. So we Laity do need to step up and be counted. And missionary zeal is an accurate description. Robert, for what is required to be done. Thanks
Thanks for your wake up call Robert. The direction of the next ten years seem quite clear, affecting everybody. There will be tide of sincere spiritual people, by the millions, flooding into the Catholic Church, and the other Apostolic churches. Why?, because our honeymoon with affluent self indulgence is about to end for everybody very shortly. If this happens in a very dramatic way, it will be massive disaster, with a golden lining. Probably the main reason why people ignore God is because it seems that we can have a very pleasant, comfortable, interesting, satisfying, safe life without God. We have thrown the baby out with the bath water. People who are stuffed with cake and sweets just couldn't eat a decent healthy dinner, no matter how well intentioned they are. When the wild party is over good sense returns, and a good appetite returns to everybody.
I cannot agree that the Traditional Latin Mass is not the answer, which implies that it is going back to the 1950s. That is a false parallel. The TLM rediscovered and its beauty and timelessness better understood and appreciated now, is the future. Young priests and young generations know this: when done beautifully and with wonderful heart, its vital, nourishing living Faith and liturgy are insparable, and bring countless graces. I think like many you are not reading the room. Indeed to the higher echelons it is a threat, and so the decline of mainstream church is guaranteed whether or not people are awake to it or not. Guaranteed. And that is, these days, mostly because of rubbish liturgy, however reverent, it's uncompelling and has been from the start. The church simply needs to be more honest about itself .
Sanctity and union with God is the answer. There are many many living saints to go to the new mass . I love the TLM, but it’s not a magic solution to a crisis of faith.
Im Irish and lived in the Netherlands for 14 years. The culture there is very different to Ireland. They live very 'formal'. Lengthy sermons read out from a pre-prepared script. Children dressing like they are going to the beach when they are making their First Holy Communion. My daughter was the only one wearing a white dress. Have no fear, Ireland will hold onto it's churches. There is a decline but you are very correct it's up to families to keep faith in the homes. Open our faith absolutely. We need the young people to pray. Our parish priest is wonderful. He encourages us to pray. The churches in Holland in the 90's were closed all the time except for Mass. Thank God, our churches in rural Ireland are open all day. It's disappointing that churches are closed around Dublin. This is a mistake. I will pray that our young people will turn to God, and especially turn to Our Lady.
What Cathecchesis are you talking about, when the archbishop of Dublin has no propblem with complying with blessing s/s couples. Yes the Bishops have to take tge lead.They have pointed the Faithful in the wrong direction as it is. The Bishops love to.make these big sweeping statements of doom re the Church in Ireland. It is their fault the Faith in Ireland has all.but died..
@@thecatholicman while I agree that everyone must own their faith, history will not be kind to this current Church leadership. I’m not seeing many examples of saints or martyrs.
Lovely ideal but try getting a PP in a rural parish to cooperate with any change... Even getting Adoration for one hour per week... It's just blocked by the PP
The bible I think someone in Numbers or in the Old Testament that God mentions that people need to teach the children in the home... a lot of Catholics FAILED to follow this teaching. If I had died back then when I was addicted to p**n, I would've gone to hell, and it would've been my parents fault partially for putting me in a public school and not teaching me properly at home... but thankfully I was taught a few things I briefly remember... like how Jesus was in the Eucharist (mentioned once by my dad)... I learned a few things from my dad like the Rosary.... and brown scapular... had it not been for him and the mercy of God, I wouldn't have repented and reoriented my life to Jesus a few years back. We can't change the past, parents who have fallen away kids better be on their knees daily at adoration with Rosary beads praying for those kids.
Hearing those interviews with the parishioners from Klinder and it's no wonder God took their church away. I didn't hear any desire for the actual Mass itself, or the Blessed Sacrament, or seemingly anything of God. It was like it was nothing more than a community gathering place for the villagers to be with each other for a time. "Well, no... if the church closes I won't go to Mass in a nearby village. What would be the point of that?" And then you have the others who don't go to the church because they don't want a religion that tells them they can't do whatever they want to do. How do you even begin to reach out to that level of impiety? Even the ancient pagans who at least strove for virtue didn't have that mentality.
