The Church has one thing going for it: with First Communion and Confirmation it presides over children’s rites of passage; to the age of reason, and to maturity. That is, it offers rites and ceremonies and sacraments that are socially recognised as occasions for celebration. That’s quite something. Indeed, so far as the Irish Church is concerned, it’s one of the elements of continuity between the Church as was, and the Church as is, an opportunity for the clergy, including bishops, to engage with the young.

It’s remarkable, in fact, how little the commercial accessories have changed: the First Communion cards and prayer books and rosary beads are pretty well as they were in the 1970s; the same images of devout youths and clasped hands on everything … saccharine, but familiar. My son was confirmed last week, on Friday evening – an unexpected time of day, but the bishop was conducting half a dozen Confirmations that weekend. There weren’t that many candidates, so he was able to spend time with each of them, talking to them at the altar. It was all well done – as is every rite in my parish church – and moving.