Editorial

The Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese has just proposed a number of measures, including a fee on medicines, as part of its pre-budget proposals.

The Jesuits, who in Malta do not run parishes but work in education, at the University, in spirituality, in the social sector and among young people, on the other hand, regularly pronounce themselves on the issue of illegal migrants.

Church authorities speak against the legalisation of divorce and same-sex marriage.

Are these bodies doing something that should not be their business in a modern society? Are these instances of the Church trying to impose itself on society? The answer to such questions would depend on one's concept of the relationship between state and Church, between society and religion. This is a dynamic relationship that reflects the stage of development that a given society is in.

Ours is a pluralistic society even though the vast majority of the Maltese are Catholics and only a minority adhere to different beliefs or to no belief at all. Fortunately, our society has matured over time and is adapting well to the ever-changing relationship. A rabid kind of anti-clericalism is not the characteristic of mainstream Malta. On the other hand, the Church has abandoned its traditional belief that relations with the state should be based on a theology that looks at the Church as a perfect society.

It is positive to note that the position of Archbishop Paul Cremona on Church/ State and religion/society issues augurs that present and future questions will be met by a very sensible attitude by the Church. His homily on Independence Day witnesses the best trends in Catholic teaching on the relationship between Church and state.

He distinguished between the three stages that characterise the democratic process: opinion forming, decision taking and implementation. The Archbishop, after acknowledging that in a democratic society decisions are made by Parliament or by a referendum, unequivocally said that "the Church does not have any role in the decisional state which belongs to the State and to Parliament".

But while the Church, as an institution has no role, members of the Church, as citizens, should, like other citizens, be guided by their consciences when they participate in the making of decisions by the state. One hopes that the clarity of Archbishop Cremona on this aspect of Church-State relations is shared by most Catholics - lay and ecclesiastic. It may not always be the case.

Archbishop Cremona also outlined the important role that the Church has in the other two stages. It is vital that the Church makes its voice heard at the opinion-forming stage and participates in the implementation phase. A pluralist society by definition is a society built on differing opinions. The Church would be failing society if it does not contribute its voice together with the other voices and opinions. Besides, it is a known fact that the Church has contributed and still has an enormous potential for continuing to contribute to the well-being of our society.

Going through several comments made in different blogs and newspaper letters and opinion pieces one gets the distinct feeling that today there are several who would like to deny the Church these two very basic rights. This is a pity. It is only when all sides show respect to the rights and duties of all concerned that society can face the challenges before it without the risk of rapture and unnecessary trauma.