The Archbishop has called for a common definition of what constitutes the truth as the guiding light for society. He also insisted that Malta needs to give greater importance to values such as loyalty, respect and solidarity.

Delivery his homily during Victory Day Mass at St John's Co-Cathedral this morning, Mgr Paul Cremona said that through history, the truth of Jesus Christ had guided the Maltese people.

Indeed, when the Constitution was drafted, the people chose Catholicism as the religion of the State. Perhaps at the time, the people gave more weight to the religious aspect of that choice. But one could today better appreciate the wisdom of that decision, since it brought with it the Christian values which could build a society that was honest and had a sense of solidarity and community.

The Church, Mgr Cremona said, needed to convey its message that the practising of one's religion went hand in hand with Christian values. The State, he said, needed to consider whether it should fill the void left by certain relativism of current culture with the values that stemmed from Christianity.

The Archbishop regretted that society discussed material and economic developments but hardly ever discussed the human values of loyalty, respect, solidarity and what hindered them - egoism, pride, greed and abuse of power.

In the financial world there was never, or very little, talk on ethics and mode of conduct before the recent financial crisis came up. But after the crisis, several started to talk about the need for more ethical values in the financial world.

In society there were enough clear signs of the destruction of moral and social values.

A lot of what was hindering society - greed, ideas which did not place man and the family first, lack of environmental respect, family disputes, violence, drugs, alcohol, showed a lack of ethical and social orientation.

The fear was that these would be accepted as a behavioural mode and become institutionalised.

There was, therefore, a need for a clear social vision that there was right and wrong, that some things were beneficial to society while others were not.

What was worrying was that the perpetrators of certain behaviour did not feel they were doing wrong.

This led to excesses which could be seen perhaps more among youths, in alcohol consumption, irresponsible social behaviour, drugs, lack of justice, theft, corruption and greed.

“Unless we discuss the morality of our behaviour, there is a danger that this way of behaviour will spread, and become an institutional part of life,” Mgr Cremona warned.

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