The statistics show that about 8 percent of Australians go to church every week.

About 12 percent go once a fortnight to once a month.

About 20 percent go at Christmas and Easter, but hardly any other time.

Which fits in with the other things we know about human nature.

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Much of what we do we really don’t do — we have machines, gadgets and short-cuts which sort of do them for us.

Most workers don’t really go to work. They sit in a machine that goes to their workplace: then they get out.

Most meals today are not prepared, so much as unwrapped.

Most people’s only hope of catching a fish is to get the fish-and-chip man to chuck the pre-cooked, pre-wrapped, pre-greased, pre-over-salted parcel across the counter for you to “catch”.

They say today’s young people do less communicating using their vocal cords than with their fingers on keyboards — another way of saying they don’t communicate at all.

To worship God together with other people is a logical duty, but you might say, “I can worship God at home . . . .”

To which God replies, “No you can’t. I have told you that you must do it together.”

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The Law of the Catholic Church is that, “Sunday . . . is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church . . . on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.”

Yes, bound.

The Bible warns against non-attendance at Mass — against trusting in second-hand religion, religion by remote control, making up our own rules etc.

The Epistle to the Hebrews (chapter 10) spells it out:

“Brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary . . . let us hold fast to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.

“Let us consider one another, how to rouse one another to love and good works — not forsaking our assembly together , as some have become accustomed, but encouraging one another, and so much the more as you see the great day approaching.”

The World Doping Agency removed caffeine from its list of substances banned in sport six years ago.

But the president of the agency, John Fahey, has been quoted as being still unhappy about caffeine overuse in some sports — AFL footballers in Australia being mentioned in this context.

Some experts would like caffeine re-listed as a banned substance above certain levels.

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How much caffeine is too much?

People consuming 300mg of caffeine per day get withdrawal effects if they stop using it – so perhaps that’s too much.

300mg is what you get from 4 cups of medium-strength coffee or 6 cans of Coca Cola or about 3 cans of “energy-drinks” like Red Bull.

Coca Cola Company is now trialling a more worrying product, called “Mother”, containing over 100mg in the small 250ml can.

Caffeine-containing drinks are misused by juveniles who mix it with alcohol.

This is dangerous. Some of the effects of alcohol are masked.

People consuming the mixture are reported to be 3 times more likely to indulge in anti-social acts – in particular, driving with above-limit blood alcohol levels.

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Coca Cola is also bad for teeth, partly due to the heavy load of sugar, but exaggerated by its content of phosphoric acid.

Coca Cola is the world’s largest single corporate buyer of sugar.

Tooth decay is now the commonest disease in the world.

Before 1886 it is said to have been rare – that being the year John Pemberton invented and started selling Coca Cola.

If you are ever put in a situation where you cannot avoid drinking Coca Cola, rinse your mouth with water as soon afterwards as possible.

Preferably never drink it – or its clones (Pepsi etc.)

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Last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ordered Coca-Cola to run “corrective advertisements” in Australian newspapers.

One of their celebrity-featuring magazine advertisements had claimed that the ideas that Coca-Cola could make children fat or harm their teeth were “myths”.

Using so-called celebrities is a dirty trick if you are flogging a health-endangering product to gullible youth.

Falsely disputing links between a product and ill health is something we might expect of the vermin who manufacture and sell cigarettes.

If Coca Cola Company behaves that way, people should avoid their products.

Dear Kiddies, Mr Abbott said yesterday that if he becomes Australia’s Prime Minister, families will receive $300 a year per child as part of reintroducing indexation for the child-care rebate.

Mrs Abbott was with him. She works in what they call an occasional child-care centre.

Dear Kiddies, the adults are getting this child-care issue all wrong.

*  Occasional child-care is a GOOD thing. It provides somewhere for us to be looked after if Mummy gets sick or for some reason suddenly needs a break.

*  Ordinary child-care (child-care-in-cold-blood, as you might say) is very different and is a BAD thing. It means Mummy not caring for us — not because something cropped up to make it impossible — but because she herself decided that instead of looking after us she would go out to work, leaving us with a paid carer.

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Mr Swan, who belongs to the other party, criticised Mr Abbott’s family policies.

So he should, you say.

Not really, dear Lambkins, Mr Swan has no more idea of what we kiddies want than the other bloke.

His comments were about an alleged connection between Coalition policies and what Coles will charge for groceries.

Did Mr Swan mention that Mr Abbott’s child-care scheme is wrong because kids hate it?

Or because kids want their Mum at home?

Or because kids want all child-care centres bulldozed tomorrow (except perhaps the “occasional” type mentioned above)?

He did not.

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Dear Kiddies, every time a clear-cut, black-and-white moral issue affecting us kids comes up, the adult experts start shouting at each other about money.

Is money all they are interested in?

What about more basic questions?

Like, what is a baby?

Is it — he or she – you or me –merely a lifestyle-accessory for the Mum?

These big people (big bodies, not necessarily big intelligences) think it’s normal to have a child and then start looking around for somebody else to care for it (preferably at taxpayers’ expense) while they toddle off and do something else.

