Religious freedom in a nation’s identity

A recent EU-wide survey identified the Maltese among those nationalities most attached to religion. Moreover, nearly one in every three Maltese respondents stated that being Christian is one of the main characteristics of Malta’s identity.

The experience of Holy Week confirms how true this is. Participation in both the Good Friday processions and those with the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows a week earlier speaks volumes. They are just traditions and no more than a spectacle, some may argue. Perhaps, but, as the study mentioned earlier seems to confirm, there must still be something within the Maltese that attracts them to such religious events. The good inside still beckons.

Many consider this particular period of the Christian liturgical calendar as a special time for genuine Christian renewal, namely a call to consistency between faith and Christian living. Likewise, it should also be a period that encourages people in the appreciation of religious freedom and of how positive it is for individuals and a community to be able to publicly profess and live, without any problems, the values they profess.

The right to religious freedom is rooted in the very dignity of the human person. Every person is endowed with the sacred right to a full life, also from a spiritual standpoint. The human being, therefore, cannot be fragmented and separated from what he believes because that in which he believes has an impact on his life and on his person.

Still, in many parts of the world, there exist various forms of restriction or denial of religious freedom, from discrimination and marginalisation based on religion to acts of violence against religious minorities.

There may not be much the Maltese people can do to help change for the better such situations wherever they may exist. However, Maltese society, being tested as it is with the arrival of people from different and sometimes contrasting religious backgrounds, must consider whether it is offering new generations a good enough example and sufficient formation on how to truly respect religious freedom.

Although the very large majority views Christianity as being part and parcel of the national identity, Maltese society fully realises the need to profess religious freedom and to ensure that whoever resides in Malta can live in peace and safety also with regard to their religious dimension of life.

This positive approach of society should be strengthened through enhanced education. For if religious freedom is rightly considered as an important path to peace, religious education is the highway that leads new generations to see others as their brothers and sisters, with whom they are called to journey and work together so that all will feel they are living members of the one human family from which no one is to be excluded.

The responsibility to educate properly the young falls, primarily, on the family as the first school for the social, cultural, moral and spiritual formation and growth of children. The family remains the primary training ground for harmonious relations at every level of coexistence: human, national and international. However, the family cannot and must not be left alone. It needs all the support the state, the Church and the media can give it.

It should be part of the road ahead towards building a stronger fraternal social fabric, imbued with a spirit of understanding and peace, in which young people are prepared to assume their proper responsibilities in a truly free society that also cherishes freedom of religion.