Since my letter on the Pope's visit (The Sunday Times, April 18) was completely misunderstood and provoked correspondents to rush blindly into print, I feel duty-bound to explain.

Nowhere did I appeal for the Maltese public to stay at home during the visit; I cannot fathom how such a conclusion was reached.

What I meant was for the Pope to stay at home (the Vatican) and strive to scrape the unprecedented filth engulfing the Church at present.

In the current murky atmosphere surrounding the Church, I felt the Pope's visit was inopportune as I wondered if His Holiness was in the mood for official celebrations, with ominous clouds seriously jeopardising the credibility of the Church as never before.

We have reached a stage where a priest is wary to embrace a child and parents are afraid to trust the child with a priest - a single paedophile act and that child is lost for life: ask the victims! That's how serious the problem is.

The success of the visit turned out to be a boost for the Pope - hopefully spurring him to take the bull by the horns and annihilate the festering despicable vermin that are slowly but surely gnawing at the Catholic Church - the cleansing of the stables.

I wish the Pope every success in his daunting endeavour. He needs all the help and prayers we can muster.

May the prophecy I referred to in my letter, foretold by somebody else and not by me, prove to be false.