Archbishop's warning about secularism

The Archbishop, Mgr Joseph Mercieca, yesterday warned the faithful about the advance of secularism as evidenced locally by the growing number of civil marriages between Catholics, about sexual permissiveness and the declining religious importance given to Sundays and major feasts such as Christmas.

In a speech to mark the feast of Christ the King at the end of a manifestation at Paola square, Mgr Mercieca warned that secularism sought to take away Christ and the Church from culture, politics and other sectors.

As a result, people felt they could use nature in the most convenient manner for them, such as by allowing abortion and genetic engineering.

Happily, both sides of the Maltese political divide were against abortion, but the faithful needed to be careful since certain discussions were instilling doubt. Furthermore, Mgr Mercieca said, he was not sure that no abortions had been carried out in Malta.

On divorce, he said the faithful should thank God that this too was not recognised in Malta. The family as God wanted it was built on the lifelong bond between a man and a woman. The family was the first cell of society and the faithful should never allow divorce, which harmed this cell, to come into Malta.

"It would be shameful and a black day in the history of Catholic Malta were divorce ever to be allowed here. We should pray for divorce never to be legalised among us," the Archbishop said, adding that wherever it had been introduced, divorce had led to an increase in broken families.

He added that another cause of major disorder in the country was civil marriage between Catholics. Catholics who opted for a civil marriage would only be party to an "empty ceremony".

"A civil marriage between Catholics is not a valid marriage before God and neither member of the couple may receive the sacraments," Mgr Mercieca said.

Such actions were a bad example to the young and they were a slap in the face for the country.

The march of secularism, he said, was also shown in the way how sex had become devoid of all moral rules.

In some countries even death had been secularised through the introduction of euthanasia.

A radical split had been introduced between what was moral and what was legal. In the past, civil law used to correspond with Christian moral law. That was no longer the case.

"While it is true that not everything which morals require should be regulated by law, it is harmful when the law goes against morals," the archbishop said.

All those who believed that Christ was king had, through their action, to be witness of what they believed in.

Mgr Mercieca said secularism had made inroads in Malta too. Sunday was being shorn of its religious significance and becoming another working day.

While it was true that many people still went to Mass, the religious sense of Sunday was being replaced by the sense of the weekend, a time to get away from everyday life, a time of holiday often lacking what was religious and sacred.

This also applied to feasts such as Christmas and Easter, which had become important for practically everybody but which had, for some, lost their religious significance.

Nobody knew what destructive strategy secularism had for the future, but there was no doubt that there would continue to be wrong teachings against the truth of God and Christian values. The faithful, however, should not be disheartened since Christ the King was always the victor. The faithful should recognise the signs of the times and seek the appropriate methods for evangelisation.