For First Communion preparation in this parish, we use a 'home-made' course produced by a former Assistant Priest and later refined by Catechists. It is very serviceable though somewhat time-consuming to produce, and I have been keeping my eyes open for an attractive course book which might cover the same ground in the same pattern. So I was full of hope when I received an approval copy of "I belong", a new and very appealingly presented course, from an 'official' Catholic publisher. I began at Page One . . .

The first odd thing I noticed is that nowhere does the book call our Sunday celebration the Mass. It was almost as if this word had been banished by the thought police. Actually there was a slip-up, because on page 129 the book says: "At the end of the Eucharist, the minister says: ‘The Mass has finished’" Well, we don't say that - and the point is it isn't finished, because we take it into the world. But the children must now wonder what this 'Mass' is.

Dealing with the Eucharistic Prayer, the guidelines for catechists say: "Do NOT (capitals original) talk about blood in connection with the wine". The alternative preferred is "Life". This must cause a muddle when the children come to communion and the minister says "The Blood of Christ". There is also much stress on the fact that wine is an 'adult drink'. How preferable is the Italian or Spanish way of introducing children naturally to 'adult drinks' rather than locking them away so that it is then a great thrill to break loose and swill away! I mean, have you ever seen an Italian lager lout?

At what we might call the crux of the book, the consecration, the text says: "The Holy Spirit then enters the bread and wine with the risen life of Christ". But that isn't Catholic teaching! It is a Reformation teaching called Consubstantiation, which tried to mask the Real Presence by saying the bread and wine are still bread and wine but are also 'Christified', so to speak.

Malcolm Muggeridge, who did eventually become a Catholic, had grave reservations about Catholicism's updating of itself. He felt it would lead to "crazed clergy, empty churches and total doctrinal confusion". I cannot comment on the first two, but with regard to the last his prediction seems to be coming true. Quite apart from the current neurosis about "things we mustn't teach children", it must surely be possible to avoid these kind of errors.