I've been to mass in the north of France. We were 8 baptists and enjoying the serious attendance. And the priest announced the gospel of Christ. So far all OK with us baptists. But... It is only three times per year that the church is open. No priests...
A lesson from a vibrant RC community in the USA: give us the fullness of the Text, History, and Tradition-- and we'll come. Active YA (18-3_) groups are incredibly necessary. It'll feel impossible to start-- so try to find and pull back every younger RC man and woman to get together at least on weekly basis. That directly supports teaching catechism, RCIA, discernments for religious life as well as helps Catholics find other Catholics to befriend and date. You'll soon see more young devout couples getting married, baptizing children, bringing their friends and families back into the Church. This is a continual process, it's not enough to do it once at one parish but not try to grow it and replicate it at other parishes, especially in other areas of the diocese. The outward signs are usually reverence inside the Church-- adult altar servers, parishioners receiving on the tongue standing or kneeling, (more) women and girls with their hair covered, etc. Likewise recovering dioceses have seen increased enrollment in their surviving primary and secondary schools. Most of the modernists hate these ideas of actually building up a faith community. They see any attempt to increase reverence as off-putting or hostile and will attack it regularly. We've had bishops and priests refuse to put the Body of Christ on someone's tongue whether they're kneeling or standing for it. Criticizing head coverings and traditional song and uses of Latin in the liturgy (unless they're personally using it) and trying to shame all these things too. They won't encourage or support all-day adoration or daily masses or daily confessions being available or any increase in YA community. The borders of a well-led diocese will attract parishioners from outside, leading some few to travel. Others will find TLM venues (also including SSPX) usually doing a good job in many more areas than their own home parish, and start attending there. But almost everyone who isn't getting their faith needs met will leave and go elsewhere. At this point, seems like 90%+ of new priests are far more reverent and traditionalist than the existing priests and bishops. Hopefully that means we see a shift in leadership back to growing and leading the flock.
Looks like the older hierarchy folks wont save their pensions no matter how hard they bend under the "current thing". Maybe when they realise they have nothing to lose anymore they'll finally start some hardcore evangelisation and do some proper bishop level stuff like in good ole 400s.
Such a travesty........And the very thing that would most likely keep these parishes not only open but cause the to grow of course I'm taking about the Traditional Mass and orthodox theology and prayer life
Younger generations raised in secular western societies don’t relate to fear and behavior control that has been fundamental to organized religion. Jesus taught love of others and service to the poor and those in need. The church can grow again by making that its truly central focus . Younger people would respond very favorably to that. Older people- not so much. They overwhelmingly value the emotional comfort they get from the traditional ceremonies and practices .
@@thecatholicman I was talking a Archbishop and he didn't like the idea of closing Churches but rather joining parishes together but like you said I think that will just exhaust and over extend the Clergy and resources. Plus we need more Churches that are alive so that when we bring people into them, they will want to stay
Restricting the Latin Mass does not seem good and I don’t attend the Latin Mass. I did, before it was banned in my Novus Ordo Church. They took portable kneelers and bells during Consecration away too. . Fiducia Supplicans ? has caused much confusion.
That is kind of him, no doubt. And Kilder is - believe it or not - an opportunity gifted to Catholics by the Lord in answer to Our Lady's urgent petition (with us, or without us). This building - like so many others - is no longer a Parish Church .. therefore - go read the instructions laid down in Traditionis Custodes. We cannot ordain our own priests, lest we become just another Old Catholic or SSPX protest .. which btw is not at the heart of the Catholic Way. But we, when combined, could ask a local bishop to set aside a non-parochial building in which a priest who can offer the Old Order of Mass (without intruding upon the New) may do so .. in all good faith. Here then is the problem .. are we willing, wherever possible .. to take advantage of a just few of the challenges and opportunities now graciously pouring down upon us to left, right, and centre ...? Keep the Faith; tell the truth, shame the devil, and let the demons shriek. God bless. ;o) P.S. We cannot say we were not warned of these our own days .. only that we cared not to prepare for them, etc. No one said it would be easy, or a means of cheap second-hand plastic grace. Yet pennies - and even saved farthings, i.e. quartered pennies - have a way of mounting up to a tidy sum, steadily flowing, and an invitation to interest (if only from heritage foundations, not with overwhelmed chancery budgets); and that is as true of rural Ireland or England as of the Netherlands or the Pilgrim Paths, so provide your bishop with an answer, not another problem to solve.
