Sales of rosary beads, missals and scapulars will rocket. Growing Up Catholic will be part of the general jubilation.

Gabrielle Lord et al have produced a basic guidebook for children of the baby boom tripping back down some, although not all, of the aisles of a Catholic upbringing.

This book does not attempt to explore the intellectual and spiritual aspects of Catholic childhood. It is concerned with the glorious trivia which used to surround the lives of young Catholics in their schooldays. Most people properly forgot these little details as they grew up. Their joyful recollection is what Growing Up Catholic is about.

Reading it is a bit like performing the Stations of the Cross - you revisit and contemplate a series of well-known scenes that are part of your personal mythology. The Green Catechism, the standard sins to remember for confession, the eternal conflict between Catholic school children and public school children (also known as heathens or pagans) and the mysteries of nuns are all dealt with by the authors. The book is a spring-board for all sorts of delightful reminiscences. I found myself recalling Sister Mary Tarsisius, Mother Attracta (we Grade­One-and-Twos always thought she was Mother A Tractor) and other favourite characters of my own youth.

It’s not all sweet remembrance. Some of it is irreverent and incisive, like the bit about Father What-a-waste, the young and handsome former captain of the state championship football team who throws himself away on the bosom of the Church, much to the distress of the girls in Sister Theresa’s sixth class.

There are handy hints - How To Use Holy Water, the proper art of genuflection, hymn etiquette, helpful hints on fasting. The quickest way of becoming a lapsed Catholic, we are told, is to vote for the Labor Party ...

This is not a book for the unbeliever. A non-Catholic might well find most of it incomprehensible. Certainly for a non-Catholic it will only be a short read, perhaps a funny one. Goodness knows what a non-Catholic might make of it. Protestants may enjoy the definitions of their churches, e.g.:

Presbyterian: Children are admitted to membership when they can pronounce the name.
Lutheran: It is a well-known fact that Lutherans will try to force Catholic children to renounce their faith. Resisters will be nailed to the door of the nearest Catholic church.

But seriously, non-Catholics seeking elucidation or revelation might be better off reading something else religious. Portnoy’s Complaint springs to mind.

The blurb on the cover of Growing Up Catholic promises a book which is ‘infinitely funny’. In fact a lot of the material is very similar to what one used to read in the columns of The Advocate or The Southern Cross. Back then, you took it all seriously. You may still do so. That, rather than fear of excommunication, is I think the explanation why the authors, presented with a fine opportunity to heap derision on the whole structure, have written something which is really infinitely gentle.