Content to be Catholic?

If you are, read on.

"The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts."

It is just over 41 years since the document on The Church in the Modern World, better known as Gaudium et Spes, was hammered out at Vatican II. It addressed "the whole human family", remarked about the "spiritual uneasiness of today" and noted "a painstaking search for a better material world without a parallel spiritual advancement". The document noted a "change in attitudes and structures" that "frequently called accepted values into question".

In recent years in Malta, signals have been sent out and continue to be sent out by a vociferous minority that to be a Catholic implies a certain backwardness and narrow-mindedness. Those who declare their faith, be they priests or laymen, are arrogant or fundamentalist; those who practise it are soft in the head; the history of the Church is one long scandal, and it would be better if those who go to Mass kept their belief within the walls of the church in which they worship and left a secular, pluralist society, which will redeem us, to get on with it.

To which the Catholic must react positively in the knowledge that he is indeed sinful - were he not there would have been no need for redemption, no need for Christ, no need for the Good News, no need for the Resurrection and before that, the Passion. But our sinfulness must not close us in on ourselves. We have been called "the salt of the earth and the light of the world" by no less a person than Jesus Christ; warned by Him from the very start that we will be ridiculed and lied against, that the Church he founded would attract a great deal of animosity and its truths would suffer.

And this has been the truth for 2,000 years as different eras threw up different persecutors, not only in a physical sense but, worse perhaps, in the assault on the flavour of the salt we are meant to be. The Catholic Church has, from the beginning, been the target of those who would see it out of history, its wisdom of centuries, the culture to which it gave birth and witness, threatened.

There is evidence of such an assault being made on the Church in Malta, of the citadel being attacked from within, of efforts being made to marginalise the Church, keep it in the sacristy, deny it its right and duty to preach right and wrong on all values that affect society.

The Church does this best by drawing on the source of its wisdom and the inspiration that has fed the world for 20 centuries. In their turn, those who profess themselves to be Catholic should be content to be Catholic. And if content, prepared to join a group under that name - Content to be Catholic - that recognises the beauty of the teachings of the Church, to communicate the great contributions the Church has made to society, to make people understand that the Church is, as Pope Paul V1 called it, "an expert in humanity", to enter into constructive dialogue with those who see things differently from him, to establish relationships with other groups in Europe with similar objectives.

Such a group is being formed in Malta. Those who are interested in joining or knowing more about it can contact Fr Paul Camilleri on 2122-3896 or write to him at 67, Gunlayer Street, Floriana, giving their name and surname, address, e-mail, telephone, ID, date of birth, profession/occupation and name of any movement or organisation to which they may belong.