Society suffering for neglecting Sunday - Gozo bishop

Gozo Bishop Mario Grech believes society and families are paying a high price for not respecting Sunday as a day of rest.

"We've been robbed of the day of the Lord. The consciousness of many is so dormant we have not realised that Sunday has been taken away from us; Sunday is the synthesis of Christian life," he said.

This was the message by Mgr Grech, which was read out in all the churches across Gozo on Sunday to mark the beginning of the Diocesan Eucharistic Congress. It commemorates the first congress that took place in Gozo in 1929.

It was a fact, he said, that the "Eucharistic cult" pushed the congregation to embrace the common good over that of the individual. Without the Eucharist, the Christian community would die out.

The congress was intended as a time for reflection, to cherish Sunday as a special day and help society revise the way it lived this day.