Archbishop Paul Cremona this morning stressed that although the Church had a right to express its opinion and teach about values, it did not want to be part of actual decisions taken by Parliament or through a referendum.
In his Independence Day homily during the Independence Day Mass at St John’s Co-Cathedral, the Archbishop said it would be a loss for society to have just one belief or ideology.
The Church, he said, could not be kept from placing the values coming out of its beliefs for the consideration of society. The Church believed these values came from God so were fundamental and eternal.
And the more the Church spread its beliefs, the Archbishop said, the more the decisions taken would be based on real choice.
However, the Church as an institution did not have any ambition to involve itself in the decision making process.
At this point, it was those who were taking decisions according to their conscience and beliefs, who decided what was the common good.
It was only when religion tried to directly hinder this process that it could be accused of interfering with the state. But the Church, Mgr Cremona stressed, did not want to be involved in the actual decisions taken by the state and Parliament.
Mgr Cremona said that the Church always wanted to be close to the state in its social work, in which it was a pioneer. Now that the country had a welfare state, there had to be cooperation between the state and the church.
He said that the Church rejoiced when society helped it rediscover values which were hidden by cultural traditions, such as the environment, equality between men and women and fundamental human rights. These helped it return to the basis of its beliefs and it wanted to work closely with NGOs who worked to create a conscience about them.
In a direct address to the President, the Archbishop said that the church wanted to renew its loyalty to the country’s leaders.
Official Indepedence Day celebrations continue at noon when flowers will be placed at the foot of the Independence Monument in Floriana.