'Christians must commit themselves to society'

The feast of Christ the King was celebrated yesterday in Swatar, where a congregation gathered outside the parish church on a mild enough evening to allow for an outdoors activity.

The feast, the last one in the liturgical calendar before Advent, was attended by President George Abela and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, among others, and involved singing, acting and other animation.

The theme of the celebration - Open To God; Open To Our Brothers - invited everyone to take on their responsibility towards justice and solidarity wherever they were.

It was chosen because the celebration focused on Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas In Veritate. In fact, the programme included a feature explaining its main points, with emphasis on globalisation, the financial crisis, immigration and the environment.

Archbishop Paul Cremona told the congregation that "we have to build a world that strongly resembles the one we are waiting for", characterised by peace, happiness, love and the presence of Jesus Christ.

Christians had a responsibility towards human beings because everyone was the image of Christ - "the rest, colour, culture and religion, is just shell" - and also towards the environment, which is the creation of God, Mgr Cremona said.

The Church's special mission was to mediate the love God had for everyone in this world, following the example of Jesus Christ, he continued.

Mgr Cremona augured that the yearly feast of Christ the King would be "a meeting of Church's social commitment... I propose that we leave from here as Christians, who want to commit ourselves to society".

A couple of houses in Swatar displayed lit crucifixes on their façades, possibly following a priest's e-mailed appeal to do so.

Fr Paul Camilleri urged the Maltese to display the crucifix in windows and doorways on the feast of Christ the King in reaction to the controversial judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that the presence of the crucifix in Italian classrooms violated parents' rights to a secular education for their children.