Defending God's Church

So, Peppi Azzopardi flung his newspaper across the room in disgust after reading that a young woman, freshly married and pregnant with her first child, claimed that she was advised by a priest to hope that, after the birth of her child, her husband would change his violent ways and thus perhaps save the marriage. Apparently, this advice from the priest has shocked Mr Azzopardi to such an extreme that he succumbed to a mild form of violence himself.

This exchange between the priest and the young mother happened many, many years ago. Who are we to judge, let alone condemn, when we can never know exactly the circumstances of the time, what exactly the young woman said to the priest and what exactly the priest said in reply? But Mr Azzopardi, with vast hindsight, seems to know better.

Some people lose no opportunity to attack the Catholic Church, the Pope and the bishops, conveniently putting aside the fact that our Church is the Church established by Jesus Christ who we believe is God. Therefore, any attack on the Church and its teachings is an attack on Christ himself. This applies also to attacks on those representatives of our Church who act in good faith and according to Christ's teachings. It is the ultimate fallacy, unfortunately very common, to reason: "I love God, it's the Church I have problems with".

No one can separate God from his Church. It is truly regrettable that so many of these attacks, some subtle, some far less so, come from people involved in the media, including the well-known rebel priests themselves (who by denying their vows of obedience and humility are no longer acting in good faith). Is this a phenomenon which comes with the territory? A craving for attention and publicity at all costs?

One day, we know not exactly when, we must all meet our Maker and go through our life story, hoping that the good we have done will outweigh the bad and that we will be judged mercifully. Of one thing I am as certain as my human limitations permit me to be - that our private failings will be judged as such but those actions and words which are made public and have been used to influence people against the Church and, God forbid which give scandal to young children whose minds and opinions are still in the formation stage and easily manipulated will not be so easy for even our God of boundless mercy to forgive. Let us all be very careful what we say and do, especially in public. These are very serious matters.