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            Recent decades have seen a remarkable fall-off in the number of Catholics frequenting the sacrament of Penance, one of the two sacraments which they can - and used to - receive frequently. The phenomenon, it should be added, characterizes the "developed" Western world. Africa is certainly an exception; so, it seems, are the countries of Eastern Europe. But allowing for such exceptions, we are in the presence of a pastoral phenomenon that is remarkable, and cannot be without significance. How should we regard it? Are there lessons to be learned from it? Does it matter? If it does, what to be done about it?

            "The Split between the gospel and culture", said Pope Paul VI, "is without a doubt the drama of our time"[1]. The drama is still being played out today in two main theaters, each with very distinctive features.

The Mass Explained
INTRODUCTION
To judge the "quality" of the Christian life of a community is always a difficult task, and perhaps a foolhardy one. There are so many factors that should be taken into account. And the most important of them are hidden!
Nevertheless, if the Holy Mass is the central act of our Catholic life, then Mass-going must surely remain one of the most indicative of these factors. With good reason therefore we consider the number of people coming to Mass, not only on Sundays but also very specially on weekdays. With even better reason we try to assess the "quality" of their participation in the Mass; their understanding of its nature and their application to their own lives of what it should mean for them. And we often think of the ways in which we can help them.

The Purpose of University Education in the mind of St. Josemaría Escrivá
(Strathmore University, 2002)
John Henry Newman, writing 150 years ago in a famous work entitled "The Idea of a University", held that modern man is instructed, but not educated. In other words, he is taught to do things; and to think sufficiently in order to do them. But he is not taught to think further... And that, in Newman's view, is instruction, not education: "Education is a higher word; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connection with religion and virtue". Education and especially university education, then, should teach people to think; further, broader and deeper than they have been so far brought up to do.