This year's Lent pastoral letter is arguably the most significant of those delivered by Archbishop Paul Cremona and Bishop Mario Grech since they assumed the burden of being spiritual shepherds to the Catholic flocks of Malta and Gozo. To me, the main point was that they did not address their faithful alone. As they have done perhaps less eloquently in the past, they reached out, in love and humility.

The most beautiful passage of the pastoral letter came towards the end. Recalling that in the Jerusalem temple there was a "yard for pagans", the spiritual leaders of Malta's majority said the yard welcomed those who were not Jews, turning that into the following analogy: "...In our Church, as well, we need to create space for non-believers (in the Catholic faith) or who feel distanced from the Church. Like Jesus, when he died on the Cross so that we all may be saved, the Church, sister and servant, can never be exclusive."

That is truly a break from the not-so-distant past. In the pit of the politico-religious struggles of the 1930s and the 1960s, the Malta Church - or rather, the Curia, as I continue to prefer to believe - was militantly exclusive. It damned those whose politics it spurned, flinging at them hell-fire and brimstone. It served as a terrible example to Catholics who followed its words blindly. They became filled with hatred towards those who followed Strickland and the infant Labour Party in the 1930s and Dom Mintoff's Malta Labour Party in the 1960s.

Religious sanctions punished Labourites not only when they were to be married but also, unbelievably, at burial, sometimes after terrible accidental death visited children and adults alike. The Curia also played politics, blatantly and openly, taking the initiative to herd the anti-Labour parties of the 1960s under a "Church" umbrella intended to keep Labour out of office, as if inflicting mortal sin upon those who voted for that party was not enough.

If I recall all this it is not out of rancour, because I lived and was a minor Labour protagonist in the 1960s. I recall it with humble satisfaction that I was right in always believing that the terrible 1960s had nothing to do with God and the Catholic faith. They were the result, at best, of human misunderstandings and errors, although that excuse cannot absolve politicians who took full advantage of the situation in their pursuit of political power.

Times have changed. They did so under Archbishop Joseph Mercieca and Bishop Nikol Cauchi. They continue to do so today. And it is hugely important that they do that. For two key reasons.

The main one is that Christ's true Church is the Church of love, not hatred; of the spirit, not temporal power. The second important reason is that the Catholic way of living is gradually dissolving. That way was essentially manifested in the strength of the family. Today, as Archbishop Cremona stresses, thousands of families remain strong. If within them there is human error, there also remains deep love and beautiful forgiveness.

Yet, hundreds of marriages break up each year, within months or even many years of a couple having vowed to love and honour each other for always. Hundreds of babies are being born out of wedlock, with couples often agreeing to list the father as unknown. Part of this is due to new definitions of lasting relationships. Part is due to a far too easy attitude towards sexual relations, to a lack of preparedness for the travails of marriage, its joys and despair, routine and the unexpected.

All this is happening without legal divorce being on the statute book. Whether divorce comes in or not as a civil right in what is already a secular state, it is manifestly clear that the Church has to be more of a mother and teacher. She has to deploy metaphors more easily understood in order to persuade with the Word of Christ. She has to face currents deeper and harsher than ever before. They cannot be faced with the words of the Old Testament, of the Maltese Curia of the 1930s and the 1960s.

Love and understanding, the essence of Christ's sublime teaching, have to be the bedrock of the message of the Church. That is what the 2010 Lenten pastoral seeks to convey. Our good shepherds got it right.