Monday, 29th June 2009 - 20:40CET
Cardinal renews Pope's call for Malta to be a witness of the faith in Europe
Updated - Adds video, details
The Pope's Special Envoy for the Pauline Year, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, this evening renewed the call made by Pope John Paul II 19 years ago for Malta to be a witness in Europe to human values and the Christian faith.
Cardinal Antonelli made his call on the steps of St John's Co-Cathedral during a national celebration to mark the conclusion of the Pauline Year. The open air celebration was attended by thousands of people, led by President George Abela and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
In his call, made in a Mass on the Granaries in Floriana, Paul John Paul II had said: "As Europe prepares to enter a new period of its history, a period filled with fresh hopes and challenges, Malta is called to contribute to the spiritual unity of the Old Continent by offering her treasures of Christian faith and values. Europe needs Malta`s faithful witness too."
Today's ceremony started with pilgrimages from the churches of St Paul's Shipwreck in Valletta and St Publius in Floriana. The statues of the two saints arrived together on St John's Square amid applause. They were placed on either side of the parvis for concelebrated Mass led by Cardinal Antonelli.
The Mass included as its first reading the extract from the Acts of the Apostles describing St Paul's Shipwreck in Malta.
In his homily in English, Cardinal Antonelli noted that St Luke had written that St Paul and the other shipwreck survivors were greeted by the people of Malta ‘with unusual kindness'. This humanity, the Cardinal said, remained one of the characteristics of the Maltese.
Malta, he said, had remained faithful to the teachings it received from St Paul, but it continued to face fresh storms of materialism and moral degradation.
Cardinal Antonelli urged the people of Malta to keep their gaze on the Lord and to be proud of their history and their faith, passing it on to their children.
At this point the Cardinal recalled, to applause, Pope John Paul II's first visit to Malta in 1990 and his remark that Europe needed Malta's faithful witness, a witness to human values, humanity and Christian faith.
As president of the Pontifical Council for Families, the Cardinal praised the Maltese Church's Family Commission, the Cana Movement and Caritas Malta for their work among Maltese families and in preparation of married life and he encouraged the organisation of marriage encounters where married couples reflect on married life and pray together.
Concluding, the Cardinal, amid applause, urged the people to keep alive and with greater luminosity the fire which the early Maltese lit for St Paul.
Just before the end of the Mass, Archbishop Paul Cremona presented the Cardinal with a silver Maltese oil lamp. The Cardinal expressed his gratitude for the welcome given to him, but said with a broad smile that he would tell the Pope that the people wanted the Pope, more than the papal envoy.
Following the Mass, the statues of St Paul and St Publius were carried together up Republic Street, with the atmosphere now more akin to the enthusiasm and celebration of village feasts.
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As for the Cardinal's call to witness the faith in Europe- I'd liken it to a metaphorical invitation for the Maltese to sit with the handbags whilst the other countries are off doing their own thing, and the church flails wildly in vain to get people to behave in a way it deems appropriate. Also invoking memories of Pope John Paul II is in bad taste- people loved him because he trascended religion and was an all round spiritual man, and much as people are not as fond of Pope Ratzinger because he lacks his predecessor's charm and appeal
His homily, this evening was a preach from the heart where two focal points of church work were mentioned....to bear witness and the family which is facing strong waves against it, sometimes also from those who have the moral duty to protect the family. I was glad that the Cardinal mentioned what Pope John Paul about Mata's relation with Europe for some media are saying that now that we are in EU we must be like EU...for sure not in morality; And not only divorce....for who says that minorities have rights is blind saying that this means hidden agendas such as Euthanasia and Abortion, gay marriages and all sort of immoral ideas that we find in some EU countries.
Maltese Catholics must wake up before its to late, stand to protect again the Christian Faith given to us by our fathers from modern relative attitudes and ideas and say clearly that Christ is the only one than can make our life worth living it.