Bishop criticises failure to speak out on family
Gozo Bishop Mario Grech has questioned who was telling the "whole truth" about the negative effects of cohabitation and urged the faithful not to remain "mute" for fear of being criticised.
In his homily on Sunday, Mgr Grech felt there was a void for voices that gave clear direction and sought the common good, condemning the "attitude of omertà" that was becoming a comfortable one to take for institutions and individuals alike.
The homily was delivered on the same day Archbishop Paul Cremona told The Sunday Times in an interview that the Church would not favour a law regularising the relationship of a cohabiting couple, but would one that protected the individual rights of the people in that relationship.
"So long as any law protects the rights of individuals, especially the vulnerable spouse, the state should go ahead and legislate," Mgr Cremona had said.
During the feast of St John the Baptist in Xewkija, Mgr Grech said strong personal interests and fear of looking bad in the eyes of others kept people's lips sealed.
Society was currently in a situation where what was said through words and images did not reflect reality and the words of those who should be setting the proper course were absent, he continued.
Although society was proposing other family structures, many believed these proposals were not better and incorrect but they failed to speak out, Mgr Grech said.
He went on to encourage parents not to remain silent where their children's behaviour was concerned, saying a sense of inferiority should not hinder parents from speaking out on "indecent styles of living" which were being adopted by certain children.
He said this challenge had to be addressed with a great deal of responsibility, and any attempts to tackle this should not be thrust aside.
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Joe Zammit
Jun 30th 2010, 13:03
Church attendance to weekly Mass is 72% because there are those who do not go regularly. Parish priests know exactly also those who do not go to Mass every week.
Besides, the others who do not attend are still Catholic. They still baptize their children in the Catholic Faith. They still send their children to learn their Catholic Faith at school and Church societies. They still prepare them to receive the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Eucharist. They get married in the Catholic Church. When they die they are taken to a Catholic church and after Masses are offered for them in Catholic churches.
On Trinity Sunday 96% of Maltese and Gozitan children of their peer group have made their First Holy Communion. This augurs very well for the future of the Catholic Church on our Catholic islands until the end of time.
MBorg
Jun 29th 2010, 20:41
@ William P Flynn
The " abra-cadabra stuff ", if that is what you want to call our Catholic religion now, gives me strength in time of need. As for the 10 year old who would burst out laughing at the thought of religion, what can I say, I pity him that he is growing up in a secular world, a world without God. I do not say the same of you. You knew God . only you know what happened these past years to make you hate God and His church so much.
MBorg
Jun 29th 2010, 14:51
@ William P Flynn
How can you , living in Australia say that " just a minority are practising Catholics ? " Are you putting your wishes into words ?
Article 2 in " our constitution " effects us, the people who live in Malta. Something that you know full well seeing that your write telling us to " email, write or tell YOUR MP , so why change back to " want it off OUR constitution ? Give up you have no say in the matter. As you rightly said " we do not like to be led like children " we do not take rules from someone living in far away Australia
William P Flynn
Jun 29th 2010, 15:28
M.Borg
My comment is accurate. Less than 33% of Maltese adults would pass muster as practising Catholics.
It is immaterial where I, as a Maltese citizen, choose to live and how far; it never ceases to be "MY Constitution. What happens to the Constitution is my business regardless of whether it may or may not affect me.
I am entitled to speak my mind about a country whose citizen I am. However, for now, I don't satisfy one voting critereon, a temporary aberration, so I have no MP. So "YOUR MP" is accurate.
I am not trying to impose rules on anyone; you, your apologist friends and your bishops are.
I told you many times; think and read what you write before you hit the submit button. But then, if you were one for thinking, would you believe the stuff you believe? If I told a 10year old the "abra-cadabra" stuff you believe in, he'd burst out laughing.
Wilfred L Camilleri
Jun 29th 2010, 16:16
@William P Flynn You said that less than 33% of Maltese adults would pass muster as practicing Catholics. Please show us your research data to support this preposterous claim!
If you told other people many times; think and read what you write before you hit the submit button, you should do the same! The "abra-cadabra" stuff is the atheist nonsense you believe in.
William P Flynn
Jun 29th 2010, 14:45
Wilfred.Camilleri, people have a right to tell their parliamentarians whatever they wish. But you have no right to plagiarise my comment.
Are you incapable of articulating your own thoughts in your own words?
Insofar as plagiarism is counterproductive; plagiarize away.
One should expect no better from scared men who never cut their apron strings or came to grips with their own finite mortality. They need priests and shamans reading from fairy-tale books of talking snakes, miracles of shoelaces and gravediggers' gloves, and apparitions of a many-titled rocket-less spacewoman-messenger to get through their days; which they count down to their death so they too can fly to heaven and become rocket-less spacemen too.
