Malachi watched Father Richards closely, and managed to keep his features mostly free of the concern he felt beneath. It was good that he was recovering and apparently doing better than before, but it was still... well, it still made him wish that he would have grabbed the cup and handed it to the injured man himself.

The choir... did not seem overly important. It was not about sounding good, after all, but singing praise and joining together to glorify the Lord. Malachi nodded regardless, but filed the matter of a trained choir director as the least of his concerns.

Christmas baskets for the poor, now that was closer to something he might care about. Not as all-encompassing or as frequent as he preferred charitable acts to be, but it was a good step. It was the mention of McPadraic's project, however, that clearly stole Malachi's attention.

"That sounds... good," he said, though he sounded slightly skeptical. Felt that way too. How many similar projects actually made it to fruition? And how many actually helped more than they hurt? It sounded good, of course it did, but his own experience begged for more detail than that.

"Does this McPadraic attend services, or will I have to meet him elsewhere? I'd like to hear more about this project, if we're to be backing it."