Herman Grech
'We are protecting values' - Archbishop
The bishops yesterday said if their statement about the Nadur carnival helped to put consciousness on this issue to the fore it would have achieved its purpose.
It is the first reaction from the Church hierarchy since a number of individuals were charged with wearing improper religious attire at the Nadur carnival.
The Sunday Times asked the bishops to respond to claims that their statement verged on the extreme and whether they agreed with the one sentence handed down by the court so far. But rather than address the questions directly, a spokesman for Archbishop Paul Cremona preferred to go into why the bishops felt the need to issue the statement in the first place.
"We want to express our regret concerning those who took part in these happenings. We pray that they understand better and respect both the Christian values and also the civil values of our people. Hopefully this plea will bear fruit. The Church is concerned about values in the individual persons themselves."
The bishops' statement also appealed to the authorities who are meant to safeguard also the common good. This seems sometimes to be forgotten or taken for granted.
"The bishops tried to bring to the forefront this reality. This should not need a bishops' statement. Thank God, the police said they had acted before the bishops' statement, which was published (10 days) after the events happened."
In a democratic state, all its members can call on the authorities to protect some value which they strongly believe in. It happens all the time with important values like environmental and immigration issues, they said.
It is not a question of tolerance - otherwise even these groups would be called intolerant, but of believing strongly in a value and wishing to protect it by all the means available.
There are many ways that the authorities can get involved, like education and prevention. It is up to the authorities to select the method to use, hopefully leading to a change in the persons involved, and in the upholding of those values, they added.
"Is it an added value to our society to have commonly accepted ethical standards protected, like other values, by the State, as it has been up to now? Or should we leave these values at the mercy of individuals who would want to deride them?" the bishops said.
Meanwhile, the police maintained that they had taken action against a number of individuals at the Nadur carnival before the bishops' appeal. "The police certainly did not wait until the public statement issued by the bishops of Malta and Gozo to initiate any action which by law they were bound to take once they had detected the costume infringements."
The police said offenders who were noticed by the police at the time were approached and had their particulars taken on the spot. Criminal charges were also drawn up and issued on the same day.
The police said that investigations continued in the following days where more people, who were not noticed by police officers to be breaking the law, were also interviewed and charged.
13 Comments
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Joe Zammit
Mar 18th 2009, 10:39
Thank God, we are living in Catholic and democratic islands. And we shall continue to live thus, at all costs. In his providence God sent to our islands St Paul and the great majority of Maltese and Gozitans do care about God and St Paul.
Catholic Malta first and foremost == Malta Kattolika l-ewwel u qabel kollox
Joe Fenech
Mar 18th 2009, 01:34
Mr Zammit, you are entitled to your relation with God, but please do not inflict it on us. Many of us do not want to live in an ecclesiastical state, but in a democracy. DO you really think we all care about God, St Paul and all that business? Give us a break! If I wanted to live in an country where religion and state are not separate, I would have gone to live in an Islamic country.
silvio farrugia
Mar 17th 2009, 23:32
What a country ! and we joined th E.U ! Is there a prospective MEP to take these kind of things infront of the EU ? Certain laws are there from colonial times ( the masters kept the church happy to control the population )
We , the people are not as stupid anymore
Joe Zammit
Mar 16th 2009, 21:52
Religion is not an ideology. Religion is our relation with God. This relation has started by God himself, then it has continued through Christ, God and Man, and now it is spread and practised by Christ's Church, the Christian Catholic Church. The Archbishop is right in saying that he, as the head of the Catholic Church of Malta, has the duty of protecting values. Yes, we Maltese and Gozitans have values, Christian values, Catholic values, which we are ready to maintain for ever. St Paul came 2000 years ago, he gave us these values, and by God's all-powerful grace, we shall keep these values ourselves, we pass them to our children till the end of time. Thank you, dear Archbishop, for taking a strong and loving step to keep our values. The great majority of Maltese are behind you because for them God comes first and foremost!