I remember when the priests used to visit the house. Now they beg for more eucharistic ministers even if there's four of them..got lazy like most of us.
In one way I'm sorry that you didn't become a priest, even a Bishop, Archbishop, Cardinal and possibly even Pope! I'm not being sarcastic, I'm being honest. Most of the current hierarchy and clergy in Ireland don't get what you're saying. I was cathecihsed in the 1960's and everything I was taught by the church is being turned on its head by the current Hierarchy from Rome and down through the ranks. I did mention on another podcast of yours that reform of the liturgy leads to empty churches. Last Ash Wednesday proved that to me in a rural village of approx. 4-5000 people. If it wasn't for the local national school the church would have been practically empty. At 65 years of age I'm probably one of the youngest of the congregation attending that ceremony of which probably could have filled two back pews on either side. When we are all dead and gone so will the church be. The good news is I go as often as I can manage to The TLM in Cork City on Sunday as they cancelled it during the week because of Traditionis Custodus. It's growing all the time. This Bishop is at least addressing the problem in Ireland but he needs more support from other Bishops and maybe to not implement Tradionis Custodus and certainly to stand up and oppose Fiducia Supplicans. Enough is enough!
The indifference of some of the older people in `Kilder is a bad sign. Spiirtual prayer formation is the way alright. Or wait for penecostalists to set up church. Though I dont see them converting people here in numbers. The muslims have a thick outer cultural skin that protects their religious practice. Their religion itself is actually weak in comparison to authentic Christianity (read The 21 Copts) . But they are not docile. That helps alot. The 1000 buildings dont matter. Only souls matter. Thats what God counts. Thats what the Lord will hold us and our Shepherds to account for in the Last Judgement. Good video.
The people don,t seem tobe afraid of God they do there own thing people come first God second I wish you wake up youhave know idea what awaits you on the other side my Church in Canada is full lots of kids start praying people
Considering WWIII is upon us, and Russia has already indicated many times that they will nuke the West, the first target being UK, i think it's proper for bishops to decree: 1. all able faithful, esp men, to help the Church at least 1 hour per week in any capacity. If one claims to not have any skills, this person will pray before the Eucharist for that hour; 2. Bodies that are not able can still do Eucharistic Adoration from home, online, for those with Internet access.
The Irish “faithful” need to stop railing against the Church and start living authentic Christian lives. “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” That from St. Peter Alcantara. Why would someone want to join a Church you can’t stop criticizing? Is that Christian witness? We should be talking about the Saints in the Church and leave the sinners to Jesus.
@@thecatholicman the Church is not and never has been the problem. It can’t be, it is Christs Church. At no point in history has the Church been without problems, or without Saints. Be the Saint!
The Irish Church doesn’t need another critic, it needs another great Saint like St. Patrick or St. Bridget or any of the other Irish Saints who, despite belonging to an imperfect Church in an imperfect world transformed that world by transforming themselves. St. Patrick, like all great Saints had his trails with the Church, but he did not shake his fist against her. Instead we learn from his Confession that he prayed for them, “One time I was put to the test by some superiors of mine. They came and put my sins against my hard work as a bishop. This hit me very hard, so much so that it seemed I was about to fall, both here and in eternity. But the Lord in his kindness spared the converts and the strangers for the sake of his name, and strongly supported me when I was so badly treated. I did not slip into sin and disgrace. I pray that God not hold this sin against them”. Even the modern secular world reveres St. Patrick to this day, yet no one even knows the names of those who “put him to the test”. Constant criticism of the Church is the devils work. As an Irishman who loves the Irish Church, why risk falling “into sin and disgrace”, doing the bidding of the divider. If you want to change the Church in Ireland, BECOME the next St. Patrick.
@@thedomesticmonk772 my video wasn’t a criticism but a call to action. which is why we are starting the School of Mary, (school of prayer next month) we have to move forward and lead. And the only way is union with God and that has to come from prayer,
Here in belfast the schools that our Catholic maintained and run by the catholic church need to tell the teachers in the school to start having religious classes once again because how our the youth to know anything about god if they our not being told about the Catholic faith at home at least they can learn in Catholic run schools about there faith one hour a week for religious class is better than nothing