Don’t they know that parenthood is the greatest privilege that God offers them?

Today’s Gospel reading in traditional Catholic churches is about sin and judgement and — by implication — hell.

Hell isn’t a frequent theme in the Gospels, but it’s one that we can’t ignore.

Our Lord talked most about how God wants to save us into his Kingdom.

Once in a while he reminds us what the alternative is.

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Saint Luke’s Gospel, chapter 19:

As Jesus drew near, seeing the city of Jerusalem, he shed tears over it, saying: “If you had only understood in this day the things that make for peace; but now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you when your enemies shall encircle you, and hem you in on every side, and beat you flat to the ground, together with the children within your walls, and they shall not leave one stone upon another: because you did not recognise the time of your visitation.”

Then, entering into the temple, he began to drive out those who were buying and selling there, saying to them: “It is written: My house is the house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves.” And he taught every day in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the rulers of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death.

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In world history, that prediction came true when, in the year 70AD, Jerusalem was reduced to rubble by the armies of Rome.

Having once definitively rejected and killed God’s visitation in Jesus Christ, the city’s fate was sealed.

It was just a matter of time . . . .

Beyond history, sin has even more serious consequences — enough to make the loving God weep.

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The Christian doctrine of God’s judgment and hell worries many people.

Rightly so, in the sense that we should be concerned about ensuring that we do not end up there.

It would, however, be more of a worry if there was no hell.

If everybody wound up in heaven, no matter how little love they had shown to God or other people, then their existence would have been a sham.

If your way of living made no difference to your eternal fate, you would be a robot.

Researchers worry that constant looking at screens – television, computer, mobiles – can create, or at least aggravate, attention disorder problems in children.

The old joke about ADD standing for “Absent Dad Disease” may be truer than we like to think.

Given an upbringing with no functional father plus wall-to-wall electronic brain stimulation – little wonder if a youngster never learns to apply himself to reality, to set priorities or to resist impulses.

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Politicians and vested interests insist that the internet needs to be high-speed.  Anyone saying different would be considered a fruit loop.

But are not human beings, by and large, low-speed? And are not humans more important than the internet?

Really getting to know someone cannot be rushed. And it takes time learning to understand why a certain problem is dominating somebody’s life.

Yet don’t we all need — fairly often — to be understood and listened to?

Such help may be very scarce in a future with everybody’s minds high-speeded away from the wave-length of the human soul.

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Some Catholics join the Third Order of the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth.

Members of this order NEVER watch television.

They must say certain prayers every day and make their Confession and receive Holy Communion frequently.

Also they are encouraged to spend one hour before the Blessed Sacrament at least once weekly — kneeling in silence before the Tabernacle on the altar in their church, motivated by their belief that in that tabernacle Christ is truly present, welcoming us to himself.

But is an hour too long? 

Well, doesn’t it take about 15 minutes merely to shake off the unspiritual distractions of the outside world? 

Perhaps another 15 minutes to tune our ears into listening for God’s unobtrusive presence. 

Finally, by God’s grace, one may enter into conversation with Our Lord . . . worldly things fade . . . at the end of the hour we’re reluctant to leave.

Having first found God in the Blessed Sacrament, then we can seek to find him in other people.

In a speech yesterday at the Australian Institute of Family Studies annual conference, Professor Alan Hayes spoke of a “revolution” in Australian families.

The mothers of 34 percent of babies born in 2008 were unmarried, compared with 8 percent in 1970.

Now 78 percent of couples live together before marrying, compared with 23 percent pre-revolution.

The Professor said, “For many children it has been a good revolution, but it depends on the extent to which they are in safe and stable homes.”

Also that, “It is more important to focus on how a family functions than on its form”.

Was he was trying to say that marriage is irrelevant? 

If so, he is incorrect.

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A 1998 government Inquiry by the Australian Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, entitled “To Have and to Hold”, concluded that:

“Marriage benefits the health and well-being of individuals, and, conversely, separation and divorce bring with them elevated risks for both former husbands and wives and their children.

The Committee concludes that marriage and relationship breakdown costs the Australian nation at least $3 billion each year. When all the indirect costs are included, the figure is possibly double. When the personal and emotional trauma involved is added to these figures, the cost to the nation is enormous.

“In comparison, the Committee notes that the Commonwealth Government spends just $3.5 million per annum on preventive marriage and relationship education programs, and $2.05 million on parenting skills training. This is a 1000-fold difference. The imbalance is manifest and the Committee believes it requires correction.”  (www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/laca/Inquiryinfam.htm)

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Remember, the Family was invented by God who created us. Marriage was invented by God. Marriage is a Sacrament of God’s Church.

Through Catholic Marriage, as with all Catholic Sacraments, God offers grace.

Grace is a practical thing. The Sacramental grace conferred by Christian Marriage provides married couples with extra power, available by no other means, for dealing with life’s day-to-day problems.

Ask your neighbourhood policeman who regularly attends domestic fights. Do those shacked up unmarried behave more or less violently and irresponsibly than those who are married?