The Church's right over village feasts

It is not right for Alex Vella Gregory (The Church's Attack On Village Feasts, October 24) to say that the village festa falls outside the remit of the Catholic Church.

If we talk of the feast of a saint, then the basis of the festa is first and foremost a religious one. Therefore, to say that the festa is a religious celebration is a fact and not an assumption.

The communal cultural aspect of the festa is a phenomenon which has evolved over the years. This aspect has added to the scope of the feast and it is mistaken to see it as being the main scope. So the Church has all the right to dictate how a festa is conducted. It is very positive that other organisations, like band clubs and fireworks factories, participate and contribute to enhance the festa, but this does not give such organisations the right to hijack the festa and take it at a tangent.

As Mr Vella Gregory acknowledged, unruly behaviour has in the past led to the cancellation of feasts. But what Mr Vella Gregory missed is that excess does not only include unlawful or criminal behaviour but also behaviour which goes beyond the scope of its occurrence.

In this regard it is not right to argue that the controlling parameter of the festa should be just civil law. If this were the case, then communal cultural activities could still have been carried out when the Church decided to cancel feasts.

However, this was never the case, which thus proves where the heart of the festa is. Finally, it is very dangerous to link the festa with Church attendance as this is a clear indication of the decline of the real understanding of why one attends Mass.