Raphael Dingli, in his contribution In The Secular Way (June 9), speaks about what he terms secular values. He states that “individuals in a secular state have no right to impose their morality on others”. He also says that “Malta is a secular state and that religious beliefs should have no part in the political process.” He comes to the conclusion that “there are two consciences battling each other... the religious conscience and the democratic conscience”.

One wonders how does the above reasoning fit in with what we have entrenched in article 2, Chapter 1, of our Constitution, the highest law of our land, where it is clearly stated that “the religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion” and “the authorities of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church have the duty and the right to teach what principles are right and which are wrong”.

Does not our religion – the Catholic religion – enhance our society and our way of living? Are not the teachings and dogmas of the Catholic Church there to help us – sinners – follow what is beneficial for us as human beings and what is good for society at large? Why should there be any conflict between the religious conscience and the democratic conscience when one is there to guide us towards what is right? Does everything go in the name of democracy? Should we be free to do what we want in the name of democracy? Does right and wrong depend on one’s way of thinking? Are there no more absolute truths for which Jesus Christ came on earth to proclaim and which the Catholic Church goes on teaching? Should secular values take over religious values in the name of freedom? Are not people like Mr Dingli imposing their “beliefs” on society at large and thus restricting our way of living in the name of secular values?

Pope Benedict XVI, when speaking about the dictatorship of relativism in a conversation with Peter Seewald in the book, Light Of The World, states emphatically that “certain forms of behaviour and thinking are being presented as the only reasonable ones and, therefore, as the only appropriately human ones. Christianity finds itself exposed now to an intolerant pressure that at first ridicules it – as belonging to a perverse, false way of thinking – and then tries to deprive it of breathing space in the name of an ostensible rationality”. Why has, here in Malta, the debate for or against divorce turned out to be an outright attack against the Church in general and our spiritual leaders in particular? Why were those of us who kept on insisting that we were against divorce, seen as a threat towards democratic principles when what we publicly professed was simply the safeguard of the indissolubility of marriage and the good of the family at large?

The more secular Malta becomes the more the teachings of the Catholic Church are needed. Because human nature is weak, because we are prone to sin (should I dare mention the word sin!), because of the false notion of freedom that some are trying to promote we need the Church to keep on teaching absolute truths. We want Malta to remain Catholic and follow the teachings of the Catholic Church not because of a fundamentalistic outlook or because we want to impose our beliefs on others but because we strongly believe that what the Church teaches is good for all human beings whatever their religion.

If by stating that Malta is a secular state Mr Dingli implies that we have to renounce our religion and become areligious, then we have to stand up and declare loud and clear that we do not want Malta to be transformed to such a state.

Pope Benedict warns Christians when speaking about the pitfalls that society finds itself in when losing the sense of God and abolishing all standards. In such a situation, the Pontiff remarks in the same interview with Peter Seewald, “... man is not capable of truth (and) ... he would not be capable of ethical values, either. Then he would have no standards. Then he would only have to consider how he arranged things reasonably for himself, and then at any rate the opinion of the majority would be the only criterion that counted”.

Let us, as a society, not be carried away by these modern trends of relativism and secularism. Let us, no doubt, be an inclusive society where everyone can live free of oppression and practise one’s religion but not at the cost of jeopardising absolute truths and abolishing the distinction between what is good and evil.

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