Admission to St John's

In reply to Ms Linda C. Gauci's letter (The Sunday Times, August 6) titled "Entering the House of God", I wish to clarify a few points.

St John's Co-Cathedral is first and foremost a church. Hence, the church is open for prayer at any time. During opening hours as a museum, anyone requesting to enter the church for prayer is admitted immediately without any payment whatsoever.

Whoever wants to pray is asked to inform the custodians at the main entrance of their intention and they are guided to the designated chapel. Moreover, it is important to recall that St John's Co-Cathedral is open every day for Mass and prayers up to 9.30 a.m., every Saturday in the evening and every Sunday in the morning and evening.

The St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation, set up by the government and the Church, administers the church and museum to ensure its effective conservation and management as a historical and architectural monument as well as a sacred place of worship.

The interest in St John's Co-Cathedral results in a very high number of paying visitors - this is indispensable income for our foundation. The overhead and ongoing maintenance, restoration and conservation costs are very, very high. The government donates Lm300,000 every five years for the conservation of the co-cathedral.

The foundation's administration is working hard to general additional revenue for the maintenance and restoration of St John's Co-Cathedral and the museum. Conservation programmes are constantly being carried out to the highest specifications to preserve the church in all its splendour for the present and future generations. The foundation insists that this is carried out without affecting the integrity of the sacred nature of the place.

The foundation's reward is managing to maintain a high standard while guaranteeing the conservation of the sacred integrity of St John's Co-Cathedral. In this respect, the foundation has always stressed the importance that the custodian's behaviour with visitors should always befit a church.