Some lessons from antiquity

A couple of weeks ago our bishops issued their pastoral letter for Advent in which, quite rightly, they lamented about the grave international crisis in the world's economy and finances.

However, they ignored the locally produced crisis resulting from the terrible hike in the water and electricity rates.

I think it is our bishops' duty to look after their smitten flock and condemn without any reservations the heavy burdens which are weighing down our middle class into poverty and those already below the poverty line deep down into a new underclass.

Here our bishops should take a leaf out of the sermons of Salvian the Presbyter, who lived in the province of Gaul in the fifth century AD. This Catholic shepherd did not mince words and, even in the face of the German invasions, despite his being a Roman citizen, he dared to speak of the uncorrupted excellence of the barbarians and of the unbearable tax burden imposed by the imperial government.

Salvian's sermons are found in On the Governance of God, a book he published in 440 AD. I quote some excerpts from his many sermons, in the hope that our bishops will pluck up their courage and defend their sheep as Salvian once did:

"What else can these wretched people wish for, they who suffer the incessant and even continuous destruction of tax levies? To them there is always imminent a heavy and relentless proscription.

This very tax levying, although hard and inhuman, would nevertheless be less heavy and harsh if all would bear it equally and in common. Taxation is made more shameful and burdensome because all do not bear the burden of all. The burden imposed on the wretched is greater than their resources."

Salvian saw the once prosperous bourgeoisie of the cities being impoverished by taxes levied by an unpaternal imperial government and in one of his sermons he condemned the fleecing of the middle class.

"They bear payment of the rich and endure the poverty of beggars."

He goes on to admonish the senatorial class which ruled the roost in the empire: "Therefore, you rich men, you who are the first to levy, be the first to give. Be the first in the generosity of goods, you who are the first in the profusion of words.

"You who give of mine, give of thine. Your decrees burden us with new debts; at least make your debt common to us all. What is more wicked and more unworthy is that you alone are free from debt, you who make us all debtors."

When will a Maltese Salvian appear on the scene to defend his stricken flock?