A mature choice

Charlie Galea (February 20) noted that although the American dollar carries the message "In God we trust" it would never carry the image of Christ as it would be "in breach of the US Constitution to promote anyone's religion". Mr Galea's legal argument is an oversimplification as, every year, the American government issues Christmas stamps depicting the Madonna and Jesus.

The American Constitution is irrelevant when it comes to Malta's depiction of Christ on its euro. What is relevant is the Maltese Constitution which holds, among other things, that "The religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion".

Malta acted within its constitutional limits when it opted to depict Christ even if it did so for spiritual as opposed to art-appreciation reasons.

Most of us wonder how the Maltese euro would look when the baptism of Christ with two full-length figures is reduced to fit within the euro's small circumference. For this reason, it would be better if the depiction on the euro would zoom in on Christ's face just like the American government's annual Christmas postage stamps zoom in on the Madonna and Christ's faces.

Incidentally, most Christian paintings depicted on American postage stamps come from Italian artists whose work is on permanent display in the United States. It reflects great maturity that Malta has done the same and selected a fabulous sculpture by an Italian artist, permanently displayed in Malta, for its euro.