There are millions of Christians who aren't atheists but who wouldn't have a bar of such a thing as Article 2.
Article 2 was wangled and the Maltese people were gypped by Archbishop Gonzi and the PN.
Every day Article 2 is allowed to insult the Constitution, every day the public will get angrier at the church authorities and our parliamentarian poltroons.
Wilfred L Camilleri
Jun 29th 2010, 15:20
I wasn't plagiarizing your comments. Just emphasizing how erroneous they were.
I am very capable of articulating my own thoughts thank you very much. I just don’t make unfounded claims like saying that 80% of Maltese people do not know that Article 2 exists!
I know that I am mortal and I have come to grips with it. But I also believe that there is life beyond our short existence on Earth. The only fairy-tale books are books written by atheists and those who read them and are hoodwinked by them will find out soon enough how wrong and misguided they are.
You say that there are millions of Christians who aren't atheists. Correction: There are billions of Christians who are not atheists. But what does that have to do with Article 2 of Malta’s constitution?
No one was gypped by Archbishop Gonzi and the PN as you claim. It’s just your illogical twisting of historical facts.
The only thing that insults the constitution is unfounded comments about the constitution and its validity.
William P flynn
Jun 29th 2010, 12:02
Bishops who never shared a sofa with an unrelated woman, let alone sleep or live with one, want to tell adult men and women how to live. By controlling our timid parliamentarians they prevent proper laws being introduced to deal with family situations.
Parliamentarians represent all citizens (supposedly) not just the minority who are practising Catholics.
The bishops impose embarrassingly puerile solutions to marriage breakdowns in 21st Century life based on doctored manuals about magic miracles written by Stone-Age shepherds. Same as they expect people not to use contraceptives, gays turning to heterosexuals, separated adults becoming celibate after a marriage separation and other ridiculous expectations. As any man not wearing a dog-collar and any woman not wearing a habit knows, this is not realistic.
By virtue of Article 2 of our Constitution we allow bishops to control our lives.
80% of Maltese citizens alive today wouldn’t have known Article 2 existed as it was cobbled together in 1964, before they were born or when they were children.
How long will Maltese citizens let clerics rule their lives through Article 2?
Email, write, phone or tell your MP you want it off our Constitution.
Are we to be led like children?
Wilfred Camilleri
Jun 29th 2010, 13:12
By trying to influence controlling our parliamentarians they hope to prevent proper laws from being maintained.
Parliamentarians represent all citizens not just the minuscule minority who are atheists.
The atheists want to impose embarrassingly puerile solutions to marriage based on distorted views of life. As any man wearing a collar and any woman wearing a habit know, this is not realistic.
80% of Maltese citizens alive today known Article 2 exists.
How long will Maltese citizens let atheists try to influence their lives through misinformation?
Email, write, phone or tell your MP you want our Constitution preserved.
Are we to be influenced by atheists who do not make any sense?
Lina Caruana
Jun 29th 2010, 10:47
When a man decides to leave his wife and children to go and live with a woman who decides to live with another woman's husband is already a state where the the jilted wife and her children are being abused. They are the ones who need the protection of the state. What one does in his own free will is his business but he cannot shirk his own responsibilities on other people. It will be a great burden on the state to make good for this lack of responsibility from people who justifiably do not expect the government to pry into their bedroom. So be it. But why expect the State to shoulder all the responsibilities at the tax payers' money. Those who want to to live like Bohemians can do it if they afford it but not on other people's hard earned money. This is a step further than scapegoating the Church for restricting impositions. As if the teaching of Christ was not appropriate enough for the human condition ! Encouraging people to scrounge on other people to be able to live happily ever after is a misconception.
Joe Zammit
Jun 29th 2010, 10:20
Jesus Christ ordered us: "If your brother offends your, go, and rebuke him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you shall gain your brother" (Matthew 18:15). “To admonish the sinner” is listed first among the chief spiritual works of mercy.
Whenever we think our words may have a good effect, we should not hesitate to admonish the erring prudently.
Those in authority, such as parents and teachers, are bound to admonish those under them of their faults, even if in doing so they bring trouble upon themselves.
Mgr Mario Grech, as a real father and shepherd, deserves all praise and encouragement for his timely advice for our own benefit.
Louise Vella
Jun 29th 2010, 10:07
As regards "the attitude of omerta`", the Church can teach us all a lot of things, for example how during centuries it used its influence to throw a cloak of omerta` over the recurring scandal of paedophile priests. Cases were hushed up, lest they undermine the authority of the Church. "You don't speak about these things" was the attitude followed and promoted. Bishop Mario Grech knows something about this as, before becoming bishop, he was a member of the Curia's Reponse Team dealing with cases of paedophile priests - the same Response Team that has now been put on ice and replaced by a second one!