Alfred Hili, Marsalforn
Catholic leaders in a secular world
In today’s secular world, devout Catholics have to fight for their dignity. They are often belittled when they show any sign of compassion, patience, charity, kindness or humility. They are also humbled and ridiculed.
Like all good citizens, they should both be subject to their lawful superiors, and if need be seek these positions of authority themselves.
The Catholic Church states that it is the role of the laity to govern the secular world in accordance with divine law. As Catholics we possess the fullness of truth; we possess the key to suffering in the world. True leadership and sacrifice are indivisible.
All great leaders face great sacrifice for a righteous cause. They not only give orders but also gain the respect of their subordinates and work well under pressure.
They endure ostracism, taunts, threats, fears and insults. They try to win over these evils by facing them with love and consideration for their persecutors, and complete trust in the wisdom of God for their salvation.
It is not easy for them to act in this way but Christ is with them, every step of the way.
Secularism in terms of political leadership simply means the separation of Church and state. It does not mean leaders have to be immoral, or that they should necessarily support morally relativistic laws, and they do not have to be meek all the time. But very often, secular leaders forfeit moral honesty and truth to appeal to the masses.
They have to sacrifice some moral principle of theirs if they want to stay in. They may vote against abortion and then enter an unjust war for oil.
If more politicians were less concerned with their re-election the world would surely have better governments.
In Animal Farm, George Orwell shows that those in a position of power cannot remain true to their original aims or beliefs. I agree completely. It is very difficult for Catholics who base their entire existence on God through Church teaching to be solid leaders in today’s secular world.
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Mr Joe Xuereb
Jun 1st 2011, 12:56
Where do I begin?
What the letter-writer says about secular leaders he could well say about church leaders. Every second word in this letter sounds like a contradiction. Does the pious Mr. Hili that what he accused secularists of he is doing the self-same thing? I will do you a favour Mr. Hili. I will not pick quotes as I wouldn't know where to begin or end. Amazing letter!
To one Cowie - kif nista' inneħħi dak li ma jeżistix, kif nista' nemmem f'dak li qatt ma rajt? Jekk trid temmen int, ħadd ma hu qiegħed iżommok. Dik affari tiegħek. Imma tintrigax lil ħaddieħor.
@Flynn. You would allow the Church to operate behind closed doors? But Flynn, it's what it does best when it suits! When priests abuse children they resort to all sorts of trickery and sick admonishments (jekk tgħid lill-mummy tmur l-infern) and closed doors. When these come to light, as all sins do sooner or later, the higher-ups deal with the fallout not only behind closed doors, but file the incriminating facts in some inner sanctum. A kind of holy mafia with damning secrets secreted into holes in the wall (but walls have ears. And so they contribute to the failure, see below).
Mr. Hili, you may or may not have heard of the expression 'to set oneself up to fail'(but you're familiar with Orwell so you may well be familiar with it). Religions tend to do this - relevant in their time but not these days. Your letter, I'm afraid, is another example. You keep out of my hair and I keep out of yours. Fair deal?!
Mr William Flynn
May 29th 2011, 17:08
To be Catholic is to worship pain and sorrow as preparation for the next life. This is sickness if the mind. Catholics or any other religious can go to their meeting places, temples and churches to do their mumbo-jumbo; but would they please leave the rest of us alone. We don't need to see or hear them carry on.
The bishops have their own personal single democratic right, same as any individual, but the state should not allow them a collective say. They have no collective secular democratic right as representatives of the so-called flock. They are unelected dictators; how dare they claim they have the right to speak on behalf of voters or to instruct or threaten the voters.
The pope, his bishops and their cohorts are constantly spouting their contempt for secularism. They denigrate, defame and conspire to assassinate secularism, as their Opus Dei and other cohorts do in these columns. The pope has openly established a specific anti-secularism department which would be replicated in every diocese on Earth.
And yet, the Catholic hypocrites still demand special democratic rights as a block; which are freely given and rudely partaken by the dictators. Today a big defeat has been delivered to the clergy. The people of Malta have spoken clearly in this massive caning to the bishops; a hiding I have been predicting for months if not years.
The message is; the bishops have no right to instruct us how to vote and keep out of politics. Go do your own bishop's job; such as referring rapist priests to the justice department just to mention one.
Next step on the national agenda is to remove Article 2 off the Constitution; and now! Then laws to prevent the Catholic church from any involvement whatsoever in any election or referendum. They can preach from their pulpits to all the imbeciles who still think there is good juju in going to church.
But daring to interfere openly in the political process in the future will usher in even bigger losses and strife for the church. This is the end for the power which the church has bluffed us it had over us.
It only has the power we are prepared to allow it to have; and I would give it only the power to operate behind closed doors.
Goodbye Catholicissima Malta! Hello Secularissima Malta.
Gerry Cowie
May 29th 2011, 09:28
The danger stems mainly from those secularists who are also humanist and/or athiest. However they will never succeed in expunging God from His own creation. They expect those with any religious beliefs to switch them off and never allow themselves to be influenced by those beliefs. This can never be.