Charles Grixti
Mar 16th 2009, 00:14
The good bishop seems to equate religion with values. These have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. The State was protecting the Church and church values but that does not mean the same as ethical or moral or any other secular values, when it prosecuted individuals for denigrating religion during the Nadur carnival.
Religion is an ideology or a system of belief, and as such should never be above critisism or ridicule, just as any other facet of society should be open to these if we are to grow as a societey that respects human values. If religion was above criticism, as the good bishop would have us believe, we would still be burning heretics, the world would still be considered to be flat and that the sun would still revolve around the earth, since all these were once done and preached by religion.
Other religons too should be criticised if we are to stop the rampant human rights abuses that still go on each day around the world in the name of religion.
B Sant
Mar 15th 2009, 21:10
i dare the ppl who think the bishops went too far to try to ridicule other religions - or are they afraid to do so
and i dare the bishops to say just one word on the Nadur cemetrey
Eugenio Taliana
Mar 15th 2009, 21:01
I think the bishops are a little bit too late here: isn't it carnival the way some women dress up or rather dress down for Sunday church in summer - isn't it carnival during feast marches celebrating amost naked and drunk and only God knows what foul language . . . where are the bishops? this coincides with today's sermon where Jesus dealt harshly with those people who made his sanctuary a market! We maltese makes these sanctuaries less respectful than a market!
Joe Zammit
Mar 15th 2009, 20:29
We are Catholics as the Pope is Catholic. A Catholic has a vote as well. A Catholic is Catholic always and everywhere. A Catholic is dynamic and follows the teaching of Christ as taught to him by the Catholic Church in his private and public life. A Catholic pleases God and not the devil. A Catholic prays and does his best to draw others to God and the Catholic Church for the spiritual and material good of all our citizens and inhabitants. Catholic MPs follow the teaching of the Catholic Church because such is his duty before God and such is the ideal behaviour in the public interest.
Muscat.pat
Mar 15th 2009, 14:28
Listening to various religious hymes during the feasts and other hymes concerning the devil and other "enemies", as sung in Churches,one wonders to which values the Bishop is refering too. Ther are more important values than the values of "offence" at carnival. The Pope often features on Viareggio,s carnival, and the Vatican has not essued any cultural fatwas yet! As usual we are more English than the Queen, more Europeans than those of Europe and more Catholics than the Pope! Is this the result of living on a small island?
William P Flynn
Mar 15th 2009, 11:35
But in the Letters section of this same paper, unless I'm misreading, a priest indicated clearly the police in Nadur are briefed BEFORE every carnival.
What is really going on?
M Pace
Mar 15th 2009, 11:25
They just don't get it and I am at a loss for words to explain it to them. But I will make effort: I am tired of seeing the Church act as if it were a state within our state. Tired of seeing our elected MPs cowering and nervously trying to convince the electorate that they abide fully by the dictates of the Church less they loose even a handlful of votes.
We are a republic and not a theocracy. As an NGO with a special status , the Church does have a very important role to play but in my view qed tinhela fic-cucati.
Joe Zammit
Mar 15th 2009, 11:19
Our dear bishops did their duty in pointing to the rude and immoral misbehaviour during the Nadur carnival. Notwithstanding this, the police are duty bound to take action ex officio when crimes are committed and come to their awareness, apart from those crimes which need the complaint of the injured party. In the case of crimes against the Religious Sentiment criminal action must be taken ex officio.
David Wain
Mar 15th 2009, 10:31
The Church upholds democratic values!!..... pull the other one. The Church is a political institution just like any other, and does its utmost to reap the blatantly undemocratic advantages which accrue from its privileged relationship with the state and the Nationalist Party in particular.
The Church should look at the rampant blasphemy in its own backyard, ie village feasts, which could be considered much worse tahn that seen at Nadur since committed in an actual religious setting by supposedly devout Catholics in the name of their favourite saint ....no calls for the authorities to take action then!!